Brehon B. Somervell

Somervell ran the supply system that equipped US forces worldwide in World War II, at a scale that helped spread pallets, forklifts, and standardized supply methods into civilian industry. The Army Service Forces handled procurement, transport, storage, and distribution for millions of soldiers across many theaters. Wartime depots adopted palletized storage and forklift handling to move unprecedented volumes, and veterans and suppliers carried these methods into postwar warehouses. Modern distribution practices such as unit loads, standard pallet sizes, and centralized supply planning owe much to that wartime effort.

• PalletFlat platform for stacking goods

• William G. Pagonisb. 1941 · Gulf War logistics general
• George C. Thorpe1875–1936 · Marine officer, author of Pure Logistics
• Antoine-Henri Jomini1779–1869 · Military theorist who named logistics

• Pallet and Forklift Adoption in World War II1939–1945 · War supply makes pallets and forklifts standard
• Red Ball Express1944 · Army truck convoys supply the advance across France

• Lend-Lease Act1941 · 1941 law supplying Allied nations in World War II

1. Brehon B. Somervell (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
2. Army Service Forces (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org