ort service during World War II arose in the European Theater following the successful Allied invasion at Normandy in June 1944. To hobble the German army's ability to move forces and bring up reinforcements in a counter-attack, the Allies had preemptively bombed the French railway system into ruins in the weeks leading up to the D-Day landing. At the time of the landing, traditional French ports were mostly inoperable and, after supporting the troops of the Allied invasion, the Normandy beaches needed to then become the makeshift port that would supply the march toward Germany. The temporary piers and docks known as Mulberry harbours that would create the port had been towed from England and had, by the end of June, unloaded 170,000 vehicles, 7.5 million US gal (28 million L) of fuel and 500,000 tons of supplies. Some 28 Allied divisions needed constant resupply. During offensive operations, each division consumed about 750 tons of supplies per day (about 100 pounds (45 kg) per man) totaling about 21,000 tons in all. The only way to deliver them was by truck – thereby giving birth to the Red Ball Express. At its peak, it operated 5,958 vehicles and carried about 12,500 tons of supplies per day. Colonel Loren Albert Ayers, known to his men as "Little Patton", was in charge of gatheri