The Red Ball Express and the Women Who Ran It
Williams' copy of "Patton's Wheels", an account of the Quartermaster Truck Companies in Europe and a tribute to their accomplishments. This map falls near the center of the book and shows the span of Europe which the truck companies traversed. Williams' own service took him through France, Luxembourg, Germany, and into Austria, specifically to Linz, where his notes indicate he was when the war ended. Courtesy of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum.
Quartermaster Truck Companies
The Transportation Corps was a brand new branch of the Army during World War II. Prior to its establishment, the mission of transportation was carried out by the Quartermaster Corps, and quartermasters continued to provide support during the war. Many Quartermaster Truck Companies provided the drivers and vehicles needed to make these express routes happen, including the 4049th QM Truck Company in which served Tech 5 Joseph Williams.
As with many soldiers in Quartermaster Truck Companies, Williams was an African American man serving in a segregated Army. 80% of drivers in the Red Ball Express were African American. Relief drivers, however, were pulled from every unit in Europe on a priority basis, including three infantry divisions. This need for drivers meant that the Red Ball operation was racially integrated despite a segregated army.
According to Tech 5 Williams' own notes in his copy of "Patton's Wheels", he landed in Normandy on D+31 (07 July), at which point the 4049th was tasked with bringing a different type of "supply" to the front lines: infantry troops. Williams, driving his truck nicknamed the "Black Widow", carried personnel from many different units to where they were most needed on the front lines. Drivers subsisted off of coffee to fuel the long hours, altered their trucks to get up to faster speeds, prayed their tires would hold out until they could get maintenance, and hoped to avoid strafing from German planes and hitting mines.
The U.S. Army Quartermaster Museum tells the story of Quartermaster Truck Companies in its gallery and has digitized Williams' copy of "Patton's Wheels" in its online collection.
