Armies March On Their Stomach!

Digging up his old post but thought it the best place to ask my question. I noticed that the civilian population rations allowed for vegetarians surrendering their meat rations for extra cheese. Was there any allowance for vegetarians in the armed forces especially in the field? Also what happened with people who would have had religious restrictions eg. Jewish?

 

Thought you might be interested/amused to learn of my own experience as a Jewish ranker.

When I first joined I soon found that I was a good person to sit next to in the mess hall, simply because I couldn't eat the ever present bacon at breakfast.

Within a few months I had discovered that the requirements of a reasonably full stomach to face the trials and tribulations of being a rookie outweighed my previous cultural experience and I was eating whatever grub was served.

The army did their best at Passover time, even to the extent of supplying a pack of Matzos (unleavened bread) while we were trying to survive at Cassino.

Ron

 

Thanks Ron - it is great to hear a first hand account from a vet. I did see that pork featured quite heavily in the rations. I can well understand that to survive you would have had to eat what was available when it was available. It looks like a pretty stodgy diet but I suppose it would fill you up and give you the energy needed though I bet you all craved some fresh food.

 

Reading this thread reminded me of a section in one of my father's letters from Normandy describing two meals his Battalion (1st Black Watch) had put together whilst just out of the line. Here's part of a letter dated 7 July 44.

Several of my immediate troubles have been righted, to wit, I have acquired an ample supply of envelopes and some Anti-Mosquito cream, so I am more or less happy. All I want now is a clean shirt, a bath and a haircut, and I have had a promise of a real full-length hot bath to-morrow, in a neighbouring farm house. It will have to be an open air one because the bath room hasn't got a roof on anymore but I am given to understand that the hot water system still works. That isn't all the luxuries we're having either!! you should just see our spread for dinner now that we have got organised. Here is what we have had for the last two evening meals.
No 1 meal
Bordeaux wine, (Red wine)
1/Soup a'la Compo Rations
2/Artichokes [(bought) spelling not vouched for]
3/Roast Goose, new potatoes, carrots, spring onions, onion & biscuit stuffing
4/Date Pudding (Compo Rations)
5/ Cherries, Red currents, thick whipped cream (bought)
6/Cheese savoury
7/Tea
8/White wine (1 can't remember the name)
Incidentally we had the Brigadier as a guest to this meal, and the wine, cream, butter & cheese we are able to buy as they are un-rationed the remainder we found, with the exception of the goose which walked into our lines and gave itself up.
The stuff we can buy is very reasonable, wine various from 100 to 150 francs a bottle (10/- to 15/-) butter is 40 francs for a kilo (2 Ibs)
cheese is of very good quality and wrapped in round cartons of about 1/2 lb each and costs about 11 to 15 francs. I will send some cheese home as soon as I can, because it really is very good stuff and I have never seen anything to touch it in England. It almost breaks your heart to think that the Germans have been living like kings for the past 4 years.
To go with all this food there magically appeared from out of the blue chairs, tables white table cloths, napkins, chinaware, cutlery of all shapes, an assortment of glasses & a couple of decanters, and many other time things all of the finest quality---,but I have yet to tell you meal No 2. This was much the same as the first one except that we had a nice portion of a young heifer instead of the goose. Incidentally this unfortunate beast got mixed up with a minefield and was injured. An ex- butcher did the rest.

Alastair

 

Unser Küchenchef !

I suppose that cooks were the least likely to be skinny, but this chap has clearly been pilfering the strüdel...

 

Kipling wrote a prescription for the characteristics of the ideal army cook, if that man also has flat feet then he fits the bill perfectly.

 

US forces always seemed well supplied. This extract from one of my dad's letters from Korea, Dec 1950 ...

I'm getting enough food too. We scrounged some from the Yanks yesterday. On the scout car we have 24 tins of salmon, 20 tins of milk, 14lb of tea, 50lb of sugar, 7lb of bully, 10 tins each of pineapple, peaches, fruit salad, pears and cherries, 4 big boxes of ginger snaps and several boxes of currant biscuits. We also have a lot of icing, castor and brown sugar and flour. I might try making a Xmas cake

Not sure where they stowed the regulation kit on a Daimler Dingo with that little lot

 

An old RAF work mate of mine went to Saudi Arabia during GW1 and came back 2 stone heavier.

When I asked how he got so fat in Saudi, he replied the Joint Headquarters he worked at was next door to Burger King.

LOL

Gus

 

is your dad one of these guys?

http://www.daimler-fighting-vehicles.co.uk/DFV-File Part Bo - History - 1950-1953 Korea.pdf

 

[QUOTE="Aeronut, post: 608328, member: 847
cheese is of very good quality and wrapped in round cartons of about 1/2 lb each and costs about 11 to 15 francs. I will send some cheese home as soon as I can, because it really is very good stuff and I have never seen anything to touch it in England.[/QUOTE]

'wrapped in round cartons' aptly describes the world famous Camembert cheese from Normandy.

Price has been remarkably stable, because the current equivalent of 11-15 June 1944 francs is 2-3 €, which is what you would pay for a good Camembert in Normandy today, although the same quality would be more expensive outside Normandy.

I suspect the reason is because Camembert, alongside other essential French food items such as the baguette and red wine, has been selected as one of the components of the 'housewife's basket' used to calculate inflation rates in France

Michel