After Aurand [Colonel Henry S Aurand – a consultant to the US Army world logistic supply supremo, General Brehon Somervell] had delivered his report and taken command of the Normandy Base Section in December, he recorded that he despatched a train of PX (Post Exchange) goods for the front. A platoon of infantry, part at the rear and part at the front, was to ensure that at long halts and in shunting yards, agents of the black-market would not get on board and rifle the wagons. That train disappeared, troops and all, he said, and was never seen again. Aurand wrote that he had no doubt that the men had joined the growing number of deserters living on the black-market, where a packet of American cigarettes was worth … 200 [Francs]. The size of the deserter population was not something to be advertised, either. It may have been an open secret but anyone who arrived from outside and commented on it loudly and in public would be in trouble.

This incident is recounted in the book Coalitions, Politicians and Generals by Dominick Graham and Shelford Bidwell.

Tag words: Colonel Henry S Aurand; General Brehon Somervell; Coalitions, Politicians and Generals; Dominick Graham; Shelford Bidwell; General JCH Lee; Hank H Cox; The General Who Wore Six Stars; sos; Service of Supply; Rick Atkinson; The Guns at Last Light; Jesus Christ Himself; European Theater of Operations; ETO; Communications Zone; ComZ; General Dwight D. Eisenhower; Lt-General William Pagonis; Russell Weigley; Eisenhower’s Lieutenants; Red Ball Express; Carlo d’Este; Eisenhower A Soldier’s Life; Bradley; Patton; David Irving; The War Between the Generals; Bedell Smith; black market; pilfering; Prodigal wastage; railway system; Constipation; Major-General Appleton; SHAEF;