British Light Infantry in the Napoleonic Period

I always had a facination with British light infantry in the Napoleonic period. Bernard Cornwell´s Sharpe books and even more so the TV series which I did come across way before the books really sold the idea to me about the novelty of the elite rifle armed infantry man although it has only been later I got a more nuanced view.

 

Early Experiences

The idea of light infantry was not new to the British army prior to the Napoleonic Wars but it was not as firmly established. Experinces in North America during the Seven Year War demonstrated the need for light infantry especially in the heavily wooded or wild nature that the continent offered. This made recon and skirmishing more important. Light infantry at the time was however often recruited from irregulars or militia, some argued that to become light infantry recruits needed only instructions in simple orders and ability to fire weapons and could be trained much faster than line infantry which much of the training was spent with imbuing the vigourous discipline required for close formation fighting. It was therefore with quite some mistust that light infantry was accepted and after the war most units were disbanded. Similar experiences were gained by the Austro-hungarians using irregulars in Balkan. During the American War of Independence light infantry again proved its worth but this time British commanders resisted claiming that if transferred to European battlefields the light and dispersed formations would simply be overrun by the more numerous cavalry.

 

Uses of Light Infantry

Infantry formations of the day consisted of heavy infantry and were usually slow and cumbersome formations to move around. To maximise firepower infantry had to be deployed in lines 2-3 deep however to move around the battlefield they needed to deploy into collumns and this could take time. During this time the infantry could be exposed to harassing fire which would wear down morale so to screen them light infantry could be pushed out in front of the line infantry in a loose formation to harass the enemy or protect own troops until they were information.

Other roles of light infantry was to act as scouts when the army was on the move and pickets when encamped to give early warning of enemy movements.

British riflemen in “rifle green” pushed out ahead of the main line of red coats

These roles had previously been held by dragoon regiments in previous centuries where the dragoons fought as dismounted infantry but had horses for scouting and fast redeployment around the battlefield but there had been a drive towards decreasing the number of dragoons as it was a costly unit to maintain in peace time and amalgate dragoon units into heavy shock cavalry while giving infantry regiments and integral scouting/light infantry capability. In 1770 the British army reorganized the battalion to consist of 10 companies of which 1 was named light company and the other grenadier. Often both light and grenadier company were trained in light infantry scouting and skirmishing and this deployed on the wings of the formation hencing giving rise to the name wing companies (and often uniforms had a “wing” on the shoulder either left or right depending on whether light or grenadier). However if part of a larger force light companies were often detached from the main unit to form a detachment of detachments to give the army light infantry capacity if needed but that also means battalions were often without their own light company. Futhermore light company training was often inconsistent and often used as a training unit for new officers hence the officer would move out of the company just has he started to get experience meaning that little of the experience was retained.

Redcoat from a wing company, note the shoulder wing

 

British Experiences

Following the American War of Independence there had been a steady decline in light unit experiences and tactics because of afore mentioned reasons and a somewhat ambivalent view towards light infantry as being specialist yet due to their militia origins unsteady in battle. This conservatism led to it being mostly forgotten however in 1795 Britain attempted to intervene in the French revolution which led to an expeditionary force being sent to Fladers where they met the new armies of Revolutionary France. Following the revolution in France much of the former nobility had been removed from the army and the army was largely a conscripted mass army hastily trained. It therefore relied on much different tactics compared to the smaller more highly trained British army. The French army would rely on a much higher proportion of skirmishers or light infantry (up to 25% of the total unit) which would be spread out in front of the unit. This higher number of skirmishers would drive away the enemy skirmishers and then proceed to harass the enemy while the remainder of the French infantry came on in a collumn. If the artillery and skirmishers had already shaken the enemy the collumn would move straight into the attack otherwise it would at the last minute deploy into line covered by the skirmishers to deliver volley fire before going in. Following the defeat of the British army in Flanders revisions had to be made.

