When Marine Corps General Holland Smith removed Infantry General Ralph Smith from command in 1944 during the Battle of Saipan, it began a controversy that soon snowballed, threatening to sabotage Army-Marine relations at a time when cooperation was the key to victory.

They used to say that an army marches on its stomach. No so much anymore. These days armies march on oil. But how do the Allies get vast quantities of the stuff to their tanks and lorries across the Channel? Simple, they use the latest technology to lay a giant flexible pipeline across the sea. The armies of liberation are fuelled and ready.