SUPPLIES KEPT COMING WHEREVER the armies fought, supplies got there. For every man in fhe line were a number of others backing him up—unloading boats, driving trucks, repairing guns, directing traffic, building bridges, repairing railroads, and stringing communications. During one day at Salerno, three battalions of the 45th division artillery fired almost 7,000 rounds. Port battalions and shore engineers bucked those shells across the beaches to where they'd do some good despite bad weather, air raids, and artillery fire. Throughout the campaigns, supplying the armies was monotonous, hard, without glamour or recognition and often dangerous. Had it not been done there could have been no landings, no advances, no victories.

Back