Customer Reviews

The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of Race and World War II's Red Ball Express

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Road to Victory" is not an old Bob Hope/Dorothy Lamour movie. Instead, RV tells the tale of World War 2 in Europe during the climactic months after the Normandy invasion of June 1944. It does not dwell on heroics or bravery in combat. Instead it is concerned with other heroics- the sheer logistical day by day avalanche of men and materiel that was required to supply the quickly advancing Allied Armies. Author Colley actually succeeds in shedding the crunching tonnage of Army Supply into a readable novel. From this Army veteran, that is high praise! Key to it all was the Red Ball Express. These were large truck convoys that raced across France from the Channel ports through Luxembourg and Belgium to the borders of Germany. The majority of convoy drivers were African American, doing critical work for a segregated, often unappreciative and sometimes even hostile U.S. Army. This contrasts sharply with the more liberal Europeans they came in contact with. The author weaves interesting combinations: human interest in the hard working Black drivers, the difficulties and dangers they faced on the road, the military "foul-ups" (for lack of a stronger word), and enough statistics and numbers to warm the heart of any QMC or TC man. True, RV is a bit dry, but not to any detrimental effect. This reviewer has read many military works and it's always gratifying to read one that explores a new story, a different angle or a fresh approach. RV is such a book. Once it appears in paperback, military history fans should pounce. Civil Rights students should ignore the military jargon and strongly consider RV too.

This book tells a story that has remained untold for too many generations. Most Americans are vaguely aware or totally ignorant of the fact that the U.S. Armed Forces remained racially segregated by unit until after the Second World War. Over the decades, Hollywood has generally reinforced this willful ignorance with story after story showing black and white American soldiers fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against the evil, racist Nazis. Even 1952's "Red Ball Express" featuring a 25-year-old Sydney Poiter, is a fanciful piece of fiction focused on an integrated platoon.

The fact is that African-American troops in Europe constantly had to fight not only the enemy, but the bigotry of their own fellow Americans. My father, Lt. Colonel Jack Harrison, was privileged to serve as executive officer of the 543rd HQ Battalion, which was part of the Red Ball and similar operations on the continent. As was the case with most "colored units" in the American Army, all of the enlisted men and about half the junior officers in the 543rd were African American. The senior officers were all white and mostly from the south. Apparently, the pervasive philosophy among the Army brass was that southern whites somehow had more experience and expertise dealing with African Americans, who were generally regarded by our government as second class soldiers unfit for combat duty.

This book struck a deeply personal note with me. Many of the actual anecdotes and soldiers tales in the book reminded me of the few war stories that I was ever able to coax out of Dad. Beyond that, however, this book is a solid and well-researched piece of history that should simultaneously inspire both shame and pride in the heart of any real American, black or white. In recent years, African-American combat units, like the Tuskegee Airmen, have begun to receive their just recognition. With this book, David Colley finally paints a true picture of the African American service troops whose valor, dedication and courage made the Allied victory possible.

This book is a solid first treatment of a subject that is *way* overdue for serious attention from WWII historians: logistics in general and the Red Ball Express in particular. It also, along the way, helps to do for support troops what Ernie Pyle (then) and Stephen Ambrose (lately) did for combat troops . . . record and pass on their stories of "what it was like." The fact that many of the soldiers whose stories are told in RTV are African-American addds a third valuable dimension to the book.

So why only three stars? Well . . .

David Colley writes like an experienced, and very talented, magazine writer who hasn't developed a feel for how to structure a book-length story. RTV is a mosaic of brief, topical chapters that are complete in themselves but add up (more or less) to a complete picture of life on the Red Ball. It *feels* like an extended series of magazine articles rather than a unified book. I often had the sense that, if I reshuffled the chapters in random order, it would read just as smoothly. I can accept that in a reference book, but a straight-ahead work of history needs more shape.

What I missed, throughout the book, was any sense that Colley had digested all the (fascinating) information he presents. So much of the material was new to me that I kept waiting for him to draw conclusions that were equally new and fascinating. Instead, Colley told me things that I already knew: Mechanized transport was crucial to the Allied victory in Europe, Americans have a talent for improvisation, and overt racism was less prominent in Europe than in the 1940s USA.

