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Ask the pilot
The tragedy that is Eero Saarinen's TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport; more Hollywood movies about airplanes. Plus: Do pilots eat the same crappy food as passengers?
February 15, 2003 1:30AM (UTC)
The best of reader submissions following our talk of airplanes and Hollywood...
"Hail Mary" (1985)
Jean-Luc Godard's retelling of the birth of Christ set in modern France. The angel Gabriel disembarks from an Air France jet to give Mary the news.
"Parallax View" (1974)
Roman à clef of the Kennedy conspiracy with Warren Beatty. A tense scene on a jet where Beatty's character must foil a bombing without giving away how he knows about it. Scene ends with beautiful shot of jet at Dulles trailing a plume of black smoke.
"The Killing" (1956)
Stanley Kubrick's masterful tale of a complex robbery and its aftermath, from a script partly written by Jim Thompson. When a slack-jawed baggage handler knocks Sterling Hayden's loot-filled suitcase off his cart, we watch as the cash gets blown across a nighttime runway.
"Bullitt" (1968)
Steve McQueen's dogged pursuit of a suspect leads him onto the runway at San Francisco, and directly into the path of a jet.
"Magnum Force" (1973)
Dirty Harry Callahan blithely impersonates a jet pilot to get aboard a hijacked plane and clean house.
"Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round" (1966)
The airport as its own intricate little world. James Coburn and gang plot to rob a bank at LAX.
"Midnight Express" (1978)
There's a jet waiting in Istanbul, and young Billy Hayes most assuredly won't be taking it back to America.
"The Rose" (1979)
Bette Midler is a '70s rock star with her de rigueur personal and personalized plane.
"Easy Rider" (1969)
Jet screaming over Phil Spector's head at LAX.
"La Jetée" (1962)
Chris Marker's photo-film features a protagonist obsessed with a childhood memory of Orly Airport.
Pushing this in a slightly different direction, the new picture "Catch Me If You Can" was partly filmed at Kennedy Airport. More specifically, at Eero Saarinen's 1962 TWA terminal. For a movie trying to revisit the verve and glamour of the young Jet Age, this modernist masterpiece is the perfect backdrop.
Following the evolution of airport architecture through the 1960s, one notices a progression from bland utilitarianism to proud ideal and back again. The dawn of commercial flight gave us barns and wood-frame hangars, followed in the '30s by exalted structures built with the spirit and permanence of railroad terminals (pay a visit some time to Lunken Field in Cincinnati). But then as the number of passengers soared and airports required greater size and expandability, we saw a stricter, unimaginative deference to the lowest common denominators of cost control and ease of construction.
Such a statement is a bit disingenuous, as architectural language, of course, speaks to its time, and today's grimy hallways and soot-stained girders were yesterday's stunning achievements (St. Louis, anyone?). But the era of the concourse was born, and the airport ceased to exist as symbol or spectacle. Unfortunate, really, for as any lover of air travel will tell you: It's the departure, stupid.
JFK, known as Idlewild Airport until 1963, was and remains unlike most other large airports. Rather than rely on a central terminal or cluster of concourses, it has passengers board and deplane around a necklace of autonomous buildings. Each of these, at least in theory, was to incorporate some representative motif of their respective landlord airlines.
Saarinen's TWA, and the not-dissimilar spidery "Theme Building" at LAX conceived at the same time, became eccentric icons. Not necessarily because of their inherent innovation or uniqueness, but because they returned a sense of identity to the modern airport, a vitality that would lend itself in the years to come to a host of showcase facilities around the world.
Saarinen, who also built the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the sweepingly beautiful central terminal at Washington Dulles, described his TWA design as "all one thing." The lobby is a fluid, unified sculpture of a space -- wildly futuristic yet firmly organic at the same time, overhung by a cantilevered ceiling rising from the center like huge wings.
In the mid-1990s I worked in that building -- based there with the commuter affiliate of TWA. Sometimes I'd sit in the second-story restaurant looking down into the lobby. I'd watch the people below -- the gangs of kids in sandals who neither cared for nor knew anything of the place, eyes locked on their copies of Details or Spin, waiting for final call to St. Louis or Rome or Tel Aviv. The terminal was a decrepit relic by then, undersized and dirty, with a sense of doom hanging in the air. Sparrows and starlings lived in the yellowed rafters and would swoop around grabbing up crumbs from under the tables.
But in the movie it looks great again.
Now unoccupied after TWA was subsumed by American Airlines, the structure's fate is being arbitrated between preservationists and Port Authority bureaucrats. To help the cause, try going here.
Anyway, if you're still not inspired and have some time to kill, go across Queens to La Guardia, where you can relish the gleaming deco doors of the Marine Air Terminal (1939), formerly the property of Pan Am and now directly adjacent to the Delta Shuttle. Inside the rotunda is a 360-degree history-of-flight mural and cutaway of an old Pan Am flying boat.
Which isn't to dwell too haughtily in the past, as some of the newest airport projects are among the most resplendent: Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong, for instance, and the recently completed international terminal at San Francisco, the largest in North America. The latter's interior was described by one critic as "achingly boring," but the exterior façade, with its metal latticework and giant horizontal louvers, is nonetheless dazzling. Or, my favorite, British Airways' sublimely ultramodern World Cargo Centre at Heathrow.
On a smaller scale, how many of you have ever seen Roanoke Regional Airport in west central Virginia? Brick archways and exposed girders offer the look and personality of a renovated Blue Ridge warehouse. It's a pure faux, Applebee's style of down-home, but the effect is disarmingly comfortable. Much in the way Baltimore's Camden Yards works for baseball, Roanoke's retro works for airports.
But anyway, see how this happens -- art, architecture, geography, all pulled together? I once described the underlying gravity of air travel as "weepy culture bridging," but I think the point is simple enough to accept. My job isn't to bore you with stats or specs about the wingspan of a 747 (211 feet), but to draw in and appease a more general sense of curiosity. Is it working? Not sure what kind of crossover appeal I've got going, but trust me: There's more to airports than concrete and crowds, and more to airplanes than machinery and testosterone.
I find it hard to believe the WTC hijackers, trained only as private pilots, were able to steer those 757s and 767s into their targets. Do you think they needed advanced training, and do you believe a foreign government provided this?
No, it doesn't shock me that the hijackers, with minimal experience, were able to accomplish what they did. Their feats did not require in-depth technical knowledge or skill. They were out of their league, obviously, but many private pilots would have little trouble handling the up/down/left/right of a widebody jet.
They needed some luck, and they got it, especially with regard to the Pentagon. Hitting a stationary target from above -- even a big one with five sides -- is very difficult. To make it easier, the hijacker pilot did not come directly in at a steep angle, but "landed" into the building as obliquely as possible. If he had flown the same profile ten times, five times he'd have ended up a tumble of wreckage short of the target, or else would have overflown it entirely.
Atta and at least one other hijacker did buy several hours of jet simulator training on a Boeing 727. This was not the same type of jet used in the attacks (757s and 767s), but it really didn't need to be. The simulator time was not supplied by a foreign state, but was purchased from a private flight academy in Florida.
What are those numbers and letters for on the back of every plane's fuselage?
That's the ship's registration, which like a car's license plate is displayed on the exterior of every plane. All U.S. registrations are prefixed with the letter N, followed by a sequence of numbers and, usually, letters. A United 747 registration: N184UA. Note that "UA" denotes United Airlines, but the letters don't always follow this rule. Next time you fly, jot down the registration, and using my reference materials I can tell you all sorts of, um, fascinating and sundry information about your plane, including its date of construction.
Other countries do it differently, some using only letters, only numbers or both. An Air France Concorde registration: F-BVFB. Often the prefix coding is intuitive, such as "G" for Great Britain, "JA" for Japan, and "D" for Germany. Others seem inexplicable, like Brazil's "PP," Belgium's "OO," and even our own "N." If ever you notice a really strange one, let me know and I can decipher it for you.
Registrations don't always change when a plane is sold, and occasionally a jet's numbers can give insight into its history. If you see an old 727 freighter with a registration ending in "AA," chances are it once flew passengers in the colors of American Airlines. Plane spotters use registrations to keep track of which aircraft they have and haven't seen (or at least they used to, until being banished from airports after 9/11). In grade school I had notebooks full of them.
Do crews eat the same terrible food as the rest of us?
Yes. Sometimes it's a coach meal, sometimes a first- or business-class setup, or maybe a little bit of each. Or, often enough, nothing, even when passengers are fed. It depends on the duration of the flight, and often there are contract stipulations covering a crew's culinary entitlements. One regional carrier was giving Subway sandwiches to its pilots on otherwise uncatered flights. And yes, to avoid food poisoning pilots are supposed to consume separate entrees when possible.
Honestly, I've never had a problem with airline food the way most people seem to. And in the forward cabins the cuisine is quite good. My issue is less with taste than with the often pretentious, excessive and wasteful presentation. In a typical coach-class meal, there is more plastic, in the form of cups and wrappers, than food.
Looking back at some career lowlights again: Among the greatest woes of flying turboprops at the regional level, in addition to making 14 grand a year, was the lack of access to food. When late or pressed for time, we were routinely denied meal breaks even during 10- or 12-hour stretches. To combat starvation, many of us brought our own food. There's a takeout place near Logan International called Spinelli's, which for a few years provided chicken parm sandwiches in exchange for most of my pathetic salary. I'd eat these in the cockpit on the way to Burlington or Baltimore or Montreal. Our turboprops had no door or curtain, and passengers would watch their captain sopping himself and his white polyester shirts with tomato sauce at 21,000 feet.
Do you have questions for Salon's aviation expert? Send them to AskThePilot and look for answers in a future column.
Patrick Smith is an airline pilot.
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Lord & Taylor New York (State) History
US NNFIT SC.125
This collection contains scrapbooks and company records related to the Lord and Taylor department stores, primarily focused on the original stores in New York City. The scrapbook series consists of unbound pages of newspaper and magazine clippings of Lord and Taylor stores in New York City and the greater New York Area. Company records include advertising, photographs and illustrations of Lord and Taylor buildings, company catalogs, press releases and clippings, as well as internal company histories authored by Lord and Taylor. A small subseries relates to biographical information and photographs of former Lord and Taylor president Dorothy Shaver.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to select antenna with Intel wifi driver? This question and answer
Low Wi-Fi signal in HP laptop with Ubuntu 16.04 explains how to solve a wifi weak signal problem by selecting the antenna in the case of a Realtek network adapter. Is there any way to do the same with the Intel adapter with the iwlwifi driver?

