On the sixteenth, Task Force 38 withdrew to the east and rendezvoused with its fueling and logistics group. Sidling up alongside the fleet oilers, the great fleet drank 379,157 barrels of fuel. Simultaneously, 6,369 tons of ammunition and 1,635 tons of supplies and provisions were transferred from the storeships into the fleet’s storerooms and magazines. The entire process was completed in about eighteen hours. Admiral Radford did not exaggerate when he called it “the greatest logistic feat ever performed on the high seas.”
