Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 - 1965) The Second World War
Volume VI Triumph and Tragedy (1953)
Theme of the Volume How the great democracies triumphed, and so were able to resume the follies which had so nearly cost them their life
BOOK I The Tide of Victory
CHAPTER XIII
THE LIBERATION OF WESTERN EUROPE
...The number of divisions that could be sustained, and the speed and range of their advance, depended however entirely on harbours, transport, and supplies. Relatively little ammunition was being used, but food, and above all petrol, governed every movement. Cherbourg and the "Mulberry" harbour at Arromanches were the only ports we had, and these were daily being left farther behind. The front line was still sustained from Normandy, and each day about 20,000 tons of supplies had to be carried over ever-increasing distances, together with much material for mending roads and bridges and building airfields.
The Brittany ports, when captured, would be even more remote, but the Channel ports from Havre northwards, and especially Antwerp, if we could capture it before it was too seriously damaged, were prizes of vital consequence.
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The left of the corps turned and advanced on Havre, where a garrison of over 11,000 resisted fiercely. In spite of bombardment from the sea by 15-inch guns, and more than 10,000 tons of bombs from the air, the Germans did not surrender Havre till September 12.
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