D -Day and the RED BULL EXPRESS
Today is the 61 st Anniversary of the Historic D-Day Landings of World War Two.Take a minute to say a prayer for all those soldiers who gave their lives in the pursuit of freedom.Without this heroic action on the beaches of Normandy most of us and our children and grandchildren would not be alive today .D-Day was the greatest Invasion in History and sounded the death knell of the Third Reich and the fall of the tyranny that had gripped Europe for five years.
200,000 troops formed a bridgehead at the end of that day ...6th June 1944 and began the tortuous trip across France to liberate Europe.
You may ask what has this to do with Motoring well everything in fact !
The RED BULL Express was the name given to the supply transport line who kept the troops and Armour supplied with fuel and food,without which the Invasion would have ground to a halt.
Incredibly there were 12,000 vehicles who made up the Express and they ferried their precious supplies to the front line on an almost 24 hour a day shift .Imagine the petrol being carried in only five gallon cans and you have an idea of the enormity of the task.
General George Patton was not a man to stand still and his push rarely came to a halt as a result of the efforts of "the RED BULL" In the five months to November 1944 an amazing 500,000 tons of supplies were carried to the advancing Armiesin the push towards Germany .
Since the drivers were working to exhaustion round the clock the accidents invoving the supply trucks escalated alarmingly but were constantly replenished with fresh crews .
I gues it would be fair to say that this was the longest traffic jam in the world and the greatest achievement of a motorised column in History !
"My Men can eat their belts...but My Tanks gotta have Gas ! ! ! " General George Patton 1944
So in summary we have a good deal to be grateful for and the fact that we are all driving around in our fancy cars today can be traced back th this day in 1944.
"Never in the field of Human Conflict has so much been owed by so many ,to so few !"
Sir Winston Churchill
Article by Robin .C. Piggott Author of Arrive Alive ,the Blog of Astral School of Motoring ,
Limerick .Ireland. http://www.astralmotoring.ie dedicated to helping new Drivers to achieve their goals and learn skills for life on the Road.
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