Chaney opened SPOBS headquarters at the US Embassy at 1 Grosvenor Square, London, on, and moved it across the street to 20 Grosvenor Square two days later. Chaney, a United States Army Air Corps officer who had been stationed in the UK since October 1940 to observe air operations. A US military mission to the UK called the Special Observer Group (SPOBS) was formed under the command of Major General James E. Planning began in earnest at the ABC-1 Conference in Washington, D.C., in January to March 1941, where agreement was reached with the UK and Canada on a Europe first strategy in the event of the US being forced into a war with both Germany and Japan. The nature of the fighting in the Normandy bocage country created shortages of certain items, particularly artillery and mortar ammunition, and there were unexpectedly high rates of loss of bazookas, Browning automatic rifles (BARs), and M7 grenade launchers.īackground Headquarters, ETO, at 20 Grosvenor Square, Londonĭuring the 1920s and 1930s, the United States had developed and periodically updated War Plan Black for the possibility of a war with Germany. During the first seven weeks after D-Day, the advance was much slower than the Operation Overlord plan had anticipated, and the lodgment area much smaller. The First United States Army was supported over the Omaha and Utah Beaches, and through the Mulberry artificial port at Omaha specially constructed for the purpose, but the American Mulberry was abandoned after it was damaged by a storm on 19–22 June. Staff studies confirmed that Overlord could be supported if everything went according to plan. The expectation of an advance at a prescribed rate, while necessary for planning purposes, built inflexibility into a logistics plan that already had little margin for error. Crucially, the logistical plan called for a one-month pause at the Seine River, which Allied forces were expected to reach 90 days after D-Day, before advancing further. The Overlord plan called for the early capture of Cherbourg, and a rapid American advance to secure the Brittany ports and Quiberon Bay, which was to be developed as a port. Between May 1942 and May 1944, Operation Bolero, the buildup of American troops and supplies in the UK, proceeded fitfully and by June 1944 1,526,965 US troops were in the UK, of whom 459,511 were part of the COMZ. From February 1944 on, the SOS was increasingly referred to as the Communications Zone (COMZ). Lee in May 1942 to provide logistical support to the European Theater of Operations, United States Army. The Services of Supply (SOS) was formed under the command of Major General John C. The campaign officially commenced on D-Day, 6 June 1944, and ended on 24 July, the day before the launch of Operation Cobra. American logistics played a key role in the success of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of northwest Europe during World War II.

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