[Stig Jarlevik]

Our friend Geoffrey Sinclair adds the following regarding Allied supply situation at Antwerp,
plus a little more

https://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html
Does not report clogging with sunk or damaged ships but does say "the planned discharge rate was less than 25 percent of Antwerp's actual discharge capacity." Antwerp had 242 berths, the allies did not have that many ships plus used other ports. Rouen was opened as a US Army port with 15 liberty and 26 coaster berths, mainly intended for bulk POL.

The US Army take on the supply situation and Antwerp.

US Army cargo landed by month by port, excluding vehicles and bulk POL in long tons, June 1944 to April 1945.
June, Antwerp 0 tons, US Army all ports/beaches total, 291,333 tons.
July, Antwerp 0 tons, US Army all ports/beaches total, 621,322 tons.
August, Antwerp 0 tons, US Army all ports/beaches total, 1,112,771 tons.
September, Antwerp 0 tons, US Army all ports/beaches total, 1,210,290 tons.
October, Antwerp 0 tons, US Army all ports/beaches total, 1,309,184 tons.
November, Antwerp 5,873 tons, US Army all ports/beaches total, 1,402,080 tons.
December, Antwerp 427,592 tons, US Army all ports total, 1,555,819 tons.
January, Antwerp 433,094 tons, US Army all ports total, 1,501,269 tons.
February, Antwerp 473,463 tons, US Army all ports total, 1,735,502 tons.
March, Antwerp 558,066 tons, US Army all ports total, 2,039,778 tons.
April, Antwerp 628,227 tons, US Army all ports total, 2,025,142 tons.

Omaha 1,264,999 tons, Utah 726,014 tons, Cherbourg 2,654,298 tons, Minor Normandy Ports including Granville 600,884 tons, Brittany ports 253,837 tons, Le Havre 1,128,554 tons, Rouen 1,126,500 tons, Antwerp 2,526,315 tons, Ghent 535,252 tons, South France 3,988,837 tons, Total 14,804,490 tons.

On 17th August to give an idea of the US Army shipping backlog a ship, presumably loaded with medical supplies, arrives in Europe on this day, it finally begins unloading on 10th December.

On 31st August Some 76 ocean going ships have discharged their cargoes in August, and there are 207 ships in Europe, though some of these are awaiting a convoy to return with. During August the US dispatches 178 cargo ships to Europe, up from 133 in April, even though the War Department is becoming alarmed at the apparent desire for the theater to have 100 to 150 ships as floating reserves. There are some 230 ships assigned to the theatre, including those en route. Until the end of August ships are selectively unloaded, leaving many in a partially loaded state as effectively floating magazines. Washington strongly objects to the build up of shipping and as a result some of the partially unloaded ships are returned to the US. For example the 35,000 tons of pierced steel planking and associated airfield construction materials in 21 ships that was sent to Europe, not unloaded, returned to the US and sent back to Europe on the next sailing.

On 4th September (D+90) first train beyond Paris. Allied armies are on the D+330 lines. In the US case this means supporting 33% more divisions than the plans expected to cross the Seine on D+120 in an area not expected to be captured until May 1945, over 450 mile supply lines using motor transport, when the amount of such transport was predicted to be inadequate for the original plan. Antwerp is captured, the port has berths for 242 ships, not all will be brought back into service. The front line halts in what are effectively the northern suburbs of Antwerp.

On 22nd September some of the merchant ships waiting off northern France are sent to Marseilles.

During September the English Channel is reopened for through traffic, ships can now make English east coast ports as quickly as the west coast ones, and enabling return voyages south of Ireland, shortening the voyage.

At the end of September there are now around 280 merchant ships assigned to the theatre, around 160 waiting their turn to unload. Amongst the items not shipped or landed through the lack of unloading capacity are replacement vehicles.

In early October, in view of the large backlog of unloaded ships in theatre, sailings from the US for the next three months would be programmed on the basis of demonstrated ability to unload the ships.

On 9th October the first ship docks at Le Havre. Eisenhower declares Antwerp to be of supreme importance. The US announces the cuts to shipping will stand until the capacity to unload ships in Europe is shown to be increasing and the number of ships in theatre significantly decreases.

On 20th October there are at least 240 ships in European waters. The US places additional restrictions on sending rations, vehicles and ammunition until the backlog of such ships already in Europe is reduced.

On 28th October General Franklin, Assistant Chief of Transportation for Water Activities arrives in Europe to "assist in clearing up the shipping situation".

On 31st October there are some 243 cargo ships in the theatre with only around 60 being discharged, while some of the others have unloaded and are awaiting a convoy out. There had been bad October storms. In addition there were 62 US ships discharging or awaiting discharge in southern France with another 25 vessels en route there from the US. Marseille is becoming congested from all the cargo landed but not cleared from the port, the repeat of the pattern in other ports, this is despite the rail links running north can now handle 12,000 tons/day. The supply bottleneck in the south for the remainder of the war is rail, lacking the capacity to clear the cargo from a fully working Marseille, so once Antwerp opens ships will be unloaded in the north where possible.

On 4th November the first allied minesweeper makes it to Antwerp.

On 13th November Utah beach is closed. On 19th November Mulberry B ceased operations and Omaha beach is closed, in order to keep the beaches operating so well for so long the 1st, 5th and 6th Engineer special regiments have had to be used to handle the cargo, instead of being assigned to other amphibious operations. The 1st Brigade is sent to the US on 18th December and will be used in the assault on Okinawa.

