US field rations(C) issued to troops in the field

[Franek]

Army Field Rations

The C Ration

The American infantry soldier began WWII with the "combat" meal known officially as Field Ration, Type C. There were three individually boxed meals for breakfast, dinner (i.e., lunch), and supper. Soldiers quickly tired of these meat-and-hash meals because they were also served in the central mess tents when soldiers rotated off the front lines and yearned for more variety.

The first version of the C rations offered a simple menu consisting of:

Package of Biscuits
Package of Graham Crackers
Package of Sugar Tablets
Meat Can of Ham (Breakfast), Chicken (Dinner), Turkey (Supper)
Fruit Bar (Breakfast), Caramels (Dinner), Chocolate Bar (Supper)
Powdered Coffee (Breakfast), Bouillon (Dinner), Lemon (Supper)
Piece Chewing Gum
4-Pack Cigarettes
Package of Toilet Tissue
Wooden Spoon
Matches

In early 1944 specifications for the C rats increased variety by alternating combinations of the "B," or bread, units, and the "M," or meat, units. An accessory pack included nine "good commercial-quality" cigarettes, water-purification tablets, matches, toilet paper, chewing gum, and an opener for the meat cans. A soldier's daily ration was three cans of B units, three cans of M units, and one accessory pack.

M unit varieties
Meat and beans
Meat and vegetable stew
Meat and spaghetti
Ham, egg, and potato
Meat and noodles
Pork and rice
Franks and beans
Pork and beans
Ham and lima beans
Chicken and vegetables
B unit components
Biscuits
Compressed and premixed cereal
Candy-coated peanuts or raisins
Powdered coffee
Sugar
Powdered lemon or orange juice
Cocoa powder
Hard candies
Jam
Caramels

[Franek]

Army Field Rations

The K Ration

The Field Ration, Type K was adopted for use in 1942. It was developed at the request of the U.S. Army Air Force and first used by paratroopers. As with the C ration, the components of the K rats evolved over the course of the war to offer greater variety while still maintaining the need for compact size and balanced nutrition. While the K rats were designed for only a few days' use under assault conditions, the demands of war meant that soldiers often ate them for days or weeks on end, and boredom and complaints naturally ensued. At the height of the war in 1944, over 105 million of these rations were produced.
Early boxes (left) were plain brown card stock. The packaging changed to a set of distinctive color designs (the "Morale K Ration") to make it easier for soldiers to quickly select the "right" meal: brown for breakfast; green for supper; and blue for dinner. Within these colored boxes the meal was contained in a plain tan box; this was twice dipped in wax, after the contents were inserted and the box was sealed, in order to keep the contents waterproof.
Breakfast Unit
Canned meat product
Biscuits
Compressed cereal bar
Powdered coffee
Fruit bar
Chewing gum
Sugar tablets
Four cigarettes
Water-purification tablets
Can opener
Wooden spoon

Dinner Unit
Canned cheese product
Biscuits
A candy bar
Chewing gum
Powdered beverage
Granulated sugar
Salt tablets
Cigarettes
Matches
Can opener
Wooden spoon


Supper Unit
Canned meat product
Biscuits
Bouillon powder
Candy
Chewing gum
Powdered coffee
Granulated sugar
Cigarettes
Can opener
Toilet paper
Wooden spoon

The canned meat and cheese products were individually boxed in 3" x 2 3/4" x 1 7/17 cardboard containers, while the other items were contained in a plastic bag that, according to instructions on the carton, could be reused for keeping other items such as cigarettes, matches, letters, and photos waterproof if the bag was carefully opened.
K Ration Packaging

There were at least two distinct types of wooden K ration containers. Wooden boxes marked "KS" were early war types (as Hudson & Allen's product states), and those marked "K" came later. Gerald Peterson says he has seen both KS and K boxes dated 1944, but the KS crate had the older brown individual meal boxes in it, while the box marked K had the full color Morale K Ration boxes in it.
According to C.Q.D. No. 28H, dated August 31, 1945 (superseding an October 31, 1944 directive), twelve K rations were packed on end in a snug-fitting corrugated fiberboard container. "The arrangement of the cartons shall be 12 in length (major panels facing), 3 in width, and 1 in depth. One row of 12 cartons shall be for breakfast, one row for dinner and one row for supper."
The fiberboard containers were either placed into wooden boxes directly, or sealed in a waterproof triple-ply "bag" of kraft paper or kraft paper, metal foil, and cellophane, before being packed in the box.

[Slipdigit]

Tell us your opinion of them.