A: Some Linux drivers have a setable parameter to prefer antenna 1 vs. antenna 2. Your driver, iwlwifi, does not. I suggest that you check to see that both antenna wires are firmly snapped in place.

In this example, they are identified as Main and Aux.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Die Europastraße 552 (kurz: E 552) ist eine etwa 230 km lange Europastraße, die sich von München in Deutschland bis nach Linz in Österreich erstreckt. Sie verbindet die Europastraße 52 in München mit den Europastraßen 55 und 60 in Richtung Italien und Osteuropa.

Verlauf

Deutschland
Der Streckenverlauf wird zukünftig bis zur deutsch-österreichischen Grenze der Bundesautobahn 94 (A 94) entsprechen. Allerdings befindet sich diese teilweise noch im Bau oder in Planung. Vom Autobahnkreuz München-Ost reicht die A 94 zurzeit bis zur Anschlussstelle Marktl bei Burghausen.  Dort geht die A 94 wieder in die B 12 über. Auch dieser Abschnitt wird durch die A 94 zukünftig ersetzt werden. In Simbach am Inn quert die E 552 mit dem Inn auch die deutsch-österreichische Grenze.

Österreich
Von Simbach kommend läuft die Europastraße 552 auf der Altheimer Straße (B 148) durch Braunau am Inn an Altheim vorbei, bis zur Innkreis Autobahn (A 8) bei Ort im Innkreis. Gemeinsam mit der E 56 folgt die E 552 nun dem Verlauf der A8. Am Knoten Wels geht die E552 ab auf die Welser Autobahn (A 25), um dann südlich von Linz an der West Autobahn (A 1) zu enden. Dort trifft sie auf die Europastraßen 55 und 60.

Siehe auch
 Liste der Europastraßen

Weblinks

Europastraße
Europastraße in Deutschland
Europastraße in Österreich
Europastrasse 552

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Thanks to the Technical Packing CPI-P and Graphite Rings we can cover a considerable number of applications which have common factors as the handling of fluids under pressure with high temperatures and corrosive agents. Generally square section it has a variety of materials used depending on the application it has to cover.
• Industry Serviced: Power Generation, Oil refinery, Boiler plants etc.


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Eagles blast #25 App State in Statesboro
Georgia Southern forces 5 turnovers in blowout win
Logan Hunt and Josh Moon celebrate an Eagle stop in the 34-14 win over #25 Appalachian State. (Source: Wallace, Jake)
By Jake Wallace | October 26, 2018 at 12:09 AM EDT - Updated October 26 at 4:02 AM
STATESBORO, GA (WTOC) - This one was the "Respect Game."
After blowing out #25 Appalachian State Thursday night, it would be tough for one to not respect Georgia Southern any longer.
Georgia Southern DB Josh Moon celebrates an Eagle stop in the 34-14 win over App State (Source: Wallace, Jake)
"We went out there and earned our respect tonight," says junior cornerback Kindle Vildor. "We went out there and did our thing."
"I think this game maybe tells people that we're for real," says head coach Chad Lunsford.
The Eagles scored 27 unanswered points to build a 34-7 lead, keeping a raucous crowd of just under 20,000 rowdy all night.
"It was just amazing tonight," says senior running back Wesley Fields. "When we get in Paulson Stadium, it feels like just we just turn it up another notch. The fans bringing that energy that they bring just gives us that edge that we need."
Southern ran for 277 yards, wearing down an Appalachian State defense that entered the game ranked 1st in the Sun Belt in rushing defense. Head coach Chad Lunsford says he knew if the Eagles stuck with their option attack, eventually they would break through.
"We said it was going to be like running into a brick wall over and over," Lunsford says. "It was just great to see it unfold the way we said it would."
Georgia Southern head coach Chad Lunsford has the Eagles at 7-1 and unbeaten in Sun Belt play (Source: Wallace, Jake)
The defense forced five Appalachian turnovers, including four interceptions. Mountaineer starting QB Zac Thomas left the game after an injury on the first offensive series of the game. The Eagles then harassed ASU backup QBs Peyton Derrick and Jacob Huesman the rest of the ballgame.
QB Shai Werts led the offense once again, rushing for 129 yards and a touchdown. He added 57 yards on his only completion of the night, a touchdown pass to Darion Anderson for the Eagles' first score of the game.
The redshirt sophomore QB says this game made a statement.
"You come in here ranked Top 25, doing all that talking. You have to come in here and you have to play," Werts said. "Those rankings can't save you in Paulson."
Georgia Southern fans celebrate an Eagle TD in the 34-14 win over App State. (Source: Wallace, Jake)
It's the Eagles' first win over a Top 25 team in program history, and first win over the Mountaineers since 2014. For a senior class that has dealt with three head coaches and two losing seasons, this win was special.
"Those two years I was here, we were on a downhill. Now we're trying to turn it back around, trying to get the winning back," Fields says, fighting back tears. "To come out here tonight and do this, it's so amazing. It shows you how good God is. God has just blessed us."
The Eagles improve to 7-1 with the win and 4-0 in Sun Belt Conference play. Georgia Southern is back in action November 3 when they travel to Louisiana-Monroe.
Copyright 2018 WTOC. All rights reserved.
Jake Wallace
Jake had a pretty good person to look up to. His father, Jim, has spent over 40 years in the TV business as an award-winning sports and news anchor in Georgia. Jake studied multimedia communications at Georgia Southern University, and his time in Statesboro confirmed his desire to chase his sports broadcasting dreams.
Eagles picked 3rd in East; Vildor is preseason defensive player of the year
CB Kindle Vildor is the Sun Belt preseason defensive player of the year, but the Eagles are picked to finish 3rd in the East Division.
Savannah Bananas are undefeated when wearing kilts
It's a weird stat, but it's true: the Savannah Bananas are UNDEFEATED when playing in kilts.
Lyndsey Gough
Bananas outlast RedWolves in 13-inning affair
Eagles have Tigers' attention, name SBC Media Day reps
Harman gets Open Championship spot as alternate
Savannah Bananas peel past Macon Bacon


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American transportation played a crucial part in the military logistics of the World WarII Siegfried Line campaign, which ran from the end of the expulsion of the German armies from Normandy in mid-September 1944 until December 1944, when the American Army was engulfed by the German Ardennes offensive. In August 1944, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected to continue the pursuit of the retreating German forces beyond the Seine instead of pausing to build up supplies and establish the lines of communication as called for in the original Operation Overlord plan. The subsequent advance to the German border stretched the American logistical system to its breaking point, and the advance came to a halt in mid-September.

The Germans attempted to delay the Allied advance until the onset of bad weather by denying access to ports and demolishing communications infrastructure in order to give their own forces time to recover. Between September and November, the American forces in Europe suffered from severe transportation problems. In September, Cherbourg was the only deep-water port in northwest Europe in Allied hands capable of handling Liberty ships, but it had been badly damaged, and took a long time to restore. Smaller ports could handle only small, shallow-draft coastal trading vessels known as "coasters". Two-thirds of the British coaster fleet, on which critical industries depended, was dedicated to the campaign. Over time, rough seas, enemy action and continuous use laid up a quarter of the coaster fleet for repairs. From September onwards, an increasing volume of supplies came directly from the United States. These were stowed in Liberty ships so as to make optimal use of their cargo space. The shipments frequently included heavy and bulky items that required dockside cranes to unload. The available port capacity was insufficient to unload the ships arriving. As the number of ships awaiting discharge in European waters climbed, turnaround times increased, and fewer ships reported back to port in the United States, precipitating a widespread shipping crisis.

Additional port capacity was obtained through the opening of Rouen and Le Havre in September and October respectively, and of Antwerp in November. Antwerp was capable of handling all the Allies' needs, but before the war it had been a transit port, and did not possess large amounts of covered storage space. The Americans were allocated only a small amount of this, all uncovered, on the assumption that American supplies would immediately be moved to the depots around Liège. The limiting factor then shifted to port clearance. Initially, motor transport was widely used, but as the railways were brought back into service, they shouldered the burden of moving supplies from the ports to the depots. Inland water transport was developed to relieve pressure on the railways. Four waterways were rehabilitated for military use: the Seine, Oise and Rhône rivers, and the Albert Canal. Air transport was the least economic form of transport, but in September and October, with road and rail transport unable to supply even the minimum daily requirements of the armies, it was called upon to supplement them.

Although logistical difficulties constituted a brake on combat operations, they were not the only factors that brought the Allied advance to a halt. The American forces also had to contend with rugged terrain, worsening weather and, above all, with stubborn German resistance. The German recovery was sufficient to mount the Ardennes offensive in December. This threatened Antwerp and the depot areas around Liège, which also came under attack from German V-weapons and air raids. This placed immense strain on the American communications, but by the new year the American transportation system was more robust than ever, and preparations were under way to support the final assault on Germany.