This book is well worth buying and well worth reading, but the definitive history of the Red Ball has yet to be written. Any WWII historians out there looking for a great project?

David Colley's `The Road to Victory' is subtitled "The Untold Story of World War II's Red Ball Express". The subtitle is fairly representative of the book in that no other full-length book has been dedicated to the Red Ball. However, there have been several other works that cover the contributions of the Red Ball within the context of logistical support of the drive across France. Colley's book is also advertised as dealing with "the men of the Red Ball Express [who] often found themselves fighting two wars: one against the Germans and another against racism". As a majority of the Red Ball drivers, mechanics and support staff were in fact African-Americans any story of the Red Ball with heart and humanity should deal with issues common in the US Army of 1944; namely blatant prejudice, segregation and yes racism. Unfortunately, this advertised component of Colley's book fails to live up to its own hype. Very little of `The Road to Victory' actually deals with the social issues inherent in the establishment and operation of the Red Ball Express. Colley uses a smattering of accounts from Red Ball drivers but nearly as many accounts are from white soldiers as from African-American ones, the former often dealing in no way with the humanity of the African-American issues. This reviewer was expecting a story more rich in humanity. This is by far the most disappointing aspect of `The Road to Victory'.

So what does `The Road to Victory' do well? Colley's treatise is really an examination of logistical support in NW Europe that focuses on the successes and shortcomings of the Red Ball Express as it provided such a critical role in the continuation of the drive across France after the breakout in Normandy. In his coverage of logistical issues Colley is quite successful. This is not a trivial task as logistical support is in many ways a numbers story with little `bang em up' to hook the reader. Colley does an admirable but not stellar job in his attempts to bring important logistical events to life with regard to the Red Ball. If in fact Colley had better incorporated the human factor that was so richly connected to the Red Ball given its predominantly African-American complexion, it is likely that this would have been a rare case of a logistical story being engaging as well as informative. Certain chapters of `The Road to Victory' are in fact quite engaging but they tended to be less informative in general. The ideal balance of engagement and information was simply never quite achieved.

With respect to organization of the book, Colley's chaptering (or that of his editor) is a bit chaotic at best. The book does not flow particularly well. This is partially due to the topic at hand; namely logistical support of armies. Having said this it is not clear that Colley could not have reorganized and/or repackaged his prose to construct a more evenly flowing and thus more readable book. Again it is important to point out that some chapters were in fact quite engaging, giving support to the notion that Colley is a talented writer. Moreover, he has dealt with an oft inherently dull topic in a more readable fashion. But altogether the book is choppy and less effective than it could have been.

In the end `The Road to Victory' is a 3.5 star book from the perspective of logistical content and analysis but a 2 star book at best in terms of human story; final score - 3 stars.

A very readable paperback on the structure and importance of the Red Ball Express -which operated for 81 days in the European Theater of Operations during WWII. While I agree with the other reviewer's criticisms on flow and organization of book, the author's presentation of first hand accounts of life (and combat) on the Red Ball Express, discussions of trucking/supply logistics, and other facets make for an interesting read. However, I will say that this book is a "drill-down" piece- meaning that if one doesn't like to probe too deeply into the WWII experience, you probably won't like its selective focus. Also, the content is fairly interesting, but the writing style doesn't soar-like that of HW Brands and other authors.

This book is surely well written and contains a lot of information on the legendary Red Ball Express program which supported the Allied drive in France in 1944, when the great French ports were still out of use and the rail network destroyed by the air strikes. Some of the chapters are indeed not well connected to the rest of the story and have a journalistic style of presentation, but the book has the numbers and the facts that the military history fan seeks. Overall, a good effort with some weak points but valuable nonetheless. It contains some b&w maps, a section of good b&w photos but no appendices. There is also not a reference to the casualties suffered byt the Red Ball Express men, due to accidents or enemy action.