Long Road to Nantes

Note to the reader: Thank you for joining me on my journey to share my father's journey! New posts to the blog here appear at the top of the main page, pushing the previous posts down below. Please be sure to check out the earlier posts and work your way up to the top.

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Long Ride(s), Little Action

There are no diary entries between 13 and 23 August 1944, so I don't know if they had a 10-day break or if they were too busy for him to write. But by the 23rd, they were in La Loupe. Or was it Saint-Loup? In my research I found interesting information about La Loupe, but never even encountered the name Saint-Loup ... that is, until today, when I drove past a sign advertising a community festival there, filling my head with doubt. So, faced with the choices of turning back and visiting Saint-Loup just in case that's what our diarist meant, and just continuing on, I continued on, because Saint-Loup couldn't be as interesting to write about as La Loupe is.

Though a medium-small town in western France, it was on the mind and lips of many American soldiers throughout the summer and fall of 1944 as a stop along the Red Ball Express, the solution to the supply problems caused by General Patton's Third Army's rapid successes: they had the German forces on the run and were moving so fast they repeatedly outran their supply chain. The quartermasters devised this solution, a one way loop across France from Cherbourg to wherever the Third Army was on a given day and back, which engaged thousands of trucks and double the men to keep the supplies moving:

The Red Ball Express 

or, if you have an hour to kill, a very excellent video here:

But, of course, the 129th had nothing to do with the Red Ball Express, instead shooting at enemy aircraft whenever they appeared. Maybe they saw some trucks roll by. Who knows?

The approach from the northeast and (top) a panoramic of town center. I was disappointed that no one — at least that I saw — has opened a business in town called “Red Ball Express" anything. I would so do it!

Then they motored down to Nantes to prepare for engagement, but for nought. I imagine they were relieved nonetheless, despite their sore asses. I made the drive today from Avranches to La Loupe to Nantes, taking only the secondary (and less!) roads in order to recreate (possibly) their route, and it was quite long, fully seven hours, plus missed roundabout exits and lots of swearing. I've ridden in the beds of deuce-and-a-halfs (military 2-1/2 ton trucks), and the only comfortable seat is on another body ...and most guys don't take kindly to being sat upon! I can't imagine that ride in a speed-hindered lug of a truck.

And thus marks a several day pause in the trek, as Stephanie arrives in Paris tomorrow and we will spend the time taking in Paris in the spring. The blog will resume on or about 11 June. Play safe.

 

A taste of Nantes... 

 

 

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