Background

In the first seven weeks after the commencement of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944), determined German opposition exploited the defensive value of the Normandy bocage country against American forces. At first, the Allied advance was slower than the Operation Overlord plan had anticipated. The American Operation Cobra, which commenced on 25 July, effected a turnaround in the operational situation by achieving a breakout from the Normandy lodgment area. The Germans were outmaneuvered and driven into a chaotic retreat. The 12th Army Group became active on 1 August, under the command of Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley. It initially consisted of the First Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges, and the Third Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr. The Ninth Army, under Lieutenant General William H. Simpson, joined the 12th Army Group on 5 September.

British General Sir Bernard Montgomery, the commander of the British 21st Army Group, remained in command of all ground forces, British and American, until 1 September, when the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, opened his Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) in France, and assumed direct command of the ground forces. This brought not just the 12th and 21st Army Groups under Eisenhower's direct command, but also Lieutenant General John C. H. Lee's Communications Zone (COMZ), which became operational on the continent on 7 August.

Bradley had previously exercised control over the Advance Section (ADSEC) of COMZ as the senior American commander on the continent. As such, he had prescribed stock levels in the depots and priorities for the delivery of supplies, and apportioned service units between the armies and the Communications Zone. Bradley believed that as the senior operational commander he should exercise such authority, as was the case in the British forces. Under the American organization, COMZ headquarters also functioned as the headquarters of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA).

The Allied commanders pushed their forces to the limits logistically to take advantage of the chaotic German retreat. By 3 August Patton's Third Army was advancing into Brittany. Bradley ordered Patton to turn east, leaving only minimal forces behind. This decision entailed grave risk, for under the Operation Overlord plan, the ports of Lorient and Quiberon Bay were to be developed for the logistical support of the American forces under the codename Operation Chastity. This was the first in a series of critical decisions that subordinated logistical considerations to short-term operational advantage.

In mid-August, Eisenhower decided to continue the pursuit of the retreating German forces beyond the Seine. This stretched the logistical system. Between 25 August and 12 September the Allied armies advanced from the D plus 90 phase line, the position the Operation Overlord plan expected to be reached 90 days after D-Day, to the D plus 350 phase line, moving through 260 phase lines in just 19 days. Although the planners had estimated that no more than twelve divisions could be maintained beyond the Seine, by September sixteen were, albeit on reduced scales of rations and supplies. Logistical forecasts were repeatedly shown to be overly pessimistic, imbuing a sense of confidence that difficulties could be overcome.

The advance came to a halt in September. This was not a result of inadequate supplies or port capacitythere were still some  of supplies stockpiled in the Normandy lodgment area in Novembernor solely by a shortage of fuel. Rather, the problem was the inability to deliver fuel and supplies to the armies. Railways could not be repaired and pipelines could not be constructed quickly enough.

Motor transport was used as a stopgap, but there was a shortage of suitable vehicles. There was political interference by the Truman Committee, which considered the production of heavy-duty vehicles to be wasteful and unnecessarily reducing the number of civilian vehicles that could be built, and production difficulties arising from a shortage of forgings and castings for heavy-duty axles, engines and transmissions. The insufficient numbers of heavy trucks compelled the Army to use the smaller general purpose 2½-ton 6×6 trucks for long hauls, for which they were unsuited.
Overloading, overuse, accidents and poor maintenance practices took their toll. The pursuit resulted in large quantities of equipment being damaged, worn out, and written off. In November, SHAEF reported to the War Department that each month 375 medium and 125 light tanks, 900 2½-ton trucks, 1,500 jeeps, 700 mortars and 100 artillery pieces had been written off. Tank losses in August and September respectively had been 25.3 percent and 16.5 percent of establishment, and the reserves were exhausted. More than 15,000 vehicles were unserviceable, awaiting repairs or parts. While the American soldier was reputed to have more mechanical aptitude and experience than any other soldiers in the world, this was seldom on display. A Bill Mauldin cartoon depicted a mechanic standing atop a pile of wrecked vehicles and commenting: "I'll be derned. Here's one what wuz wrecked in combat."

Failure to follow proper procedures contributed to the waste and disorder. Dumps established by the armies were frequently turned over to COMZ with little or no paperwork, so supplies were unrecorded, unidentified and unlocatable, resulting in duplicate requisitions. This was exacerbated by the dispatch of filler cargoes of unwanted goods shipped solely to make maximum use of the available transport. The indenting system itself was imperfect and slow in responding to urgent demands. Logisticians at all levels strove to improvise, adapt and overcome difficulties, with considerable success, but short-term solutions frequently created longer-term problems. Hoarding, bartering, over-requisitioning, and cannibalizing vehicles for spare parts degraded the effectiveness of the supply system.

The German strategy was to conduct a fighting withdrawal to the Siegfried Line (which they called the ) while holding the ports as long as possible and conducting a scorched earth program to deny or destroy as much of the transportation infrastructure as possible. The hope was that these measures would restrict the Allies' operational capabilities, which relied heavily on logistical support, and thereby gain sufficient time to reconstitute the German forces. If six to eight weeks could be gained, then bad autumn weather would set in, further restricting the Allies' mobility, air operations and logistical support, and the German forces might be able to take the offensive again.

Shipping
Under the Operation Overlord plan US forces would be supported over the Omaha and Utah landing beaches, an artificial Mulberry harbor, and the ports of Cherbourg in Normandy and Saint-Malo and Quiberon Bay in Brittany. This was considered insufficient, and the planners (correctly) forecast a port capacity shortfall by D plus 120, when autumn weather would hamper beach operations. The American Mulberry was abandoned after it was damaged in a storm in June, and the delay in capturing and opening Cherbourg meant that Cherbourg, the beaches and the minor ports had to handle far more daily tonnage than originally planned. There was another storm on 1 August, and rain, fog and heavy seas intermittently hampered beach operations in August and September. Weather was not the only problem: the road transport needed for beach clearance had been run constantly since June and increasing numbers of vehicles were worn out and in need of repair. In October weather conditions were consistently bad and discharges averaged  per day. The Utah and Omaha beaches were closed for good on 13 and 19 November respectively.

On 11 July Cherbourg's target was raised from  per day by the end of September, but this could not be met. Delays in removing mines and underwater obstacles caused the rehabilitation of the port to fall far behind schedule, and discharges actually fell during September because the port had to handle troop movements with their organizational equipment, which had originally been planned to land at Brest. SHAEF decided on 7 September that Nantes, Saint-Nazaire, Lorient and Quiberon Bay would not be developed, and by the time the Battle for Brest ended on 25 September, the port was so badly damaged that plans to use it were shelved indefinitely.

The Overlord planners had identified a need for shallow-draft vessels, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff had allocated  of coasters for the first six weeks of the operation. This represented about two-thirds of the British coaster fleet, on which critical industries depended for the transport of iron, coal and other commodities. The allocation of so much coastal shipping to Overlord entailed temporarily shutting down a quarter of the UK's blast furnaces. The British therefore wanted the shipping returned as soon as possible. It was planned that after the first six weeks, the allocation to Overlord would be reduced to .

Under the circumstances, the coasters could not be released. Some  of coasters were still engaged in the cross-Channel run in September, and this actually rose to over  in November. The crux of the problem was slow turnaround times. A survey of coaster movements in late October and early November found that 63 round trip voyages had required 1,422 ship-days instead of the planned 606. Diversions to alternate ports, increasingly bad weather, and vessels being laid up for repairs all contributed to this situation. Between 20 and 25 percent of the coaster fleet was laid up for repairs in November and December. Not until December, after the opening of the port of Antwerp, was it possible to release  of coasters, but that was from support of the 21st Army Group; the American allocation actually increased.

It was planned that an increasing volume of supplies would come directly from the United States from September onwards. These ships were not combat loaded, but stowed so as to make optimal use of cargo space. Whereas vehicles had been brought across from the UK on motor transport (MT) vessels (ships specially outfitted to carry vehicles), landing ships, tank (LSTs) or landing craft, tank (LCTs), they now arrived in crates and boxes, with some assembly required. Nearly every ship would arrive with boxed vehicles or other bulky or heavy items. This kind of awkward cargo needed to be discharged at ports where large shore cranes were available; to discharge them over the beaches or at minor ports was difficult, although not impossible. But the only major port in Allied hands on 25 August was Cherbourg. An alternate was to discharge in the UK, assemble them there and transfer the vehicles to the continent in MT ships. SHAEF was allocated 258 MT ships in July, but this was cut to 62 in August, which was still 22 more than originally allocated.

COMZ believed that it could receive 250 ocean-going ships in September, of which 175 would be discharged on the continent and the rest in the UK. It estimated that the available port capacity on the continent would be  per day, which was expected to rise to  per day in October. By the end of September, 219 ships would require discharge on the continent, which was 44 more than the theater said it needed for its current requirements, the additional supplies being to build up stocks for the future. The forecasts of unloading capacity proved optimistic: in the third week of September, the tonnage of American cargo discharged on the continent was  per day, but it dipped to  per day in the last week of September, and averaged  per day in October. Only 95 ships were discharged on the continent in September.

Keeping ships at anchor was not just wasteful; in a war zone it was also dangerous. An accumulation of idle shipping invited enemy attacks and would subject the ships to damage from the autumn gales. The War Department saw no reason for commodity-loaded vessels (ships loaded with a single class of supply) to be held for longer than the interval between convoy sailings, usually about a week, and cut ten ships from each of the six convoys sailing for Europe between 12 September and 10 October. The Army Service Forces (ASF) and War Shipping Administration (WSA) feared that the ETO's demands might require cuts to the UK Import Programfoodstuffs to keep the British population fed, and raw materials to keep its civil and munitions industries running. As it turned out, only minor cuts had to be made because several MT and store ships were released from cross-Channel traffic in August in time to reach ports in the US and sail for Europe again in September.

