The Red Ball was a convoy of trucks delivering supplies to the allied armies. Few African American soldiers were allowed to fight, except for a few all "black" or "negro" units. Mostly they served as cooks, drivers, or in other non combatant positions.
In the winter of 1944 in the Ardennes forest outside of the Belgian city of Bastogne, a small, outnumbered group of American soldiers held their ground to stop a German counter attack after the D-Day invasion at Normandy. This counter attack became known as "The Battle of the Bulge". Bastogne was very important because of the seven major roads that converged in the city so the soldiers sent to defend it were told to hold it "at all costs". The Americans had no winter gear, in the coldest winter in a century, and little ammunition or supplies. They put up such a strong defense the German army chose to go around them and the Americans were encircled. The Germans fired their 88 millimeter artillery shells into the tree tops, shattering the trees and sending deadly shards of wood onto the American soldiers. The siege lasted between December 20th to the 27th when elements of General Patton's third army arrived.

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