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The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of World War II's Red Ball Express
The Road to Victory The Untold Story of World War II's Red Ball Express Author:David P. Colley NO STOPS FOR THE RED BALL EXPRESS! "The Red Ball Express lived on in the minds of veterans as one of the more enduring legends of World War II, in part, because it fits so well into American folklore. Americans have had a long love affair with the road and the truck. The speeding Red Ball drivers, thumbing their noses at military authority and t... more »he enemy to speed supplies to the front and to victory, symbolized American individualism and embodied the spirit of the frontiersmen and cowboys who had tamed the American continent. The Red Ball drivers were the first true road warriors, long before the truckers glorified in the song 'Convoy' that rose to the top of the charts more than a quarter century later." -from THE ROAD TO VICTORY AMERICA'S FIRST ROAD WARRIORS They were a bunch of tough-as-nails drivers who ran the enormous crucial operation known as the "Red Ball Express." Almost all African-Americans, these truckers rushed the fuel and supplies the rapidly advancing American armies desperately needed after D-Day to crush the German Panzers. Now for the first time, and filled with thrilling firsthand accounts, here is the full story of this legendary unit: the attacks they faced from the Germans, the battles they fought with racist G.I.s, the heroism and respect they earned the hard way. Here are the men who helped shorten the war with the great effort that made the final victory possible. As Dwight D. Eisenhower declared, "Without it [Red Ball] the advance across France could not have been made."« less