 

The Duke of York

Frederick Augustus, Duke of York, served as a commander in the Flanders campaign and later as the commander-in-chief of the British army and he took many of the lessons in from that campaign. One of the things he wanted to change was the addition of a specialist light infantry unit armed with rifles which would act as a counter to the French light infantry however he met with a lot of resistance in Horse Guards (GHQ) so the had to take a different approach. As the Duke of York he was the honourary commander of the 60th regiment of foot the Royal Americans and went the unit was expanded with a 5th battalion in 1797 he got his way and got them rifle armed as an experiment. It was under the impression that the unit would serve in the Americas and thus this exception was acceptable but in the end it did end up in Europe in the end. What is more interesting is that the unit recruited generally from German origin. The British light troops had shown in the Flanders campaign to be inadequate and thus it was decided to adopt forreign light troops into the army and Hompesch light infantry was consituted as 5/60th. The reason Hompesch came into British service was that it took part in the failed Kosciuszko Uprising, following the defeat it had emigrated to Hanover and thus found itself allied to the British and brought with them valuable insight. This proved very succesful and 2 additional battalions were raised, the way for full units of light troops were cleared.

 

Other Light Infantry Units

Good experience with rifles let to the formation of the Experimental Rifle Corps in 1800 with volunteers drafted from other regiments in the UK to form a detachment of detachments for trials with rifle and light infantry tactics. This experimental unit proved itself at first Battle fo Copenhagen 1801 and was eventually constituted as the 95th Regiment of Foot (Rifles).

Other work was ongoing by general sir John Moore who was a great proponant of light infantry. Moore volunteered his own 52nd regiment to be retrained as light infantry as he believed that the British army was too small to contain both light and line infantry so to be able to act in both roles. Moore had a radical new vision, instead of viewing soldiers as mechnical instruments of war to march, aim and fire in unison Moore wanted his men to be able to act on initiative and think for themselves. This was radical in a time where people were revolting against the established classes and some conservatists would have loved to shut his project down. But the light infantry concept went on to prove itself.

 

The Light Division

The light division was created in 1803 by forming the first three battalions together 43rd, 52nd and the 95th rifles all trained as light infantry prior. More regiments would be converted but these were the first.

At the time it was not known as the Light Division but as the Corps of Light Infantry and was camped at Shorncliffe for training. Based on Moore’s vision it was tried to get the light units armed with rifles and set apart by special uniforms to create a strong esprit de corps but only the already rifle armed 95th were allowed to wear green uniforms, the rest had to stay with the scarlet in keeping with the light company traditions. The light division acquitted itself well first at the Siege of Copenhagen in 1807 especially the Battle at Køge and went on to serve in the Peninsula War. Unfortunately not always in a light infantry role, as it was trained to perform both light and line infantry roles, the light division was often used as an elite formation and thrown into the breaches in storming of Ciduad Rodrigo and Badajoz.

 

Equipment

The Baker Rifle

While some light infantry still used the much cheaper musket and as such was forced much closer to enemy in order to have any chance of hitting (engagements were fought down to maybe 50 meters between skirmishers). However even for light infantry armed with muskets there was a general trend to be equipped with shorter versions on the musket to lighten the infantry man to allow him to move more easily.

It is the Baker Rifle that really set the light infantry apart. By applying rifling the bullet would spin about a quarter turn in the rifled groove in the barrel and thus come out with a spin and be much more accurate and could hit individual targets at up to maybe 200 meters. The problem was that for the bullet to grip the groove it needed to be a tight fit and thus slowed loading significantly. The rate of fire of a Baker Rifle compared to the musket was maybe half meaning that volley fire was much less effective but this was outweighted by accurate and the ability to produce well aimed fire.

A number of techniques were developed for more accurate fire. First of all to avoid confusion men were to always fire around the right side of obstacles. Secondly, the strap on the rifle was often used for steadying when firing, it could be wrapped tightly around the arm and the ramrod could be supported against the belt and used as a mono-pod.