[Doc]

We were still eating WW2-produced C rations in the US Army through the mid-1970s. Personally, I preferred them to the later MREs, especially the canned fruits. MREs are the current US field ration, and have gotten much better over the years, though they are still referred to as "Meals refused by Ethiopians" or "Meals Rodents Evade". Doc

[Franek]

Jeffl;
I am not a hard person to please. As the war wore on we started getting more varieties.. Chef Boyarde made sphagetti and meat balls. (GOOD) Beans WITH hot dogs (GOOD). There were many more that I forgot. My favorite was the K ration with a block of cheddar cheese and crackers. OH YES.( CORNED BEEF HASH) I loved it.
In the march of the plains of Cologne, it was discovered that the German civilians stored food in cellars. Loaves of pumpernickle were piled up like cord wood. Fruit was preserved in jars,and fresh eggs were plentiful. To pillage was scorned apon by the upper eschelons. We considered it as the spoils of war. OH I ALMOST FOROT.
Then there was the excellent German wine
During the lull in fighting. A kitchen was set up and we were giving HOT meals.

[Franek]

HEY DOC;
Were they still serving creamed chipped beef in a cream sauce in the 70's.. We in 1944 called it SHIT ON A SHINGLE. Is that phrase still used? Personally, I loved it

[Franek]

Spam again

It was the grub GIs loved to grumble about—not because it wasn't tasty, but because it was always there, sometimes three times a day.

by Bruce Heydt

The 20th-century Chinese writer Lin Yutang once defined patriotism as the memory of what we ate as children. I grew up in the years immediately following World War II, and some of my most vivid memories are set in my family’s kitchen. I can still see the green tiled floor and the chrome-and-Formica dinner table. I remember the food I ate there. In particular, I recall the smells and the tastes of two meals that my mother served with well-planned regularity. The first was a dish served mainly for breakfasts, which my father, an Eighth Army Air Force vet, tactfully called “poop on a shingle.” (I think I must have been a teenager before I heard the uncensored military slang for creamed chipped beef on toast.) The second one often made its unmistakably rectangular appearance at dinner: in a word, Spam.
Say that word to a WWII veteran, and you’re in for a true gut reaction. My own memories of Spam and the frequency with which it appeared on my plate are only a faint shadow of what the so-called “miracle meat” brings to mind for those who ate it seemingly three times a day for the length of their military service. For many, it must have seemed as though there were no food other than this ubiquitous, gelatinous, pink, canned concoction.
In fact, the Hormel company had celebrated Spam’s birth not long before the war, in the mid-1930s. It was developed not in response to a prophetic vision of the need for a non-perishable, easily transported military ration—nor, as some may still think, as a practical joke played by someone in the US War Department—but in response to the vision of one man, Jay Hormel. President of the meat packing company that shared his family name, Hormel had already introduced canned ham to the American consumer. Now, looking for a way to turn previously discarded pork shoulder meat into a marketable product, he hit upon the idea for an inexpensive canned luncheon treat that fit the budget of Depression-era housewives and had a much longer shelf life than other meats.
Hormel’s canned pork shoulder debuted in 1937 as Hormel Spiced Ham, but soon reemerged as “Spam” after actor Kenneth Daigneau, brother of a Hormel vice president, won the $100 prize in a contest to rename the product. So the story goes. Some sources say the name is a merging of “Spiced” and “Ham”; others stand by a derivation from “Shoulder of Pork and Ham.”
Strange as it would have seemed to most WWII servicemen, Spam spawned many imitations in the years before the war. Though it would soon become the butt of jokes and unsettling rumors about its ingredients, Spam actually compared favorably to most of these knock-offs. In the light-hearted book Spam: A Biography, Carolyn Wyman (herself the child of a Spam-fed WWII serviceman), writes that “although the pork shoulder in Hormel’s luncheon loaves was filet mignon compared to the lips, tongue, and yes, even pig snouts competitors put in the ones they came out with following Hormel’s success, consumers couldn’t tell the difference by their appearance.”

When America entered the war in 1941 and began shipping fighting men overseas, military officials bought large quantities of Spam for the same reason housewives bought it—it was cheap, easily transportable, had a long shelf life—and yes, it was fairly nutritious. But Spam was not the only canned meat to go to war. According to Wyman, the army initially bought 10 different varieties of canned meat to feed the troops. That number grew to 60 by the war’s end. These products found their way into K and B rations (field and communal rations, respectively), where Hormel’s pork shoulder ended up cheek-to-jowl with its competitors’ canned pig ears, noses, and tongues. Soon, the troops were eating these dubious delicacies as often as three times a day. To fed-up servicemen, it was all Spam.

[Doc]

Franek, yes, and it is still served in messhalls today, however, the chipped beef has generally been replaced by hamburger beef. I think the old chipped beef was better, but it's still a pretty good breakfast. You still hear it referred to as SOS. Doc

[Ron Goldstein]

Some good reading here

I remember writing a small piece about WW2 army grub on the BBC People's War website:
BBC - WW2 People's War - What did you eat in the War, Daddy?
(If you scan down after the article you will also see a comment from Gerry Chester about Compo Rations)

[Franek]

RON;
That was great. It sure brings back memories