The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-12-03
ORDNANCE PROBLEMS

OANDANAANNG n AsOASAGANAO
 The following extract from a re- port by General Eisenhower indi- cates the severity of the campaign in France and illustrates the tre- mendous needs of our armies dur ing this campaign, in addition to the routine consumption of huge quantities of gasoline and rations:
 Losses of ordnance equipment have been extremely high. For in- stance, we must have as replace ment items each month 36000 small arms, TOO mortars, 500 tanks, 2,400 vehicles, 100 field pieces. Con- sumption of artillery and mortar ammunition in northwestern Europe averages 8,000,000 rounds month. Our combat troops use up an aver age of 66, 400 miles of one type field wire each month. (The AEF dur ing the entire First World War ex- pended less than 10,000,000 rounds of artillery and mortar ammuni- tion.)"
 The British 21st Army Group liberated Brussels on September and Antwerp the next day. They crossed the Dutch frontier on 12 September and by the 18th the Channel coast was cleared as far north as Zeebrugge with the ex- certion of the isolated enemy forces holding out in key ports.
 On g September 1914 General Eicanhotaar ranorfad.
 "The hostile occupation in force of the Dutch Islands at the mouth of the Schelde is certain to delay the utilization of Antwerp as a port and thus will vitally inf1u- ence the full development of our strategy"
 Again on 2l September he wrote:
 Right now our prospects are tied up closely with our success in capturing the approaches to Antwerp. All along the line main tenance is in a bad state-remi- niscent of the early days of Tu- niSia-but if we can only get to using Antwerp 1t will have the effect of a blood transfusion."
 RE
 The efforts of the British forces on the north flank were to be de- voted for several weeks to clearing the enemy from these islands. After bitter fighting involving heavy los- Ses, featured by river crossings and amphibious landings, the last of the positions was cleared on Novem- Der By 27 November the port of Antwerp was in operation but .un- der heavy fire of the vicious Ger manV-weapons which fell at one time at the rate of one every 12 1-2 minutes and caused thousands of Allied civilian and military casual ties and cast grave doubt for time as to the advisibility of con- tinuing the operation of the port.
 Opening of Port Facilities
 The ports of southern France were vital to the U. s. Seventh Army and the French First Army in the Southern Group of Armies. Toulon and Marseille were in op- eration late in September. Since then IA divisions were moved through Southern French ports, in addition to an average daily un- loading of over 18.000 tons of supplies. Two railways were placed in early operation, including the double track main line through Lyon and Dion, and thousands of tons of supplies moved daily over these lines and by truck to fore ward railheads. Port capacities and transportation facilities were suffl- cient to met the requirements of the entire Southern Group of Armies and also assist in the sup ply of thS Central Group of Armies until the stubborn defense of the water entrance to Antwerp was re- duced.
 After the port of Antwerp be- came operational, it handled on an average of over 25,O00 tons of stores daily, despite the V bombs. This tremendous increase in our over all port capacity made 1t unnectS- sary to devote more precious time and manpower to reopen the shat tered ports in Brittany, which al- though now in our hands, were much more distant from the front lines than Antwerp.
 Having overcome the acute shortage of port facilities. the pri- mary bottleneck in the supply line then became transportation from the port supply dumps to the front lines. To improve this situ- ation our Engineers, Transporta- tion Corps and other supply troops in La. Gen. J. c. H. Lees com munications zone performed mir acles in repairing and building railways. operating large highspeed truck conveys, and extending fuel pipelines from the ports and ter