As the muskets were shorter and the Baker rifle was particularly short in a period where reach with bayonets were deemed all important for close engagements, bayonets issued were generally longer to compensate for the shorter weapon. The bayonet issued for the Baker rifle was very long and could be used both as a fighting knife and as a bayonet and resembled a sword thus bayonets in the rifle regiment was affectionally refered to as swords.

Re-enactors showing off their light infantry equipment

To further lighten the troops and make them excel in the type of light combat uniforms were generally shorter tailed jackets and equipment was of lighter variants. Drums were replaced by bugles as these were easier to carry and orders were more easily relayed over distance. The Bugle therefore became the symbol of light infantry and is to this day carried as cap badges. Because of their ligher nature the faster marching pace was faster 140 paces per minute compared to line infantry 120 paces per minute.

Another interesting feature was that officers to be stylish were some of the early adopters of curved sabres in the British infantry over the straight spadroons.

 

Basic Tactics

In theory there were two basic formations when skirmishing: “open order” and “extended order”. Both of them deployed in two lines about two paces apart. the distance in the ranks were 2 paces in open and 6 paces in extended but these would vary depending on terrain and natural cover. The idea behind the two lines was to have the men work in pairs. The front rank would fire and then either the rear rank would move through to take up firing positions or the front rank would fall back through the second rank and reload. In this way there was always one of the two loaded at any given time and the two could then in turns cover each other. This required a lot of individual initative and skill and was something that was very sought after in training and which made the light infantry unique.

As skirmishers are naturally stretched out they are vulnerable to sudden attacks by either cavalry or line infantry in more compact formations. Thus a quarter of the troops would be held back in a more compact double line formation50 meters behind the skrimish line to act as a reserve as well an anchoring point for men to fall back and rally on in case they were forced back. When faced with cavalry it could form a small square which the cavalry would find hard to attack while more conventional line infantry could come up from behind for support. It was feared a general retreat by dispersed units easily could turn into a rout if they had no anchoring points.

Another formation that was developed Chain which was a bit of a mixed formation as it had the reserve as usual about 50 meters back but combined two pairs of rifle men to have 1 man forward and 3 in the second line and then the men rotating one at a time to give fire. Each set of three were known as a link in the chain hence the name.

KNIL Museum in Bronbeek

The beautiful building seen in the above picture houses quite a hidden gem. It is located in Bronbeek in the outskirts of Arnhem and while the city is way more famous for “a Bridge Too Far”, the museum tells a very different story. It is the story about the Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger or KNIL.

KNIL means Royal Netherlands East Indies Army and was active in the period 1819-1950. It was formed as a body guard for the governor-general of Dutch East India in the interregium period following the Napoleonic War and took part in many conflicts around the worlrd but in particular in the Far East.

KNIL was until 1830 Part of the Dutch army but unlike the army also included locally recruited troops from the East Indies. At that time the formation was staffed by 603 European officers, 37 native officers and 5699 European and 7206 native NCOs which sounds like a high number of natives holding command to my ears (I could be wrong) but it could be due to lack of personel in general (volunteers), as it also excepted forreign European volunteers. In time of war mobilization of further troops from local militias could boost the strength of 22000 personel in the Far East.

In 1890 the Colonial Reserve was established in the Netherlands to recruit and train volunteers as it was prohibited by law to send conscripts overseas. While a recruiting platform a much more interesting role for the period performed also by the Colonial Reserve the re-integration of volunteers at the end of their overseas service. This have created a much stronger community and one that the KNIL musem in Bronbeek also benefits from. While partly acting as a museum it also serves as a retirement home and many of the items at the museum had been donated by returning veterans or family members.

The span of the KNIL I would personally divide into 4 parts: Expansion, Policing, WWII and Revolution.

Expansion

The first 80 years or so went with expanding the Dutch influence over Indonisia. Three major wars were found in this period along with a number of minor actions and policing.