Over 200 ships were in European waters awaiting discharge in early October, and Captain Granville Conway, the Deputy Administrator of the WSA, considered the ETO's estimate that 260 would be unloaded in October to be unrealistic. On 6 October the War Department decided to cut another forty ships from the upcoming convoys in October and November. Lee protested that while discharges had not met the forecasts, and much of what had been discharged was merely piling up in Normandy owing to lack of transport resources, the lack of depots on the continent rendered it necessary to retain ships in European waters as floating warehouses for urgent requirements. He had recently called forward nineteen ships loaded with engineering supplies in order to obtain an average of  of urgently needed equipment from each vessel. ASF was unimpressed, and the cuts went ahead.

Unloadings averaged  per day in October, and by 20 October the number of vessels awaiting discharge had risen to over 240, of which 140 were commodity loaded. The Chief of ASF, Lieutenant General Brehon B. Somervell, informed Lee that he could expect no more commodity-loaded ships with rations, vehicles or ammunition until he made headway with reducing the backlogs. Somervell dispatched Brigadier General John M. Franklin, the Assistant Chief of Transportation for water transportation, and a former president of the United States Lines, to advise the ETO on improving turnaround time and developing more realistic estimates of port capacity. He arrived in France on 28 October and was appointed the Assistant Chief of Transportation of COMZ and ETOUSA.

The shipping crisis in the ETO escalated into a global one. Merchant ship construction was lagging behind schedule, mainly due to a deficit of 35,000 skilled workers in the shipyards, as they were being lured away to work on the higher-priority amphibious cargo ships and Boeing B-29 Superfortress programs, where pay and conditions were better. The Allied merchant fleet was still growing at a rate of  per month, but the number of ships available for loading at US ports was shrinking. The problem was growing retentions of vessels by the theaters, of which the ETO was the worst but not the only offender. The chairman of the Maritime Commission, Vice Admiral Emory S. Land, noted that 350 ships were being held idle in the theaters awaiting discharge, and 400 more WSA vessels were being retained for various uses by theater commanders. This represented  of shipping, which was about 30 percent of all Allied-controlled tonnage. As ships failed to return from overseas on time, supplies began piling up in ports, depots and railway sidings in the United States.

Drastic measures were required. On 18 November the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) approved and forwarded to President Franklin Roosevelt a memorandum from Somervell recommending cuts in non-military shipments. Specifically, Somervell proposed eliminating the American contribution to the UK Import Program of 40 sailings per month, reducing Lend-Lease to the UK by 12 sailings per month, those to the USSR by 10, and cutting civilian relief to Europe by 34. Conway enlisted Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's chief advisor, in putting the WSA's case to the president: that it could not ask the British "to bear the brunt of our failure to utilize our ships properly." Roosevelt instructed the WSA to negotiate a cut in the UK Import Program for December 1944, January 1945 and February 1945 with the British, asked the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion to investigate the labor situation at the shipyards, and told the JCS to get the theaters to break up the pools of idle shipping and improve turnaround times.

COMZ managed to unload 115 ships in November. The port commanders improved the discharge rate from  per ship per day in October to  per ship per day in November by offering incentives such as extra leave to their best performing hatch crews. On 6 December the JCS prohibited selective unloading and directed that shipping requirements be modified to match actual discharge capacities. Each theater was ordered to establish a shipping control agency that would ensure compliance with these directives. In the ETO, the shipping control agency consisted of the Chief of Staff of COMZ, Major General Royal B. Lord; his Assistant Chief of Staff (G-4) at COMZ, Brigadier General James H. Stratton; and Franklin. Somervell ordered 25 of the 35 Liberty ships that had been engaged in the cross-Channel service and ships that had been sitting idle with non-urgent supplies after being partially unloaded to return to the United States. The latter resulted in  of pierced steel plank and other surfacing for airfields being returned on 21 ships, only to be shipped back again on the next convoy.

The opening of the port of Antwerp on 28 November promised to solve the port capacity problem, but the German Ardennes offensive caused a halt to the movement of supplies to the threatened depots around Liège, and they piled up at the ports. Unloading had to be curtailed, and on 23 December ETOUSA requested that 24 ships be cut from the next convoys. Only 130 ships were unloaded in December, and based on Franklin's sanguine assessment of capacity, the War Department cut the number of sailings to 175 in January and February 1945. By the end of January 1945 116 vessels lay idle awaiting discharge, and on 3 February ETOUSA recommended that March 1945 sailings be cut from 233 to 203. The War Department went even further and reduced it to 172. However, February 1945 saw a steady increase in the discharge rate, which rose to over  per day, an increase of  per day over what had been achieved in December 1944 and January 1945, and the shipping crisis finally appeared to be resolved.

Ports

Minor ports

When hopes that Brest and Quiberon Bay would soon be opened faded, COMZ decided to compensate by developing the minor ports in Normandy and Brittany. The minor Brittany ports proved uneconomical to operate; their capacity was small, they had no deep-water berths, and by the time many of them were repaired they were hundreds of miles from the front. However, they met a critical need at a time when bad weather threatened to close the Normandy beaches. They were operated by the 16th Major Port, which was relieved by the 5th Major Port in September. The rehabilitation of the Normandy port of Granville was undertaken by the 1055th and 1058th Port Construction and Repair Groups. Granville had been subject to systematic demolition, with quays cratered, cranes tipped into the water, and the harbor blocked with sunken craft. It was operated solely as a coal port, and averaged  per day from when it was opened on 18 September until it closed on 21 April 1945.

The task of rehabilitating the Brittany ports of Cancale, Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Malo was carried out by the 1053rd Port Construction and Repair Group and the 360th Engineer General Service Regiment, but work on Saint-Malo was abandoned as it neared completion because the task of opening the inland waterways serving it was not considered worth the effort. It was handed over to the French on 21 November. Tidal conditions at Cancale proved unfavorable, and it was never used. Saint-Brieuc was opened in mid-September but discharges averaged only  per day, mostly coal for local railways and power stations, and it was handed over to the French on 9 November.

Another minor port in Brittany, Morlaix, was not badly damaged, and it was quickly restored by the 1057th Port Construction and Repair Group. The first convoy of two Liberty ships and ten LSTs arrived on 25 August. Nearby Roscoff was also opened. Between them, they had anchorages for up to six Liberty ships, which were discharged using Army lighters, Navy landing craft and civilian boats, and handled an average of  per day until they were closed on 14 December. The opening of the Seine ports of Rouen and Le Havre permitted the closure of shallow-draft minor ports, and the small Normandy ports of Saint-Brieuc, Barfleur, Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, Carentan, Grandcamp and Isigny were handed over to the French in November.

Cherbourg
The rehabilitation of Cherbourg fell behind schedule. The first oil tanker did not discharge at the Digue de Querqueville in Cherbourg Harbor until 25 July, over two weeks behind schedule. The British train ferry  arrived with its first load of diesel electric locomotives and rolling stock on 29 July, but the Jetée du Homet was not yet ready to receive them, and they had to be unloaded with cranes. Although barges and coasters were supposed to commence discharging in the Bassin à Flot on 26 July, it was not until 11 August that they did so. Worst affected by delays were the deep-water berths required for Liberty ships. The first four Liberty ships entered Cherbourg on 16 July, but berths were not yet available. They had to be unloaded at anchor into amphibious trucks known as DUKWs, whose name was pronounced (and sometimes spelled) "ducks".

A Liberty ship was able to berth at the  on 9 August, nineteen days later than planned. Another month passed before berths were available in the , and it was 21 September before the  was opened. The  was not cleared of mines until 21 August and the access channel was not cleared until 18 September. The first Liberty ship did not berth there until 8 October. The rehabilitation effort was reported as 75 percent complete in mid-September, but only five of the planned twenty-eight deep-water berths were operational by then. Not until 15 December was the rehabilitation work completed.

The port of Cherbourg was operated by the 4th Port, under the command of Colonel Cleland C. Sibley, which was augmented by Colonel August H. Schroeder's 12th Port. From 16 August, the 4th Port was part of Colonel Theodore Wyman Jr.'s Normandy Base Section. The operation of a major port requires a great deal of coordination, and much of this was worked out through trial and error. Bringing vessels into the port was a US Navy responsibility, but the Naval harbor master would take the Army's preferences into account in deciding what berth should be used. For example, the Army preferred vessels with cargo suitable for unloading by DUKW anchor in the Petit Rade to avoid long hauls from the Grande Rade. But communication between the office of the Naval harbor master and the headquarters of the 4th Port was unsatisfactory at first, and it took time to develop a smooth working relationship.

Problems arose when ships arrived unexpectedly and there were no preparations to receive them. Advance warning of ship arrivals was necessary because unloading a ship was a complicated business. Sufficient stevedores had to be provided to work the hatches, and the required cargo handling equipment, such as cranes, had to be available. Trucks and railway cars had to be brought forward and spotted on the quays to allow cargo to be quickly cleared, and the depots and dumps had to be alerted to be ready to receive the supplies. Some arrived without manifests or stowage plans. In some cases the only way the contents of a ship could be determined was for the port personnel to board it and physically check. At first the Navy refused to allow ships without manifests to enter the port at all, but too often they were found to contain critical cargo.

Of the  of Army cargo discharged at Cherbourg by 13 September, just 38.4 percent was unloaded at quayside berths or over LST ramps; the rest was unloaded by DUKWs and lighters. This was slower and more manpower intensive than quayside unloading due to multiple handling. DUKWs were suitable only for handling small, packaged items, and had a rated capacity of , although they were frequently overloaded. Bulkier or heavier items could be unloaded onto barges, but they too had limitations. While DUKWs could go ashore at the Nouvelle Plage at any time, barges had to be tied to mooring boats and await high tide before they could be towed into the basins for unloading. Both were subject to disruption by bad weather. Communications were a problem initially, with the Navy's signal lamp not up to the task. A small Signal Corps Radio was employed instead. Two radio networks were eventually established: one for the tugboats, and one for coordinating hatch operations.

