The subject of food and drink can occupy the mind obsessively when none is available. WW2 saw many improvements in feeding, I'm sure there are many food related stories. My Father-in-Law would never touch Corned Beef, ' Had enough of that stuff in the bl--dy army'. In North Africa and Italy at the height of the summer it was poured from the tin, in all its mouth watering glory. Bully beef, corned dog to name but a few. The good old British tea brewing routine has come in for some stick from our friends across the pond, Ambrose etc. I did have a site with all the different Brit compo ration types detailed but as usual can't find it, could somebody helpful come up with a site or two. I've Googled it but it always comes up with the US army ww2 sites.
From here http://www.britishsoldier.com/logistic.htm Provisions In most cases during WWII British soldier's food was provided in the form of Composite or "Compo" Rations. Compo Rations came in a wooden case containing enough food for 14 men for one day or the reverse, - i.e. enough food for one man for 14 days. Each day's allotment consisted of: breakfast, mid-day and evening meals, plus a bar of chocolate for each meal, hard biscuits, tea and milk mixture, cigarettes and the most essential, - toilet paper! Bread and fresh foods were provided as available. Water supplies were collected and distributed daily by Water Wagon, (a Tanker Truck).
In my home town a lady and gentleman (she was a refugee and he eventually joined the army) still make the old war time recipes for school children. i am reliably informed they are as inedible now as they were then. And i know someone who used to take a coffe grinder and percolator on manouevres with him. Kitty
As one that lived on the Compo rations, one thing I dispute. What bar of chocolate? We had boiled sweets, saved them for any kids we came across, never saw many. As to fresh bread? The leading units were on the end of the line. We saw our first half slice of bread in October 44,The one and only time we had bread. Never any fresh food.The only way we got that was by pinching it! During the campaign, while in Holland we did get one half pint of beer the one and only one, I shall not forget it..Tennants Scottish beer. The rest of the time we lived on soup and biscuits, with an occasional tin of bacon. Fresh bread, Chocolate? Fresh food? No way mate. The rear echelons got hold of that, we never got in the battle areas. Sapper
And i know someone who used to take a coffe grinder and percolator on manouevres with him. Kitty You have to ensure that you have the good things of life with you at all time!
When America rations arrived while being in the line, I can recall being issued with a new type of ration in boxes A B C, the A was the best with tinned fruit & spam, B not bad, C nothing special . We were in the Line at the time it was a treat eating all the A’s & B’s.as the war drifted on we were only receiving C’s, this went on until we came out of the line, back at base, & discovered A’s & B’s again. Can anyone recall this..
When America rations arrived while being in the line, I can recall being issued with a new type of ration in boxes A B C, the A was the best with tinned fruit & spam, B not bad, C nothing special . We were in the Line at the time it was a treat eating all the A’s & B’s.as the war drifted on we were only receiving C’s, this went on until we came out of the line, back at base, & discovered A’s & B’s again. Can anyone recall this.. A-G rations defined here Larry, May ring a bell. Not much on specific contents, but a general survey of each: HISTORY OF RATIONS Main page on US Army food: Army Subsistence History ~A
Um....did the British add - "gelling agents" - to Compo rations the way they do nowadays for battlefield rations to cut down on the requirement for latrines etc. at TA battlecamps?
I remember the compo rations well and became a great fan, it looks as if Sapper got a raw deal. We did get chocolate, at least that's what it was called. And my first slice of white bread was about the 9th July '44 to celebrate the fall of Caen. Apart from the beef stew which we used augment with army biscuits, there was the soya links, very tasty sausages and steak pudding. The boxes were stuffed with knitted scarves, gloves and balaclavas, added by the packers in Liverpool. In Belgium to save transport bringing stuff all the way from the bridgehead we lived on German rations for some weeks, so instead of the usual seven free fags a day we had German cigars. Not bad grub either but their biscuits were just inedible. I had a big pot of honey which no one else would touch - delicious. Later we were offered powdered potato and shredded cabbage, ghastly stuff I believe the latter was made from shredded gas-capes. Have a vague memory of being issued with vitamin pills because of all the tinned food. By the way, I'm sure there was no gelling agents, I was quite regular in those days. Jim
Gents Did a bit of GOOGLING and found these two interesting links http://www.mreinfo.com/international/great-britain/british-24-hour-ration-packs.html U.S. Army Rations - 10-in-1 Rations Ron
One thing I recall was great...The tinned Bacon wrapped in greaseproof. It was the side of a bacon, cut longways, thinly and wrapped in paper, Some men got scalded when the tin was opened for a quick stan#b at the tin... let out a high pressure jet of scalding hot mixture of fat, water, and steam. Some nasty scalds ! You had to make sure you got rid of the paper, otherwise you had a mouthful of it. We existed on Soup and crumpled biscuits...The mere thought of fresh food, and our cooks would throw a wobbler. Sapper
I would have to go along with Sapper on rations - we seemed to exist on M & V - Bully and Danish type Bacon - Time and time again we would put five tins of M & V in the engine to heat up as we were done for the day and heading for laager - time and time again we had to clean out the engine of M & V and eat cold bully as invaribaly something came up - but we could have cuppa within 90 seconds of halting the Tank owing to our famous Bengazi Kettle.... Kitty - dunno about war time rations and recipes being inedible - the British people were never so fit as they were in those days - they could do with a return to those rations - NO obesity in those days - fit and lean was the watchword of Lord Woolton- so the rations were adequate - no matter how much we bitched on quantities - or the lack of oranges and bananas a lot of people kept chickens and pigs - they could keep two -then give one and a half to the Ministry - keep half for yourself - all the eggs from three hens - plus the odd cjicken - grow your own veggies in the garden or allottment if you were lucky - barter spuds- carrots -cabbage for butter etc Cheers
Spam fritters and dried egg omelets.. Bloody lovely Tom. That coupled with the British Restaurants if sad memory !