Padri War 1821-1845 fought in West Sumatra against Padris, Muslim clerics who wanted their own sharia state in West Sumatra who had risen against the local nobility and chiefs in 1803, the latter asked for Dutch support in 1821 to end hostilities. After minor skirmishes in the early years of the intervention the Ducth turned their attention to a much larger uprising, the Java War 1825-1830 as a rebellion led by a local prince fought over a series of issues and general discontent with the local nobility feeling the Dutch were abusing their rights.

Dutch indecision led early rebel success and they quickly took control of central Java. The Dutch dispatched troops from other islands and even the Netherlands and the war got drawn out as a fierce guerilla war and did not end until the prince was betrayed and tricked into captivity. Due to the large number of Dutch casualties it was decided to recruit black African soldiers from the Gold Coast as an emergency meassure as a reponse to the loss of thousand of European soldiers and a larger but unaccounted ”native” troops. Some 3000 black Africans served until 1872 when the Gold Coast possessions were given to the British and recruitment became inposslble. Interestingly enough with the good experiences with black troops further recruiting attempted of blacks were done, in the 1876-1879 among American blacks and in 1890 in Liberia with minor success.

Aceh War 1873-1904. Aceh had been an Ottoman protectorate since the 16^th century but by the 1820s it had become the leading world supplier of pepper and was thus disputed by European powers. But the wealth accumulated from the trade also led to an expansion with clashed with Dutch interests in the area and the Dutch attempted to seize victory quickly with an attack in 1873 but it failed, the second offensive was struck down by a cholera epedemic and the war settled down for a containment strategy relying on forts to defend their gains around the capital and relying on a naval blockage hoping that the rest of the country would give in. By 1880 the Dutch declared the war for over however resistance remained.

Policing

In 1904 Indonesia considered pacified after the Aceh War. To cut costs associated with sending over recruits from Europe, conscription for European descent males were introduced in the colonies in 1917 and in 1922 a home guard force consisting of males over 32 were introduced. As it was mainly a policing force the poweress and equipment of the formation was always second rate and was surpassed by evolutions on the battlefields around the world. While the Dutch made observations on WWI, the country managed to stay neutral and thus many of the lessons were never fully analyzed or implemented and the KNIL fell completely behind.

WWII and Beyond

KNIL was unable to keep up with requirements of the modern battlefield and by the time WWII struck completely inadequately equipped. Especially when Germany occupied the Netherlands the support from the home country was cut off. The units that did try to resist the Japanese advances were quickly swept aside. The regular forces numbered some 35,000 of which 28,000 were indigenous troops assisted by some 50,000 militia and civilian volunteers. After the defeats some indigenous troops took to guerilla war against the Japanese but these did so totally unassisted and unrecognised by the Allies. Other units escaped to Australia where many of the indigenous troops were interned as it was feared they could have sympathies for the Japanese. KNIL did contribute to some actions in 1944-45 after having been regrouping in Australia and KNIL also contributed 4 squadrons under the Royal Australian Air Force.

Following WWII the Dutch control over Indonesia was broken and in 1947-1949 two attempts at the time called “Policing Actions” were made to try to regain control. These however failed and Indonesian independence was recognised in December 1949. The KNIL took part in this and as the force was recruited predominately from a few local groups in particular Ambonese, this led to tensions between ethic groups and KNIL was involved in an aborted coup attempt in 1950 leading to the disbandment of KNIL.

Status and Forward Plan for the Blog – Q4 2016

I am happy to see the number of readers is starting to rise 10 months after launch. The number of subscribers is still low but I really appreciate any subscriber or reader coming back here for more.

I really feel my blog should be used as a way to get a peak into the exciting world of military history. Although I can hardly provide more than a sneak peak in these blog posts. History is often far more complex and I strongly recommend that you go and read up on any topic you find particularly interesting. Although I take my time trying to pick and research specialist topics I can merely scratch the surface but I really try to pick out topics that has either impressed me or similarly caught my imagination or interest and are little known in general.