The 4th Port was handicapped by the slow arrival of its unit equipment, which had been brought from the UK on twelve ships but unloaded at Utah Beach instead of Cherbourg. The hatch crew found themselves lacking basic gear such as ropes, slings and cargo nets, and three DUKWs went around collecting gear from ships in the harbor. Cranes were also in short supply, and this was exacerbated by a dearth of well-trained crane operators. In the UK, where the 4th Port had worked the docks along the River Mersey, crane operating had been mostly carried out by experienced civilians. A training program was initiated at Cherbourg, where crane operators were instructed by a pair of sergeants who had learned crane operation in the UK. In the meantime, inexperienced operators caused avoidable damage both to cranes and to cargo. Insufficient numbers of skilled mechanics were available to repair the cranes, and there was a shortage of spare parts as well. The result was that at times half the cranes were out of action.

Disappointing discharge figures led to Sibley being relieved of command. He was succeeded by Colonel James A. Crothers on 29 September. Despite the worsening weather, the tonnage of cargo discharged at Cherbourg climbed from  per day in September to  per day in October, mainly due to increased quantities being unloaded at the quaysides. By then it was evident that while the target of discharging  per day might be achievable, port discharge was only half the battle; the cargo also had to be cleared away from the port and taken to the depots and dumps. Motor transport was in demand to support the armies, and the rains turned the dirt roads around the dumps into mud, resulting in bogged-down vehicles. Railway facilities were improved, with  of additional track laid, and two large marshalling yards were built outside the city.

Whenever there were a few days running of good weather, cargo built up at the port. SHAEF was dissatisfied with how the port was being run, and on 30 October Wyman was relieved of command of the Normandy Base Section and replaced by Major General Lucius D. Clay, on loan from ASF. Clay recognized that the heart of the problem was a lack of coordination between the port and rail operations, and he delegated the necessary authority over the railways to Crothers. This brought about an improvement in clearance tonnage in November. Clay remained for only a few weeks. On 26 November Colonel Eugene M. Caffey assumed temporary command of the Normandy Base Section until Major General Henry S. Aurand arrived on 17 December. Unloading at Cherbourg reached its peak in November. With the opening of ports further north it declined in importance, although it remained an important port for the discharge of ammunition.

Le Havre
The Seine ports had figured prominently in the Overlord plan, but for the supply of the 21st Army Group, not the American forces. It was expected that they would replace the British Normandy beaches around D plus 120, and be handed over to the Americans around D plus 240, when the Channel ports had been opened. Rouen was captured on 30 August but was not usable until downstream Le Havre was also taken on 12 September. An American line of communication from Le Havre would cross that of the British, but Le Havre was  closer to the front line than the Brittany ports, and it was estimated that every  landed at Le Havre could save the equivalent of seventy quartermaster truck companies. On 11 September the Deputy G–4 for Movements and Transportation at SHAEF, British Major General Charles Napier, recommended that Le Havre be assigned to COMZ. It was now anticipated that the maintenance of US forces would eventually be provided through Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Le Havre had been the second largest port in France before the war, but it had been heavily damaged by German demolitions and Allied land, sea and aerial bombardment. Lee directed that Le Havre would be developed as an interim port capable of handling  per day. This was to be done as rapidly as possible, with the minimum amount of reconstruction effort. The rehabilitation of Le Havre and Rouen was assigned to a task force under the command of Colonel Frank F. Bell, the commander of the 373rd Engineer General Service Regiment. In addition to his own regiment, he ultimately also had the 1055th and 1061st Engineer Port Construction and Repair Groups, the 392nd Engineer General Service Regiment, the 1071st Engineer Port Repair Ship Crew, the 1044th Engineer Gas Generating Unit, the 971st Engineer Maintenance Company, the 577th Engineer Dump Truck Company and two Royal Navy parties. The Seabees of the 28th Naval Construction Battalion also worked there.

The first Liberty ships entered the inner harbor of Le Havre on 19 September, but mines and obstructions limited the docks to landing craft and coasters.  brought port clearance supplies from Cherbourg to Le Havre on 21 September, but on departure on 25 September it navigated the inner and outer harbors and cleared the blockships only to strike a mine and sink. Not until 13 October was the first Liberty ship able to dock.

The Seabees built a  floating pier outside the main sea wall from pontoons capable of handling six cargo vessels that was connected to the shore with a Bailey bridge. Two artificial piers were made from Phoenix breakwaters salvaged from the Mulberry harbor. A major problem was damage to the Rochemont lock gates, which subjected the quay walls to damage from the hydrostatic pressure of the  tides. After several unsuccessful attempts to repair them in place, the 1055th Port Construction and Repair Group removed the gates, repaired them in the dry dock, and completed their reinstallation on 30 November. As a result, the tidal range in the wet basins was reduced by . Inside the gates the Seabees constructed floating piers by joining pairs of rhino ferries taken from Omaha Beach. These were made stationary by driving timber pilings, and connected to the shore by a Bailey bridge. The first Liberty ship passed through the lock on 16 December.

Le Havre was operated by the 16th Major Port, under the command of Brigadier General William M. Hoge, who had commanded the Provisional Engineer Special Brigade Group on Omaha Beach. He was succeeded by Colonel Thomas J. Weed on 31 October. It was joined by the 52nd Port in January. The number of berths that the logisticians felt was necessary were never developed, so the port continued to depend on DUKWs and lighters. In the first quarter of 1945, seven DUKW companies handled 35.2 percent of the cargo; quayside discharges accounted for 23.3 percent and lighters handled the rest.

The use of DUKWs had its drawbacks in the multiple handling of cargo and interruptions to operations occasioned by bad weather. DUKWs had never been intended to operate for long periods of time, but one company reported that its DUKWs had over  on the clock. By November, about 76 percent of the DUKWs were inoperable. Chronic shortages of spare parts forced a resort to cannibalizing inoperable vehicles, and improvisations such as making propeller shaft strut bearings from applewood and replacement rudders from scrap metal. Nonetheless, the port exceeded COMZ's expectations, handling  per day by the end of December.

In that month, the port dispatched 92 trains carrying ammunition to the forward areas in response to the German Ardennes offensive, and rockets were rushed to Liège to help defend the threatened base area there. By the year's end, the 16th Major Port and some 4,000 French civilian stevedores had unloaded  of cargo. In 1945 the work force was augmented with 6,000 German prisoners of war. The port set a record of  in January 1945, and by the end of May had unloaded .

In addition to handling cargo Le Havre also became an important debarkation point for American troops. In January 1945 the 52nd Port was attached to the 16th Major Port and its commander, Colonel William J. Deyo, was given responsibility for troop movements. That month the Red Horse Staging Area was established in the Le Havre area. Troops debarked over a long steel ponton pier and a troopship berth at the Quai d'Escale. Arrivals peaked at 247,607 troops in March 1945.

Rouen

Rouen was not as badly damaged as Le Havre. The Germans had demolished the cargo handling facilities and blocked the river channel with toppled cranes and sunken boats and barges, but  of the quays were still in good condition. The nearby marshalling yards had been heavily damaged by Allied bombing, but another yard  away was easily accessible by road. The rehabilitation task was undertaken by elements of the Le Havre engineering task force consisting of the 1061st Engineer Port Construction and Repair Group, a Royal Navy party, and a platoon of the 37th Engineer Combat Battalion. The more difficult task of clearing away the mines and removing sunken vessels obstructing the river channel was handled by the US Navy with the help of French authorities.

Rouen was operated by a detachment of the 16th Major Port until the 11th Port took over on 20 October. The first ships to arrive were a pair of coasters from the UK carrying petrol, oil and lubricants (POL) on 15 October. At this point nine berths were available, and the port's rehabilitation was estimated to be 20 percent completed. During the month it handled  from 48 different vessels, most of which were coasters. Larger vessels could be accommodated, but they first had to be partially unloaded in Le Havre in order to negotiate the shallow channel between Le Havre and Rouen. During a neap tide a ship had to be lightened to draw no more than  lest it block the channel for ten days until the spring tide arrived. The US Army had four hopper dredges that had been earmarked for work on the Loire River, but only one, the Hoffman, operated by the 1077th Engineer Dredge Crew, had a shallow enough draft to operate on the Seine. Special care had to be taken to avoid grounding the dredge.

The port was so successful that on 8 November COMZ ordered all coasters except those carrying coal to unload at Rouen. Discharges rose to  in November and  in December. The port's main problem was not a shortage of berths, but of labor and road and railway resources for port clearance. Clearance by barge over the inland waterways commenced on 22 November and was mainly used to meet civilian needs. Troops began debarking at Rouen, starting with a landing ship, infantry (LSI) on 10 November, and 51,111 troops passed through that port by the end of the year. In the same period 22,078 vehicles arrived on LSTs, coasters and MT ships. The port's peak of activity was in March 1945, when 15 Liberty ship and 26 coaster berths were available and it handled  of cargo; 9,000 US Army troops, 5,000 French civilians, and 9,000 prisoners of war were working the port.

Antwerp
Before the war Antwerp had been one of the world's busiest ports, handling 12,000 vessels and nearly  of freight in 1938. It was situated on the Scheldt River some  inland, but unlike other ports on tidal estuaries, it could receive deep draft vessels on all tides. With a minimum depth at the quays of , the river was still  wide at this point, which gave even the largest vessels ample room to maneuver. The port had  of quays along the river, and nearly  more in eighteen wet basins accessible through four locks. There were 322 hydraulic and 270 electric cranes, and numerous floating cranes and grain elevators. There were 900 warehouses, a granary capable of storing nearly  and  of cold storage. Petroleum pipelines ran from the tanker berths to 498 storage tanks with a capacity of . Labor to work the port was plentiful, and included skilled boat crews, crane operators and mechanics. Antwerp was well-served by roads, railway and canals for barge traffic. There were  of railway lines that connected to the Belgian railway system, and there was also access to inland waterways. Through the Albert Canal, barges could reach the Meuse River, which ran through Liège, where the American bases were located.

