ABSTRACT
The challenge of gathering the invasion fleet together involved more than engineering work to convert them to their new use, though that was demanding enough. Naval Bases in Germany were responsible for this and the Bremen base set up an office in Koblenz to have easy access to German inland waterways. The forces already equipped were formed into land-tow groups and additional tracked machines were brought into service from the numbers of captured or redundant vehicles the Germans had acquired. The transport fleet of 164 ships was supplied by commandeering their number, plus ten extras, from the ordinary merchant fleet with the addition of a number from French and Dutch sources. The steamers needed were gathered in from the conquered territories to supplement those supplied from Germany. The carpenters were gathered together to make the wooden rafts, for example, while an improvised legion of sailmakers got to work turning out life jackets.