I have never thought my most popular post to date would be a review of the Estonian historical movie “1944 – Forced to Fight” closely followed by a visit to the Seoul City Wall Museum. Both of these are rather specialist topics but that proves to me that there is a niche for a blog like mine and gives me motivation to carry on writing blog posts. And where have we been so far, see the map for all the very different places the blog has gone so far.

 

Forward Plans for 2016

Times are not good to me and I do not have the time to do all the research I would like to prior to posting each blog post. I am as previously mentioned a petroleum engineer and with the current downturn in the industry and lay offs there are fewer people to do the same work. This means less time for reading unfortunately but I will keep trying to provide quality content each Monday. Monday will be the update day when I post a new blog post. The weekly post’s length and thoroughness will be dictated by the amount of time I have had to throw at it during the week but stay tuned for more exciting stuff.

I will setup an email for suggestions and comments to the direction of the blog: Djinovic @ hotmail . com. I will try to check it weekly and get back to you. In the meantime please hit the subscribe button or use the like buttons if you find posts particularly interesting. That should help me focus my work in the directions you like.

 

Happy reading and hope to hear from you!

Zubarah Fort in Qatar

When Flames of War moved into Early War in third edition I always felt it was a bit of a wack format with all kind of special rules and weird lists and units. I have always kind of struggled in coming to grips with what I feel is a rock, paper, scissor system, on one hand are heavy tank lists impervious to most anti-tank fire and so would beat tanks but on the other hand has the “No HE” special rule which means they are unable to engage guns and infantry and unable to include much support to make an all-around list. Other strange lists were the introduction of fortified lists and strange new concept such as armoured trains and desert forts.

When I first looked at the desert fort, I thought why put that in the game and how would that be able to hold out against a modern army with modern weapons, it looked centuries too old and out of place. It was not until I arrived in Arabia, on the Qatar peninsula in 2013 that I truly got to appreciate the value of these forts. Of course I had heard about the battle at Bir Hacheim but I thought very little of the fort and more of the trenches and dug outs.

 

Al Zubarah

Qatar has a long and turbulent history as many different people and nations have had interest in controlling trade in the region in particular trading and harvesting of pearls in the waters around the peninsula. Trade overland in the desert environment was difficult and coast towns and sea transport played a more important role. It was therefore the sea that tied areas together more than land and thus Bahrain to the West claimed some dominion over the west coast of the peninsula. But tension between the tribes mounted leading to the Qatari-Bahraini War of 1867-1868 in which the Bahraini were expelled from the Qatari peninsula.

In the years that followed Qatar came under both Ottoman and British protectorate but the different tribes of the West coast especially the Naim still had ties to Bahrain and it was feared they Bahraini could return. In 1937 a conflict broke out between the Qatari and Naim in the area and town of Al Zubarah. This led to the subsequent building of the Zubarah fort in 1938 as a way to police the area. There had previously been a fort in the area but this was a way to economize man power.