Antwerp was captured on 4 September, with its port facilities largely intact thanks to the British Army's rapid advance, and the efforts of the Belgian Resistance, which assisted the British 11th Armoured Division in finding the least heavily defended route into the city and forestalled the German demolition of the port facilities. Antwerp was just  from the depots around Liège supporting the First Army, and even though the Third Army depots around Nancy were  from Antwerp, this was closer than Cherbourg, which was more than  from the depots. It was estimated that 21 divisions could be supported from Cherbourg, of which 6 would be by road and 15 by rail, but 54 divisions could be supported by rail from Antwerp. However, the Allied Naval Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, noted on 3 September that the entrances to Antwerp and Rotterdam could be blocked and mined, and it could not be predicted how long it would take to open them. Operations to clear the Scheldt estuary were initiated by the First Canadian Army in October, and completed in the first week of November.

Both COMZ and the 12th Army Group urged SHAEF to allocate a portion of Antwerp's capacity to the support of the American forces. On considering the matter SHAEF concluded that Antwerp was indeed sufficiently large to serve the needs of both the British and the American forces. Eisenhower rejected a proposal from Lee that it be operated jointly, as joint control of ports had been shown to not work well in the past; the port was to be run by the British. Lee arranged a conference in Antwerp with representatives of COMZ and the 21st Army Group between 24 and 26 September. Tentative agreements were reached on the allocation of tonnage capacity, storage facilities and railway lines, and arrangements were made for the command and control of the port and its installations, and regarding responsibility for rehabilitation works. Additional matters were discussed at a second conference in Brussels on 5 October, and the result was formalized in a Memorandum of Agreement that became known as the "Treaty of Antwerp", and was signed by Major General Miles Graham, the Major General Administration at 21st Army Group, and Colonel Fenton S. Jacobs, the commander of the Channel Base Section.

The American forces would use the basins to the north of a line drawn through the Bassin Albert (Albertdok), and the British would use those to the south. The Americans were guaranteed a minimum of 62 berths. The basins along the river would be shared, and allocated based on need. It was expected that the port would handle  per day not counting bulk POL, of which  was allocated to the Americans and  to the British. Overall command of the port was vested in the Royal Navy Naval Officer in Charge (NOIC), Captain Cowley Thomas, who also chaired a port executive committee on which both American and British interests were represented. Local administration was the responsibility of the British base sub area commander. US forces were allocated primary rights to the roads and railway lines leading southeast to Liège, while the British were given those leading to the north and northeast. A joint US, British and Belgian Movements Organization for Transport (BELMOT) was created to coordinate highway, railway and waterway traffic.

The rehabilitation of the port was undertaken by the British, on the understanding that American resources could be called upon as required. The main US engineer unit assigned was the 358th Engineer General Service Regiment. Two of the ETO's five engineer port repair ships were also available. American engineers cleared rubble away from the quays, improved roads, repaired rail lines, rebuilt warehouses and constructed hardstands. The main American project was the repair of mine damage to the Kruisschans sluice, the longest of the four that connected the river with the wet basins, and the only one that provided access to the American wet basins. Work commenced on 6 November and was completed in time for the arrival of the first Liberty ship, SS James B. Weaver, on 28 November. By this time 219 of the 242 berths were cleared, all the port's cranes were in working order, and all the bridges needed to access the quays had been repaired. The port's floating equipment was augmented by a small fleet of American harbor craft that included 17 small tugboats, 20 towboats and 6 floating cranes.

The 13th Port was assigned to operate the American part of Antwerp, and began arriving from Plymouth in October 1944. It was joined by the 5th Major Port in November and December. The commander of the 13th Port, Colonel Doswell Gullatt, who had led the 5th Engineer Special Brigade at Omaha Beach on D-Day, was designated the overall commander. He had also been the district engineer in Mobile, Alabama, and had extensive experience in flood control and the construction of piers and docks. Most of the work of unloading ships was carried out by Belgian stevedores, some 9,000 of whom were working on the American section of the port on an average day in December. American personnel operated in a supervisory capacity. The biggest problem with the Belgian workers was transporting them to and from their homes, as German V-weapon and air attacks on the port forced many of them to move to the outskirts of the city. The city suffered heavy damage from these attacks, and there were more than 10,000 casualties. The workers' living conditions deteriorated during the winter, and on 16 January they went on strike over shortages of food, clothing and coal. The strike lasted only one day, and it ended when the burgomaster promised the workers food and coal at regulated prices. To keep the civilian workers at their jobs, the city of Antwerp granted workers in the port area a 25 percent increase in pay, but since the V-weapons were fairly inaccurate, this soon led to more industrial disputes when workers elsewhere demanded the same.

Between October 1944 and March 1945 V-1 flying bombs struck Antwerp nearly every day, with 150 striking the port area. Three anti-aircraft brigades were deployed to defend the city under the command of Brigadier General Clare H. Armstrong. The possibility of a V-weapon striking an ammunition ship was taken seriously enough to ban ammunition ships from Antwerp. Ammunition, except some for the anti-aircraft guns around Antwerp, was unloaded at Cherbourg or Le Havre. The danger was real enough: on 8 January a V-2 rocket struck pier 123 about  from the American freighter SS Blenheim. Twenty of those on board were injured, and the ship was so badly damaged that nearly a month was required to effect repairs to enable it to sail. A week later, another V-2 hit berth 218 and badly damaged the Liberty ship , injuring three on board and killing a soldier on the pier. V-weapons were also used against the depots around Liège between November 1944 and March 1945. One that struck a fuel dump on 17 December started a fire that consumed  of gasoline, and another on 21 December destroyed or badly damaged fourteen railway cars and set fire to six others. Some of the burning cars contained bags of mail from home, which were hastily unloaded.

Antwerp was capable of handling far more than the allotted  a day; the limiting factor was clearance. Before the war, Antwerp had been a transit port, and it did not possess large amounts of covered storage space. What there was, was taken over by the British, as Antwerp was the logical site for the 21st Army Group's base installations. The Americans were allocated only a small amount of storage space, none of which was covered, on the assumption that American supplies would immediately be moved to the depots around Liège. Colonel William E. Potter, the G-4 Plans chief at COMZ, estimated that storing any more than  in the port area would hamper port operations, but  accumulated in the first two weeks of the port's operation. This was mainly due to a shortage of railway rolling stock, but clearance by barge also fell below expectations.

Port operations were interrupted by the German Ardennes offensive, which commenced on 16 December 1944, and threatened the depots around Liège. Rail and barge shipments to the area were halted, and large quantities of supplies piled up in the port area. By 4 January 1945 there were nearly 3,500 railway cars lying fully loaded but idle at the port; thousands more unloaded cars were at the ADSEC depots around Liège. Five anti-aircraft gun battalions were re-roled as infantry to protect Antwerp in case of a German breakthrough. In January, new depots were opened in the Lille area, and supplies began moving again, but the number of railway cars reporting each day was consistently below what was required to clear the backlog. That month, Antwerp handled  of cargo, of which  was cleared by rail,  by road and  by barge.

Ghent
Ghent was an inland port about  from the sea, which was accessed through the Ghent–Terneuzen Canal. Before the war it had been the second busiest port in Belgium after Antwerp. Although captured in September 1944, it had not figured in Allied logistical planning, as Antwerp was considered sufficient. The intensity of the German V-weapon attacks had brought about a reconsideration, and it was decided to activate Ghent as a backup in case Antwerp was temporarily put out of action. Ghent had not been badly damaged, but some bridges had been demolished, the lock gates had been damaged, cranes had been removed and there were some sunken ships. The administration of the port was similar to that of Antwerp, with a port executive committee. Tonnage capacity was divided, with  per day for the British and  for the Americans. The American sector was operated by the US 17th Port.

Ghent had been used by the Germans only for barge traffic, so bringing it into operation required dredging  of sand and aggregate. This was carried out by the US Army hopper dredge W. L. Marshall, which had previously been engaged in dredging the Scheldt, and had several doors blown off by near misses by V-1s and V-2s. As it turned out, the  beam of a Liberty ship could just pass through the Terneuzen locks. The first US Liberty ship to do so, the Hannis Taylor, reached Ghent on 23 January. The port was used for both Liberties and coasters. In its first month of operation, Ghent unloaded only  per day, but it was handling twice that by March.

Highways

Motor transport was the most flexible form of transportation in that it could make deliveries to any location at any time, and could respond rapidly to changing demands. By September 1944 motor transport had three missions: short hauls around depots, port clearance, and long hauls on the lines of communication between them. Most of the activity involved short hauls, but during the pursuit from the Seine to the German border in August and early September, the distance between the armies and the ports and beaches stretched to over , and most of the long haulage had to be carried out by motor transport. On an average day the Red Ball Express dispatched  in 1,542 trucks carrying an average load of  per truck per round trip that averaged . Fortunately, the road network in northern France and Belgium had not been badly damaged, and required little maintenance effort. Highway repair mainly involved filling in potholes.

Although the Red Ball Express was the first and most famous express highway delivery route, it was not the only one. The Red Lion ran from 16 September to 12 October and hauled  of supplies from Bayeux to Brussels. Half of the supplies were for the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions participating in Operation Market Garden to seize a crossing over the Rhine. Eight companies were withdrawn from the Red Ball Express for the purpose: six equipped with standard GMC CCKW 2½-ton 6×6 trucks, and two with 10-ton semi-trailers. They were supported by two medium automotive maintenance companies, which maintained a pool of replacement vehicles that could be issued in cases where repairs could not be carried out immediately.

