Following the chase across France, the Allies were faced with an increasingly difficult supply train. The famed Red Ball Express, consisting mostly of African-American drivers, operated nearly 6000 trucks and carried about 12,500 tons of supplies from the Normandy area to the front lines daily. Despite those heroic efforts, supply of ammunition and fuel was significantly constrained, and had to be apportioned here and there as circumstances dictated. 20,000 tons a day would have been needed to keep all the advancing divisions supplied. A significant contributor to this difficulty was the rapid advance itself. The Allies had thought that after the Operation Cobra breakout the Germans would retreat and form a defensive line along the Seine. When Hitler ordered the German VII Army to stand rather than retreat from Mortain, he essentially sealed their fate in
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