Sapper - you couldn't beat the dehydrated meat we had in North Africa -at noon - by 3 pm the latrines were in a bad way - the senior NCO's had theirs at 7 pm. - then they had to go - BUT the main beam of the four holer broke - the SSM- SQMS - Sgt fitter and the Sgt cook were dropped " in the mire " as they say.....never saw that stuff again ! Strange ! difficult to keep a straight face for a while though . Cheers
Sapper - here's the rest of that story about dehydrated meat ....North Africa 1943 The cookhouse was the centre of all interest and it was in the adjoining mess tent that squadron concerts were held frequently and the two stars were Briggs(5'1") and Thirkel (6'2") both from the Halifax area who were invariably first up on stage to give us their rendition of "Gert and Daisy.They both spent a great deal of time in the cookhouse doing very menial tasks. Mention of the cookhouse leads me to a most unfortunate situation which arose through no fault of the cooking staff ! It was decreed from on high in the Army Kitchens in the U.K. that we would enjoy the delights of a new development which had the main benefit of conserving space in the Merchant Navy ships to allow the storage of even more ammunition and guns in the sea passage from home. We would therefore have served a sufficient quantity of "Dehydrated Meat", true enough - this was "enjoyed " at least, the Orderly Officer heard NO complaints, but then he was a very big, burly, South African International Rugby player who never did get many complaints ! Major Christopher Newton-Thompson.M.C. died in May 2002. Later that evening, when the sun was wending it's way towards Morocco, it was noticed that our showcse latrine was quite busy and very soon became a veritable stampede with most trying "to get there in time" - many didn't, which was not too pleasant in the a.m. when it was very noticable. This was the result of the "dehydrated meat dinner" was the general consensus and everyone suffered the main effects which quickly cleared. At that time the senior N.C.O.'s and Officers dined later in the day as only gentlemen should and thus they were all unaware of the problems attending the "dehydrated meat dinner". It was much later therefore that the senior N.C.O.'s felt the need to visit the facilites of our showcase latrine which had been very busy until they made their visit with the result that the main supporting beam gave way with a mighty crack and the Squadron Sergeant Major, along with the Squadron Quartermaster Sergent, the Squadron Sergeant Cook, and the Squadron Sergeant Mechanic/Fitter of A squadron, 145th regt R.A.C. of 21st Tank Brigade, British 1st Army, landed , as they say.... in the mire. It was extremely difficult to keep a straight face for some time after that incident, meanwhile no more dehydrated meat was ever served again. Cheers
Tom mate Does this ring a bell? Living on "compo" rations is all very well for a little while, but biscuits, soup, and tinned food are not much to keep a healthy young man of nineteen going. Many of us were often hungry, so the addition of some fresh horsemeat and spring onions cooked in freshly made Norman farmhouse butter was something that tasted out of this world! Cooked in a billy-can all mixed up together, it did not look all that appetizing, but to us it was a feast, washed down with strong army tea all out of the same can. Nectar sheer Nectar, never had anything like it since. Bit of a shame, I lost my knife and fork and the second part of my billy-cans in action, the Germans took a distinct dislike to my eating tools and blew them up, all my meals and drinks came out of one tin and with one spoon. The redoubtable Spud was an artist at finding a nice little pig, he chased them into the most inaccessible place before dispatching it, he then brought it back to our harbour area where our cooks hated the sight of him! the very last thing they wanted to do was cook fresh food, all they ever wanted to do was to open tins and dish out biscuits. One short and one tall, they seemed to spend their whole time moaning. Shortly after, we moved on and Spud had given them another pig to butcher and cook, that night as we dug our holes and settled down for some rest, we heard Germans whispering amongst themselves a short distance away, too damned tired, we left them alone, in the morning they had fled leaving behind a sack full of schnapps, one brave fellow volunteered to try it and found it much to his liking. First light we were away, returning that night tired and hungry, we found that the two cooks had been drinking our schnapps, passed out and rolled down a steep slope, about thirty feet down from the cook tent, dead drunk and laying in a stream at the bottom. Out of this world. We got our own food that night. We have heard tales of revenge in the. battlefield, I have never seen it, but at times like that. Well, it makes you think.
Tom, That sounded like a stage farce. I can only think how horrible the experience was for the poor unfortunate users at the time. It reminds me of the scene from "Kelly' Heroes" when the two soldiers end up in the toilet cess pit Regards Tom
