THE LIBERATION LINE

How American railroad engineering helped defeat the Nazis.

Supplying soldiers in the field requires a titanic flow of supplies, and that was especially true during the large-scale wars of the 20th century. Wolmar, a prolific writer on railway matters (The Subterranean Railway, The Great Railway Revolution, Cathedrals of Steam, etc.), provides a genuinely fresh tale about the process during World War II. Like other historians, the author examines the Allies’ “so-called Transportation Plan” in effect during the months before D-Day, when relentless bombing of Europe’s rail network and resistance sabotage successfully delayed German reinforcements from reaching the battlefield. Few commanders complained until the end of August, when Allied forces, having broken German lines, were racing across France only to discover that they were running out of supplies. Histories and films celebrate the “vaunted” Red Ball Express, which sent wave after wave of trucks across France carrying precious loads. In fact, they weren’t enough. In September, lack of gasoline, not German resistance, forced Eisenhower to halt offensive operations over most of the front, and it was December before the logistics crisis was solved. Allied armies needed railways, and reconstructing the network was always central to the Allied plans. Wolmar illuminates readers on how it worked. Days after June 6, thousands of locomotives and freight cars, plus 44,000 railway workers, began arriving. Toiling furiously, the workers restored a system that was in tatters before the invasion and was further degraded by retreating Germans. In his expert account, the author includes brilliant, occasionally familiar leaders; dedicated, overworked fighters and engineers; many triumphs and a few disasters; and plenty of opinions on the fighting generals—e.g., he admires Patton, who loved to move fast, but not Montgomery, who didn’t.

A nice surprise for military history buffs: an understudied piece of World War II lore.