Tom from Cornwall wrote:Well, on regular trips to Kew I've slowly been finding a trove of logistic information from 21 Army Group, Second Army and First Cdn Army - vehicle numbers, tonnage delivered, tonnage plans, reserve vehicle landings, Corps holdings, Army roadhead ammunition, POL and Sups holdings, ammunition expenditure, etc, etc. I need to collate it all and try to get my head around what it all means (unfortunately that is low down in the priority list at the moment - too much else to get on with)
Sounds like you have been into the A&Q files? Yes, they are extensive and complete. We collected those for the Ardennes Campaign Simulation Database. I have run across the same for Normandy, so I suspect they are more or less complete.
My hope was that there are similar details from the US perspective. I've found some of the SHAEF files you mentioned at Kew, and am slowly working my way through them. But I would be interested to see daily supply holdings (and expenditures) for the various US Corps through September 44.
There are similar, generally monthly reports for First Army and then 12th Army Group (U.S. Corps do not regularly maintain logistical records since a corps function was considered tactical rather than administrative). It gets complicated by the overlap with ADSEC/COMZ, but they also have extensive historical reports from those logistical headquarters perspective, which you might find useful. Unfortunately my NARA references are mostly packed and I wouldn't know how they translate to the microfilm anyway (the same problem applies for finding 21st AG microfilm at NARA).
I'll have to check, thanks for the suggestion.
Cheers!
As for:
No, but they produced a summary of over 12 months activity, my real interest is for a short period but in greater detail.
Um that summary is for the situation as of the beginning of September, which is what I thought you wanted? You may be more interested in the General Board report "Logistic Operations in Fast-Moving Circumstances", which addresses the issues specifically. Aside from transport shortages, by 1 September they had only managed to unload about two-thirds of planned supplies and the mix of supplies had become horribly muddled - too many brooms and not enough fuel (except in June-July when it was too many brooms and too much gas and not enough fuel, so they cut back fuel...just about the time it became critical).
Cheers!