On 20th November Eastbound trains occupy every rail block from the Belgian border to Namur, within a few days the entire Belgian network is so congested trains have to unload at the French border. A similar situation has developed in the Verdun area and V weapon strikes on Liege disrupt rail movement there in the last 10 days of November. The armies are keeping too much of their supplies on wheels and the forward depots are not able or expected to be able to normally handle the bulk shipments they are receiving.

On 22nd November General MacArthur is informed the President had been notified of the world wide shipping shortage and a directive has been issued to the Joint Chiefs to take immediate action on the problem. MacArthur has around 476 ships, Europe has around 220. In Europe's case the number of ships awaiting discharge has begun to fall, down to around 130 from 190 at the start of the month, but this is mainly due to the decrease in the ships being sent. Even so the US orders 61 MTV ships to be returned to the US to help ease the shipping shortage

On 26th November Antwerp is opened when 3 coasters arrive. Some 219 out of 242 berths have been completely cleared, all 600 cranes are working and all necessary bridges repaired. There is an acute shortage of storage space at or near the port, although there is fuel storage for 120 million gallons.

On 28th November Antwerp is opened for US cargo as the first liberty ship arrives, but while the port can discharge 80 to 100,000 tons/day the land links can initially only clear 10 to 20,000 tons/day. All up a convoy of 19 liberty ships arrive. The AA defences of Antwerp and the Schelde estuary total 216 3.7 inch and 486 40 mm guns, plus another 120 3.7 inch, 192 90mm and around 150 40mm guns for anti V1 duties. There were also searchlight batteries, smoke companies, a balloon barrage over the estuary, mine watching service and a dummy port site. Due to the scale of the attack the allies minimise the unloading of ammunition at the port, using remote berths, not allowing any stocks. As the scale of the V1 and V2 attacks grow the decision is taken to only unload ammunition there for the AA guns defending it, other ports handle the army ammunition, except for special cases. To help clear the cargo the Albert canal is to be brought into operation, hopefully by mid December. Antwerp actually makes the US Army rail congestion problem worse since it shortens travel time, leaving the depots that much less time to unload trains.

On 30th November start of ABC (American British Canadian) or (Antwerp Brussels Charleroi) run from Antwerp, around 90 miles, it will shift 245,000 tons of cargo using only 4/5 ton truck tractors with 10 ton semi trailers before it ends on 26th March, using an average of 16 truck companies, 2 of which do nothing but shuttle between the port and the truck marshalling yard, there are 2 trailers for each prime mover, one in use, one being loaded or unloaded. Average truck load 8.7 tons and average round trip 20 hours.

At the end of November despite all the efforts there are still 2,500,000 missing jerricans. With the opening of Antwerp the fuel situation is finally completely under control. Antwerp is used to land fuel for 1st and 9th armies and ADSEC, using bulk rail cars to move the fuel, excess to the Liege dumps.

During early December the backlog of cargo will be cleared from Antwerp, relieving the initial congestion. As Antwerp comes on line it is realised the bottleneck has moved from ports and transport to the reception ability of the supply dumps, a lack of troops and storage. At times during December and January supplies are forwarded in bulk based on what depots had the capacity to receive them, not on what they needed.

On the 2nd of December the supply dump at Antwerp becomes operational. One of the contradictory factors about Antwerp is that by being so close to the front lines during the winter supplies are sometimes trucked further away from the front as they are moved to depots. The main problem the army has is congestion as cargo unloading proceeds at a faster rate than clearance from the port. As the supplies accumulate the US asks permission from the British to establish a major supply dump in the port. This is refused on the grounds it would hamper port clearance and set a precedent for US depots in other British army ports. It turns out the best site for a US dump is outside Antwerp, some 2,750,000 square feet of open storage near the Albert Canal. Drawing on the lessons from the Red Ball Express a set of instructions and responsibilities for truck haulage is issued.

On 3rd December the first US tanker docks at Antwerp.

By mid December Antwerp is handling over 30 US Army ships at a time, taking around 10 to 11 days to turn a ship around, unloading around 19,000 tons/day but clearances from the port is lower and 85,000 tons have accumulated, when a backlog of 15,000 tons was considered to hamper operations.

On 16th December the German Ardennes offensive begins. During the attack Antwerp will cease dispatching cargo for a time and supply trains and trucks in the front line will not be unloaded in order to keep supplies on wheels. The result is congestion reappears at Antwerp just as it had begun to clear and it will not be cleared again until well into January.

On 17th December one of the V1s targeted on Liege for the first and only times hits the US fuel dump, causing minor damage but burning 650,000 gallons of fuel.

On 23rd December The Albert canal is opened and will clear 15% of the tonnage landed at Antwerp during December. Due to the disruption of Antwerp and mindful of the Washington’s attitude to shipping backlogs the theatre requests cancellation of 24 sailings in the next convoys.

On 31st December a dump is opened at Lille to take overflow cargo from Antwerp. The withdrawal of transport due to the Ardennes offensive is claimed to have set back cargo clearance from Antwerp by the equivalent of 14,000 rail cars or 35 ships.

By January 1945 after initially bidding for 675,000 barrels of POL storage at Antwerp the US has 950,000 barrels of the 2,600,000 barrels at the port.

In January the workers at Antwerp will go on strike due to a lack of food, clothing and coal.

By the end of January the US POL pipeline from Antwerp to Maastricht is in service.

During February the Meuse thaws, as flood levels fall it can be used for barge traffic from Antwerp.