DZ Season 064 Part 43. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 5 – Paris - And the Red Bull Express.

DZ Season 064 Part 43. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 5 – Paris - And the Red Bull Express.

Carlo d’Este, in his biography of Eisenhower wrote: The only air plan that existed for Overlord in January 1944 vaguely proposed minimal measures for air support during a two-to-three-week period before D-Day in order to knock out coastal defenses and soften the way for the invasion force. When first briefed on air operations in January 1944, Eisenhower and Spaatz were shocked by Leigh-Mallory's prediction that it was still uncertain if the Allies would even gain air superiority before Overlord was launched. ….  The gravest danger surrounded not the D-Day landings themselves but German reinforcements sped to Normandy to seal off the Allied beachhead with greater numbers of forces than the Allies could insert across the English Channel. What was the nature and dimension of this problem? And what does it have to do with General JCH Lee’s infuriatingly controversial decision to move his staff into Paris in August 1944? Tag words: Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower A Soldier’s Life; Overlord; D-Day; Eisenhower; Spaatz; Leigh-Mallory; General JCH Lee; Paris; Normandy; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Mulberries; GMC trucks; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Red Ball Express; Transportation Plan; SNCF; French national railway; Churchill; General Pierre Koenig; USSTAF; Bradley; A Soldier’s Story; Tom Clancy; SHAEF; 12th Army Group; Christopher C Gabel; The Lorraine Campaign; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Everett Hughes; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; rail; COMZ; Beetle Smith; Bedell Smith;

DZ Season 064 Part 42. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 4 – Lee Always Had Paris.

In 1944/1945 General JCH Lee, was the Supremo of supply in the European Theatre of Operations under both Eisenhower, as the theatre commander, and under the great overlord of American logistics, General Brehon Somervell, who sat directly, alongside the Army commander and the Army Air Force commanders, under General Marshall, the Chief of Staff. There was no more a controversial figure in Eisenhower’s command than General Lee – no, not even George Patton. Stephen Ambrose, in his book Citizen Soldiers, wrote about what is probably Lee’s most villified exploit: Lee's best-known excess came . . . at the height of the supply crisis. Eisenhower had frequently expressed his view that no major headquarters should be located in or near the temptations of a large city, and had specifically reserved the hotels of Paris for the use of combat troops on leave. Lee nevertheless, and without Eisenhower's knowledge, moved his headquarters to Paris. His people requisitioned all the hotels previously occupied by the Germans, and took over schools and other large buildings. More than 8,000 officers and 21,000 men in sos (“the Service of Supply”) descended on the city in less than a week with tens of thousands more to follow. Parisians began to mutter that the U.S. Army demands were in excess of those made by the Germans. Was this a fair comment? It looks to be a pretty cut and dry point of view when you look at what many of the most respected historians wrote about this incident in Part 37 of this series, condemning Lee’s move. Tag words: General JCH Lee; Eisenhower; General Brehon Somervell; General Marshall; George Patton; Stephen Ambrose; Citizen Soldiers; Paris; sos; Service of Supply; Carlo d’Este; Geoffrey Perret; Raoul Nordling; Choltitz; FFI; de Gaulle; Major General Jacques Philippe Leclerc; French 2ndArmoured Division; Koenig; Bedell Smith; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; President Roosevelt; FDR; Russell Weigley; Rommel; Dominic Graham; Shelford Bidwell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; SHAEF; Nigel Hamilton; The Battles of Field Marshal Montgomery; Montgomery; Alan Brooke; Is Paris burning; Bradley; Third Army;

DZ Season 064 Part 41. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 5 – Lee and His Train.

Logistics is the ball and chain of armoured warfare said General Heinz Guderian – and that was definitely a topic that he was qualified to speak on. Tag words: Logistics; General Heinz Guderian; Somervell; John Kennedy Ohl; Supplying the Troops; General Brehon Somervell; ETO; European Theater of Operations; SOS; Service of Supplies; Russell Wegley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; General JCH Lee; General Marshall; Major General James E Chaney; Carlo d’Este; Bolero; Roundup; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; US Army Air Corps; Larkin; Eisenhower; General Clark; Lord Leathers; Operation Torch; General Jacob Devers;

DZ Season 064 Part 40. 0393 DZ WHOLE End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 4 – Lee and The Battle of the Atlantic - Part 40

The formidable Nazi war machine was powerless to stop the build up in Britain of Allied troops shipped from the USA and Canada. But in early 1943 Doenitz was winning the Battle of the Atlantic against that other, essential, component that those troops needed, being transported in very vulnerable slow or just plain vulnerable, fast merchant ships. As Paul Kennedy wrote in his book Engineers of Victory: The increasing flood of U.S. and Canadian troops to Britain was transported by an entirely different method — the great liners of Cunard, which, when stripped inside to the bone, could each carry 15,000 GIs at a speed that even a fleet destroyer couldn't keep up with, let alone a U-boat. But, to repeat an earlier question, what would two to three million fresh soldiers do in the United Kingdom if they lacked food, fuel, and munitions? Tag words: Doenitz; Battle of the Atlantic; Paul Kennedy; Engineers of Victory; Cunard; Hitler; Fortress Europe; John Kennedy Ohl; Supplying the Troops; Somervell; U-Boat campaign; Third Reich; HX 229; SC 122; Operation Bolero; Operation Sledgehammer; Operation Roundup; Operation Overlord; General JCH Lee; WSA; War Shipping Administration; Lord Leathers; full and down; Operation Torch; The Center Task Force; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; sos; Service of Supplies; C.S. Lewis; Chronological Snobbery; Gulf War; Operation Desert Storm; OPD; War Department General Staff, Operations Division; Victory Program;

DZ Season 064 Part 39. End the War in 44 – Only Human – JCH Lee 3 – For the Overlord Supply Build Up Somervell Needed His Best Man.

To manage the buildup and subsequent supply of the American troops being shipped to Europe for the planned invasion of Hitler’s Festung Europa, Fortress Europe, Hank H Cox, in his biography of General JCH Lee, The General Who Wore Six Stars, wrote: The Allied governments had determined that Germany would be their top priority. After Germany was defeated, they would make Japan their primary focus. But conquering Germany meant it would be necessary to invade Europe, and that would require an amphibious assault across the English Channel. Thus a materiel buildup in Great Britain of vast proportions would be the first essential step to wresting the continent from Germany's grip. To manage a buildup and subsequent supply of that magnitude in Europe, Somervell needed his best man — someone with proven ability that he could trust. Somervell achieved big things because he selected men who knew what they were doing and were determined to get it done. He chose General JCH Lee – did he choose wisely? There were and are many who say that he didn’t. This all plays a big part in why the Allies didn’t win the war in Europe in 1944 – with huge consequences with the voracious Russian bear devouring everything in its path to come out of World War II as a super power that rivalled the United States. Tag words: Hitler; Festung Europa; Fortress Europe; Hank H Cox; General JCH Lee; The General Who Wore Six Stars; Brehon Somervell; General Marshall; Pearl Harbor; General Lesley McNair; John Kennedy Ohl; Supplying the Troops; BOLERO; OVERLORD; European Theater of Operations; ETO; Services of Supply; SOS; Secretary Stimson; Major General Mark Clark; General Eisenhower; GeneralBradley; General Patton; Bedell Smith; Martin Creveld; Supplying War; Logistics; Rommel; Moving Mountains; Lieutenant-General William G Pagonis; Operation Desert Storm; General Homer M Groninger; Colonel Thomas B. Larkin; General James G Harbord; General Pershing;