The White Ball route was organized by the Channel Base Section and ran from Le Havre and Rouen to rail transfer points in Paris and Reims. It operated from 6 October 1944 to 10 January 1945. An average of 29 truck companies were involved, delivering  of supplies with an average outbound trip of . The Green Diamond was organized by the Normandy Base Section and delivered  of supplies from Cherbourg to railway transfer points at Granville and Dol between 10 October and 1 November.

The last to operate was the ABC Haul, which delivered supplies from Antwerp to the depots around Liège. It differed from the others in that it used an average of sixteen companies, all of which were equipped with semi-trailer trucks with  trailers. It ran from 30 November 1944 until 26 March 1945, and hauled . There was one more: the Little Red Ball Express, which was organized to deliver  of critical supplies from Carentan to Paris each day. While the train took three days to make this run, a truck could do it in just one. It ran from 15 December 1944 until 17 January 1945, after which it was replaced by an express train.

Requests for more heavy vehicles led to reduced production of 2½-ton vehicles. The main bottleneck in both cases was the foundries, which could not meet the demand for castings of axles, transmissions, and engines. Nonetheless, there were still more trucks available at the New York Port of Embarkation than could be shipped, due to the port capacity crisis. The War Department canceled sailings of ships loaded with trucks, and none were delivered in November or December. Instead, priority was given to the shipment of tires, inner tubes, antifreeze and spare parts for the vehicles already in the theater.

Tires were the most critical item, being in short supply because the Japanese had overrun most of the world's sources of natural rubber in 1942. The main causes of loss of tires were overload-induced blowouts and damage from carelessly discarded C ration cans that littered the roads, but even disregarding damage from accidents, blowouts or enemy action, the life expectancy of a truck tire was about . The War Department had allotted a replacement factor of 7.5 percent per month, but during August and September trucks were run over much greater distances than had been anticipated. An ADSEC inspection in September revealed that 70 percent of its trucks had been run for over . The replacement of thousands of worn-out tires commenced that month. Repairing and retreading efforts could not keep up with demand, mainly due to shortages of materials such as the camelback rubber used for repairs. By November the 12th Army Group was reporting that the shortage of tires was impeding combat operations, and the following month all 10-ton trailers and 1,000 trucks were off the road because there were no tires.

COMZ attempted to obtain additional supplies of tires by restoring the local French and Belgian tire industries. This was hampered by a shortage of raw materials, which had to be imported, and the transportation systems and electricity grids, which had to be restored. The first tire made from American synthetic rubber was produced by the Goodrich factory in Paris on 4 January 1945, and by the end of the month it was turning out 4,000 tires per month and the Michelin plant was making 2,000. Meanwhile, since inspections had shown that 40 percent of tire losses were due to preventable causes such as underinflation and overloading, the theater launched a media campaign in the Stars and Stripes newspaper and on the Armed Forces Network radio. The War Department removed the tires from unserviceable vehicles in the United States, and brokered a moratorium on industrial disputes in the synthetic rubber industry to increase production.

The flexibility of motor transport was demonstrated in December when the American armies were struck by the German Ardennes offensive. On 18 December, two days after it began, 274 2½-ton trucks were taken from the White Ball Route and another 258 from the Seine Base Section to move the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions to the Ardennes. The following day another 347 trucks were taken from the White Ball Route to help the Third Army respond to the offensive. Semitrailers were withdrawn from the ABC Haul to assist, and by the end of the month 2,500 trucks had been withdrawn from port clearance and short haul duties to handle emergency movements of troops, equipment and supplies. At Liège tanker trucks removed  of aviation spirit from threatened fuel depots.

Railways
While motor transport was flexible, it lacked the capacity of rail transport to move large tonnages over long distances. It was upon the railways that the movement of supplies from the ports to the depots ultimately depended. The railway system in northern France was operated by the 2nd Military Railway Service, under the command of Brigadier General Clarence L. Burpee, an Atlantic Coast Line Railroad executive who had commanded the 703rd Railway Grand Division in the North African campaign and the military railways in the Italian campaign.

By the end of September, the 2nd Military Railway Service was responsible for the operation of roughly  of single-track railway and  of double-track railway lines. To the northeast of Paris, lines had been opened to the depot areas around Liège and Verdun. The extent of damage to the rail network varied greatly. Most of the bridges across the Seine had been destroyed by Allied bombing or demolished by the retreating Germans, and for a time freight had to be routed through the passenger network in Paris. To the northeast, the Germans had not had sufficient time to carry out widespread demolitions, and the network was largely intact, although some of the double-track lines had single-track sections, and only one bridge in the Liège area was still standing, resulting in a bottleneck that was not rectified until January 1945.

Rehabilitation of the railway system was largely a matter of repairing bridges. The US Army had not developed military railway bridges, so the material for this was of British origin, although some of it was manufactured in the United States. This included British  flat-bottom tracks; rolled steel joist spans that came in lengths of ; a  sectional box girder bridge; and unit construction railway bridges that came in lengths from . Five engineer general service regiments were earmarked for railway construction duties, but only two, the 332nd Engineer General Service Regiment and the 347th Engineer General Service Regiment, received special training at the Railway Bridging School at Kings Newton in England. American engineers liked the rolled steel beams that the Germans used. These were manufactured at Differdange in Luxembourg, and after it was liberated in September 1944 it began producing steel beams for the Allies. By the end of December, approximately  of single track and  of double track lines were in operation.

The railway system was steadily improved in September and October, easing the burden on the motor vehicles. The railway system northeast of the Seine was in relatively good condition, and had greater capacity than that to the southwest. Two transloading points were established around Paris, at Aubervilliers station for the First Army, and Vincennes station for the Third Army, where trucks could transfer their loads onto trains. Aubervilliers could accommodate 225 railroad cars and load 20 simultaneously, while Vincennes could accommodate 400 and load 115 simultaneously. The task of loading the trains was performed by 300 to 350 French civilians who worked in three eight-hour shifts each day. Except for a crane at Vincennes, there was no provision for loading heavy or bulky items, so only loads that could be manhandled were accepted. Manifests were checked at a regulating point at Trappes south of Paris, and trucks were routed accordingly. Truck to train transfer proved very successful, and Red Ball shipments beyond Paris were discontinued on 20 October, except for some heavy and bulky engineering supplies. In early November, such items began being hauled all the way by train, and the Red Ball Express was discontinued on 16 November, around the same time as the Normandy beaches were closed. In October, 798 freight trains arrived in Paris from Normandy and Brittany, and 999 departed for destinations in the northeast hauling US Army cargo. By November,  of supplies was being forwarded northeast of the Seine each day, representing over half the tonnage arriving at the depots.

It was not intended that the railway network would be operated entirely by Allied service personnel for an extended period of time. The plan was that the lines would be progressively handed over to civilian operators once the fighting had passed through and the network was restored. The rapid Allied advance in August and September disrupted this plan, and resulted in the military personnel being spread far more widely and thinly than anticipated. This was complicated by the fact that while the railway operating battalions were formed around cadres drawn from American railroads, not all of their personnel had operating or supervisory experience. Difficulties also arose in dealing with the French civilian operators through differences of language, documentation and operating procedures.

The most important limiting factor affecting the railways was the availability of rolling stock. The Operation Overlord planners had anticipated that much of the French rolling stock would be destroyed by Allied bombing, and that the retreating Germans would take what they could with them. This proved prescient: only fifty serviceable French locomotives were captured southwest of the Seine. It was estimated that the Allied forces would require 2,724 of the large 2-8-0 and 680 of the smaller 0-6-0 type, of which 1,800 and 470 respectively would be for American use, but only 1,358 2-8-0s and 362 0-6-0s were on hand by the end of June 1944.

Due to cutbacks in American locomotive production, the War Department was unable to guarantee delivery of the remaining 2,000 locomotives, and suggested that ETOUSA obtain 450 locomotives that had been loaned to the British. The British refused to hand them over unless the Americans released their coasters. In December,  of coasters was released, and the British agreed to ship 150 locomotives in December, followed by 100 per month thereafter. By the end of the year 1,500 locomotives had been shipped to the continent, and 800 captured French, German and Italian ones had been repaired by French and American mechanics and restored to service.

More than 57,000 railroad cars of various types, including boxcars, flatcars, refrigerator cars and tank cars were shipped to the continent. Of these, some 20,000 had been shipped from the US in the form of knock-down kits and had been assembled in the UK. These were augmented by captured rolling stock. Nonetheless, serious shortages of rolling stock developed in November. Part of the problem was that the armies liked to keep a certain amount of supplies on wheels, using railroad cars as mobile warehouses, but a major factor was a decision to ship bulk supplies directly from the ports to the ADSEC and army depots to reduce port congestion. These depots were primarily points for issuing supplies, with limited unloading and storage capacity, and did not have sufficient resources to classify and segregate bulk supplies. By the end of November there were 11,000 loaded freight cars on the rails northeast of Paris, and ten days later this had increased to 14,000, but the depots could unload only about 2,000 cars per day. This resulted in increased railroad car turnaround times, with many cars taking 20 to 40 days to be unloaded.

COMZ recognized what was happening, and took steps to remedy the situation, but before they could take effect the German Ardennes offensive engulfed the American army. The forward railheads at Malmedy, Eupen and Herbesthal had to be evacuated. Rail shipments abruptly dropped from  per day as supplies were held back until the operational situation improved, and trains were used to back haul stocks from depots threatened by the German advance. About 35,000 railroad cars accumulated in forward areas, while supplies piled up at the ports and trains were held idle. Bridges were damaged by Allied and German demolitions and air attacks. The vital railway bridge over the Meuse at Namur was struck by a German air raid on 24 December that set off Allied demolition charges. The bridge had to be rebuilt, and was reopened for traffic on 15 January 1945.

