Maksim's On-Line Museum

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  • Home
  • North America
    • U.S. Capitol Flag
    • Coal Mine Scrip
    • Woodstock Ticket
    • Cable Car Cable
    • Pitch Pine Torch
    • Alcatraz Concrete
    • Ringling Bros. Staff Pin
    • Montgomery Bus Token
    • WTC Ticket
    • KKK Membership Card
    • Archaic Arrowhead
    • Prohibition Prescription
    • Smokey Bear Pinbacks
    • Gold Rush Nuggets
    • Edison Disc Record
    • Hoover Dam Cable
    • Jack Dempsey
    • Cal Ripken, Jr.
    • Bre Pettis
    • Steve Wozniak
    • Robert Ballard
    • Glenn Miller
    • El Cazador Shipwreck Coin
    • Panama Canal Matches
  • Political
    • Iranian Hostage Crisis
    • Watergate Scandal
    • White House Easter Egg
    • Eisenhower Rally Ticket
    • CCC Scrip Tickets
    • Condoleezza Rice
    • Gail Halvorsen
    • Berlin Wall
  • Military
    • Stalag POW ID Tag
    • Disney WWII Insignia
    • D-Day Barbed Wire
    • OPA Ration Tokens
    • WWII Polish Home Army Badge
    • Ships for Victory Pin
    • Crimean War Button
    • Korean War Safe Conduct Pass
    • USO Record Home
    • Vietnam War Mess Token
    • Kamikaze Recognition Slide
    • Kilroy Was Here
    • WWII Monopoly Pieces
    • Red Cross Thimble
    • Pearl Harbor Tool Tag
    • U-boat Badge
    • Red Ball Express Patch
    • Allied Military Currency
    • William McRaven
    • Fred Sutherland
    • Woody Williams
    • Harry Ettlinger
    • Richard Cole
    • Charles McGee
    • George Sakato
    • Chester Nez
    • Don Walsh
    • Joe Kittinger
    • Trinitite
    • Revolutionary War Cannonball
    • Antietam Bullets
  • Aeronautics and space
    • Chuck Yeager
    • Catherine Coleman
    • Soyuz Heat Shield
    • Crawlerway Rock
    • Shuttle Challenger AFRSI
    • Bernice Haydu
    • Edgar Mitchell
  • Automotive
    • Model T Radiator Cap
  • African
    • Anti-Apartheid Pin
    • Maersk Alabama Hijacking
    • Okpoho Manilla
  • Natural
    • Organ Cave
    • Woolly Mammoth Hair
    • Shiva Lingam Stone
    • Mount St. Helens Ash
    • Mosasaurus Tooth
    • Knightia Fish Fossil
    • Megalodon Shark Tooth
  • European
    • Viking Fibula Brooch
    • Olympic Clay Pigeon
    • Chernobyl Liquidator Badge
    • Titanic Coal
  • Asia
    • Great Wall Of China
    • Sikhote-Alin Meteorite
    • Petrified Wood
    • Commemorative Coins
    • Greenbrier Bunker Key
    • World Stamps
    • Russia
  • Feedback

Red Ball Express Patch

Picture

The Red Ball Express was a truck convoy system that was used during World War II to transport supplies quickly though Europe after the D-Day landings in Normandy, France to the front-line troops.  Trucks marked with red balls followed a marked route that was closed to normal traffic.  The phrase “Red Ball Express” was adopted from an earlier usage of the phrase by the Santa Fe Railway, which used it for their express shipping service of priority freight and perishable items.
​

To support the divisions fighting near the front, two routes were designated between Cherbourg and a forward logistics base located at Chartres.  One route was used for delivering supplies, and the second route used by empty returning trucks.  Convoys of up to five trucks were sent at a time, escorted by jeeps both in front and behind.  At the peak of the operation, the Red Ball Express operated 5,958 vehicles, and transported up to 12,500 tons of supplies each day. 

The Red Ball Express was staffed primarily with African-American soldiers as drivers.  While there was concern of aerial attack of the convoys by the German Luftwaffe, the major problem the Express faced was maintenance of vehicles, finding enough drivers, and allowing downtime for the overworked drivers to get some sleep.

The item in my collection is an original shoulder patch which was worn by the soldier drivers during the delivering of supplies to the front.
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