Zubarah had a troubled history already. There had been settlements in the area for a long time but in 1627-1628 a Portuguese naval squadron attacked many of the neighbouring villages (probably as a punitive measure for piracy) which meant much of the population were displaced. In 1766 a town was established by pearl traders from Kuwait however Qatari documents often refer to the earlier settlements as a way to claim leverage over Bahrain in the dispute for the area. The founding of Al Zubarah interestingly enough coincide with the Dutch East India Trading Company’s decision to leave the Gulf. In the 1760s the town was fortified following raids from Al Qawasim tribe located in modern day United Arab Emirates. Al Qawasim was a major regional sea and trading power until their defeat by the British in 1819, and the attack should probably be seen as a way to enforce customs right in the trading port. Trade boomed in the 1780-90s as did the competition over this important trading centre. During this period another important trading comodity came into the trade, the trading in books and religions texts and the town also became known as a centre of learning. In 1783 the Persians attempted an invasion but failed. In 1795 the Saudis attacked and controlled the town, in1799 the Omanis tried an attack and in 1810 the Saudis managed to seize control back but the following year the Omanis were back and burned the town. It was not resettled into the 1850s. It is around this time that the naim tribe which had resettled the area agreed to become subjects of Bahrain possibly for protection but in 1873 the Ottomans begin encroaching on the area. Still while under some loose overall Ottoman control tribes were indepedently able to move against each other as a way secure more power within the Ottoman control and help would be sought both from Ottomans and outside powers if needed. In 1878 a military intervention (with British aid) was conducted by the Qataris to put down piracy conducted from the port (and expand their powr base in their conflict with Bahrain by gaining control over the area). This intervention caused a forced resettlement of many of the inhabitants. The Qataris planned to rebuild Zubarah in the 1880s and use it as a staging ground for a sea born invasion of Bahrain but the British vetoed it. The town was gradually resettled in 1895 and as it grow the fort because a necessity. In the end fresh water supplies were dwindling compared to population so the town of Zubarah was gradually abandoned forwards the end of the 20th century as oil because more important.

As a curiosity if visiting the fort there is a excavation site that looks into the thousands of years of history of the town of Zubarah.

The fort itself is a square of limestone and coral stone walls held together by mortar. The walls are up to 1 m thick with a outdoor staircase from the court yard connecting to the top of the walls. The inner court yard is open but mud stamped roofs which also serves firing posts on the walls provide amble shade which is important in this climate.

The fort are built in limestone and compressed mud. it is not something that would over-awe anybody with experience from European battlefields from for instance WWI and the subsequent building for forts. But I believe the main thing is enough is enough, for a small country with limited resources these desert forts made sense, it was mainly about policing and fend off raids, not full scale invasions.

Saints and Soldiers – The Void – Historical Comments

Another straight to DVD movie with a dubious timing for release made this look like a cheap and cheesy exploitation of the release of the block buster Fury and it probably was related. In a way I find it amusing but also sad that most block buster movies will create a storm of B movies trying to capitalize on the type that they stir up.

When the WWII tank movie “Fury” came out another tank B movie was released called “Ardennes Fury” clearly intend to simply make money off the hype of WWII tanks and when I saw the trailer of “Saints and Soldiers – The Void”, I thought it was exactly the same was the case with this movie except they would be driving M18 tank destroyers instead of M4 Sherman tanks but for the rest of it being cliche with the addition of the racial implications and prejudices of a segregated US army.

It really suffers from many of the cliches surrounding war movies, the white guy, who refuses to take orders from black ranking guy but ending up acknowledging and praising him. But it seems like he is a one off kind of guy which seems really wrong considering the mentality of 1940s USA. The addition of a British officer into the mix seems a bit forced but acts as a device for asking all the questions for the viewer about a segregated America but it does seem odd. His lust for vengeance against the German officer is never truly developed and thus seems like a hopeless side plot that was cut short by editing and pointless. And of course the radios fail to leave them on their own and this is where I feel the budget does hurt the movie. The Void is an interesting concept, it is not fictional at all, the US forces did advance rapidly into Germany along the main roads which led enemy units trapped in the rear and would have to be cleaned out, but the whole we cannot get reinforcements right now and leave the heroes on their own feel like cheap tricks to avoid escalating the battle and thus the budget.

I do not think the movie itself was anything special but I do think it is worth watching but do not expect something mind blowing however I like that the movie touches upon a number of topics even though it never dare go into details. To the casual viewer many of these things may appear odd or are completely missed but I thought it was fun to comment on from a historical point of view.

 

—————- SPOILER ALERT ————–

These are some of the things that made it into the movie that I really found noteworthy.