Air

Air transport was the least economic form of transport, but in September and October, with road and rail transport unable to supply even the minimum daily requirements of the armies, the Ninth Air Force and ADSEC, air transport was called on to supplement them. In the second week of September, troop carrier and cargo aircraft of the First Allied Airborne Army's IX Troop Carrier Command and No. 46 Group RAF, and converted Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers managed to deliver  per day to airfields at Saint-Dizier, Clastres and Florennes that were made available by the Ninth Air Force. The First Allied Airborne Army units were withdrawn to participate in Operation Market Garden, leaving only the B-24s. Each could carry between  in four bomb bay tanks. In thirteen days of operations commencing on 9 September, 1,601 B-24 sorties delivered  of gasoline. They were augmented by some British Handley Page Halifax bombers. Part of the planned Market Garden resupply missions were canceled on 22 September, and in the final week of September deliveries averaged a record  per day.

The Communications Zone would have liked to have continued to exploit air transport to the maximum extent, but the use of bombers was uneconomical, and they were withdrawn at the end of September. Bad flying weather in October reduced daily deliveries by air to  per day. In November,  were dispatched by air, of which  was gasoline. The Third Army complained about this. Gasoline was no longer in short supply; what was required was winter clothing and equipment. It was suspected that gasoline was being shipped simply because it was on hand and easy to handle. In December, air supply was called upon to support the 101st Airborne Division, which was cut off in Bastogne. Between 23 and 27 December, 850 sorties were flown to airdrop supplies, and 61 more were dispatched with gliders, one of which carried a surgical team. As was normal for this sort of operation, some supplies could not be recovered for various reasons, but the 101st Airborne Division considered it successful. An attempt to resupply cut off elements of the 3rd Armored Division was less successful; errors in map reading resulted in 23 of the 29 aircraft dispatched dropping their supplies behind enemy lines, and the rest were either diverted or shot down. A second attempt the following day was canceled due to bad weather.

Inland waterways
Inland water transport had not figured prominently in the Operation Overlord plan because it was felt that the benefit from rehabilitating the waterways would not be worth the effort involved. A policy was therefore laid down that waterways would be used only where the repairs required were minor and when there was a clear necessity for their use. In September such a need arose to restore inland waterways to supply coal to the Paris region in order to relieve pressure on the railways. In November an Inland Waterways Division was established in the Office of the Chief of Transportation. Four waterways were rehabilitated for military use: the Seine, Oise and Rhône rivers, and the Albert Canal.

The Oise was restored to supply coal to Paris from the coalfields around Valenciennes. Its rehabilitation was undertaken by the 1057th Port Construction and Repair Group, which repaired several locks and removed 34 obstructions, mostly demolished bridges. The Seine was rehabilitated to bring civil relief supplies to Paris from Rouen and Le Havre. It too was obstructed by sunken bridges and damaged locks. The biggest task was the repair of the locks of the Tancarville Canal, which had been built to allow barges from Le Havre to reach the Seine without having to negotiate the Seine estuary, where there were strong tidal currents. The 1055th Port Construction and Repair Group finished this work in March 1945.

Barge traffic on the Seine was obstructed by a pair of ponton bridges. They had to be opened to allow barges through, but this interrupted motor traffic. At Le Manoir there was a railway bridge built by the British that was too low to permit barge traffic. The bridge was raised in October, but then the river rose in November as the Seine flooded, reducing clearance below the minimum again. The river rose so high it was feared that the bridge would be washed away, and consideration was given to routing the trains hauling British supplies from Normandy via Paris instead. On 25 December the bridge was struck by a tugboat and put out of commission. It was then removed.

The Albert Canal had more direct military use, as it connected Antwerp with the depots around Liège. Its rehabilitation was undertaken jointly with the British, with the Americans responsible for the  section between Kwaadmechelen and Liège. This work was undertaken by the 1056th Port Construction and Repair Group, with assistance from the 332nd and 355th Engineer General Service Regiments and Belgian civilian contractors. Delays in clearing away obstructions in the Albert Canal, notably the demolished Yserburg Bridge at the entrance, caused the opening of the canal to be delayed from 15 to 28 December, by which time there was a backlog of 198 loaded barges. During the winter the canal froze, and sea mulestiny tugs normally used for towing bargesequipped with bulldozer blades were used as icebreakers. Barges eventually handled half the tonnage discharged at Antwerp. Between December 1944 and July 1945,  of Army cargo was carried by barge on the Albert Canal, and  on the French waterways.

Outcome
Although logistical difficulties constituted a brake on combat operations, they were not the only factors that brought the Allied advance to a halt. The American forces also had to contend with rugged terrain, worsening weather and, above all, stiffening German resistance. American forces were widely dispersed and, with the logistical situation preying on his mind, a cautious Hodges ordered his corps commanders to halt when they encountered strong resistance. Patton's intelligence officer, Colonel Oscar W. Koch, warned that the German Army had been defeated, but not routed, and was not on the brink of collapse. He forecast that fierce resistance and a last-ditch struggle could be expected.

As American forces confronted the defenses of the Siegfried Line, priority shifted from fuel to ammunition. The armies made little progress during the fighting in September and October. Although the logistical situation improved even before the opening of Antwerp, the effort to reach the Rhine in November was probably premature. Worsening weather and stubborn German resistance impeded the American advance as much as any logistical difficulties. The German recovery was sufficient to mount the Ardennes offensive in December. This placed immense strain on the American lines of communication, especially the newly opened port of Antwerp. By the new year though, the American transportation system was stronger and more robust than ever, and preparations were underway to support the final drive into the heart of Germany.

Notes

References

Western European Campaign (1944–1945)
Military logistics of the United States
Military logistics of World War II


HONG KONG 8th January 2014: For a year, volunteers collected and sorted waste found on one small beach facing Hong Kong Island by brand label. They picked up 2,872 plastic bottles from 150 brands. And the top 10 brands, all of which are popular locally, account for 55% of the bottles found.
VITA WATER is the brand that has the most bottles littering the beach surveyed with462 bottles counted. In second place is BONAQUA with 314 bottles found. In third place was COOL Water with 186 of identifiable bottles found. A full report is attached.
Jo recently won the prize for most creative entry in the SCMP/RTHK short story competition with her account of the life of the beach and the clean up effort. She hopes that this story can help educate and influence so that the problem of marine trash can be diminished. The story is attached to this release.
Designing Hong Kong is a not-for-profit organisation focused on improving the living environment and urban planning through interventions and creative actions.
For more information email debby@designinghongkong.com or call Debby Chan at 6011 7307 or 3104 3107.


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How to install an Order Slotting Process for Lean Manufacturing
Nancy Sarpolis - December 13, 2022
Managing supply chain operations over the past few years has been a lot like playing Whack-a-Mole. The minute one crisis or shortage eases, there's another to take its place: Toilet paper, bread flour, lumber, semiconductors, baby formula.
Behind each of these challenges were production planners who spent hours developing work-around plans with the sales, procurement, plant floor and shipping teams to keep operations running…only to have the situation change moments later with a backordered part or unexpected spike in demand. Planners stuck trying to manage the complexity with spreadsheets were probably wishing there was a better way.
There is. Industry 4.0 technologies such as Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) solutions can help planners build agile production schedules around supply chain constraints and customer demands to ensure that operations are as effective and efficient as possible.
APS uses a variety of interconnected modules to look at the relationship between sales and production (Order Slotting & Scheduling), plant capabilities (Detailed or Job Shop Scheduling), and the optimal pearl chain of orders to level production and to maximize efficiency (Sequencing).
In this blog post, we'll focus on the Order Slotting and Scheduling functions of APS.
How Order Slotting and Scheduling Works
As the name suggests, Order Slotting and Scheduling starts once an order is received from the sales team. A series of questions need to be answered before the product can be manufactured:
What materials, parts or other resources are needed to produce the product?
Are the materials available now or do they need to be ordered?
How long will it take to get materials that aren't in stock?
When does the customer need the product?
How long will it take to manufacture the product?
In a digitalized manufacturing environment, the APS solution allows the production planner to access real-time data showing the current inventory of raw materials, parts and other resources. An order slotting workflow takes a combination of real and forecasted production orders and takes into account the raw materials, parts, components and other resources needed to manufacture each product. The Order Slotting and Scheduling solution then compares total material needs to real-time information about parts availability and constraints, to help manage both the ordering of materials and inventory management in an optimal way. The system generates an optimized production plan that shows which material need to be where, when which order specific tasks will ovvur and should be produced, so all constraints of complex processes are taken into account.
As real orders come in and forecasted orders change, the new needs and BOMS are compared with the organization's existing stock and orders in a dynamic way, so parts shortages or disruptions caused by large, unexpected orders can be avoided.
The interface with production
Having real-time visibility into incoming sales orders can mean the difference between a production schedule that works—and one that needs to be reworked. That's the real advantage of APS solutions with order slotting and scheduling modules. These modules mediate real-time data between sales and production, ensuring that operations are cohesive and efficient across all departments.
Order Slotting & Scheduling takes into account current production conditions, such as capacities and restrictions, before assigning delivery dates. The solution alerts planners to potential bottlenecks and identifies alternative assembly lines, plants or production times within specified parameters. Orders are only transferred to the system if there is capacity. As a result, customer orders are distributed evenly and the assembly line is evenly utilized.
A key advantage of APS solutions is ability to provide visibility across the manufacturing network. Different departments have access to the same level of information at all times. This makes it easier to coordinate decisions in the event of rescheduling, and avoids duplication of effort in sales, logistics and production.
Planners who want to fully optimize the production planning process can gain even more efficiencies by pairing order slotting solutions with technologies that automate Job Shop Scheduling and Sequencing.
While no one can predict when supply chain disruptions will pop up, APS solutions provide planners with powerful solutions to tackle them head-on.
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