The main protagonist is a black sergeant from an African-American tank destroyer battalion, the 827th. It was activated in 1942 but did not see action until end of 1944 where its combat record was stained by disciplinary problems which led to the unit being split up and their tank destroyers handed out as replacements to other units.

In the movie it is handed over to a white anti-tank unit which had not previously been mechanized and handed tank destroyers but instead used to man anti-tank guns. This is very much likely although I cannot comment on the M18 of the 827th battalion specifically. The US tank destroyer doctrine did see the tank destroyer arm armed mainly with anti-tank guns in the beginning of the war where they would move out to counter enemy armoured spearheads and set up ambushes. It was however found that a towed anti-tank gun was much slower and more impractical to set up and during the war many units were upgraded with mechanised tank destroyers. The M10/M18/M36 tank destroyers were fully mechanized and built for speed rather than being armoured. They were meant to use their speed to deploy into an ambush and evade enemy return fire. This would however require picking the best positions and thus sending the two M18s forward alone without any recon or infantry seems a bit of cheap plot writing. this would mean that they would have ditched their normal integral support units as well as having them act as tanks. While tank destroyers operating as tanks was common as the number of German tanks were dvindling during the war the plot could happen but to clean out territory between main roads would still require infantry especially knowing they are going into the void where a single enemy soldier with a panzerfaust could do some serious damage. Furthermore the inability to recall the general using radios is just plain silly, I am pretty sure the general’s jeep would be equipped with a radio and thus having discovered the enemy ambush would simply have called him back. It feels like an excuse to drive the plot.

I really like how in this movie not every German tank is a Tiger tank. The enemy tanks in this movie are actually Panzer IIIs, by this point in time outdated and withdrawn from frontline duty and religated to training vehicles but in the last days of the Thrid Reich many of these were brought out of the schools to form ad-hoc units. This is underpinned by the main antagonist is a retired panzer teacher. This sits very well with the story that many of these schools would march off to battle with whether was left of training vehicles.

Our hero having found the 827th effectively disbanded have been reassigned. This seems unlikely but the plot has him moved to the supply troops of Red Ball Express to underline the importance of black troops in winning the war in a less glamourous role of driving supplies.

As the allies advanced away from the beaches in Normandy their supply lines became long and strained. Every bullet, boot, shell, meal and spare part and fuel had to be trucked across France and forward to the troops in Germany. The railroad networks in France had been crippled by bombing to deny it to the Germans but it also means that supplies had to be trucked. The solution because known as the Red Ball Express which operated some 6000 trucks along roads closed for other traffic one going to and one going from the beaches. Logistics and supply were major challenges facing allied forces during the war, a division easily used 750 tonnes of supplies per day, with 28 divisions deployed in 1944 the offensives would have grinded to a halt from the lack of supplies. The Red Ball Express delivered some 12500 tonnes of supplies per day alone and while even this effort was not enough to meet the demands of a hungry warmachine, it definately helped. Some 75% of the drivers were African-Americans.

When getting into an argument, Owens defends the position and use of black soldiers refering to his father as one of the black soldiers serving in WWI but due to racial injustice was never recognised for their services by the US. The story he mentions is someewhat linked to that of the decorated veteran Eugene Bullard who served in the French army as an American volunteer in WWI from 1914. When the US entered the war in 1917, Eugene asked for transfer to the US forces but was turned down by the US medical board for being black and thus unfit for a combat role. Owens story does however depart from that with the death of his father by a lynch mob something which is generally forgotten today, but in 1918 when returning black soldiers demanded more civil rights some of them were lynched, a total of 49 blacks were lynched that year, 10 of them known to be WWI veterans.

So all these small details are all brimming with history and I think that helps raising this movie out of a generic low budget war movie to actually taking on a style of its own, it is the kind of details that I really enjoy and that makes me appreciate the movie even if they forgot about the backblast of a panzerfaust should probably have injured the firer in the last combat scene but they do joke with it at the end.