What was the real truth about the stuff they put in our tea ?

This thread title originally spoke of "GunfIre"

I wasn't talking about shellfire, but about the first mug of tea supplied to us, by the cookhouse, at every army unit from the smallest section to those huge training depots.

The reason I ask is because earlier this evening I was Skyping to Footslogger in Toronto and he asked me whether or not I remembered "the stuff they put in your tea" and whether or not it was just one of those old soldier tales.

Would someone care to comment and supply chapter & verse ?

Ron

 

Owen

Bromide ?

Is that what it was ?

Ron

 

Royal Artillery gunfire was strong tea, rum and condensed milk.
Aye
MalcolmII

 

Before we get too bogged down with the Rum Ration, a subject on which we have spoken before and which I know Footslogger was not talking about, the area that needs some discussion is the "stuff" (Owen say's Bromide") that was reputedly dumped in our early morning tea apparently to keep our libido down.

Now I could understand the need for something like that at the big Army Training Establishments but when we were up to our neck in the mud of Italy the last thing we probably thought about was the fair sex !

Some serious comment chaps ?

Ron.

 

The all time favourite nonsense about bromide in the recruits tea etc - was just that as it was the change not only of diet but the onset of regular exercise which caused the lack of impetus in that one could only look at the menu offered by the

other species but the inability to partake of same - the Gunfire was a WW1 offering of Rum in the morning tea - whereas in WW2 this became the Rum issue sans tea- which took too long to brew ... as I recall two WO2's died at Cassino for

drinking Rum to excess...

Cheers

 

Gunners used to mix what ever was left of their Rum Ration (when they got it!) to Black Tea in the morning
to act as a livener, according to my Vets.
The Officers always got their Whisky, but Rum for the Gunners of the 10th Med was as & when, N.W.Europe.
Best
Rob

 

I think what Ron is asking about here is saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Stories of it being placed in the food of military establishments, prisons, even boy's boarding schools have been around for years.

But is it true?

Snopes and just about every medical site says no:

http://www.snopes.com/military/saltpeter.asp

I did find the reply here amusing:

http://www.healthcentral.com/peoplespharmacy/408/60624.html

With symptoms like that, I imagine that, er, "bedroom workouts" would be the last thing on one's mind.

Regards,

Dave

 

It's interesting that in a Google search there are a number of quotes along the lines of "I remember seeing the cooks putting in bromide when I was on cookhouse duties". However, I'm yet to see one from an actual cook!

 

Now we are getting nearer to what Bud & I were discussing last night.

I've amended the thread title to get us away from "Gunfire" which has always been used to describe the rum issue sometimes drunk with early morning tea.

Saltpetre ?

And if that was the mythical substance, was it ever discussed in Part II orders ?

I apologise for the previous use of the word "Gunfire" in the thread title which led us into discussion of Rum Issue, an entirely different subject on which we have ruminated before.

So what was the mystery stuff, was it administered to us and did it work ?

The jury is still out

Ron

 

Dave

I've had a chance to look at your Snopes view on the subject and kick myself for not using that excellent site earlier.

Im still hoping that someone will come up with a definitive report made by the Army on the subject.

Ron

 

I agree with Tom . . . but, hey, what this about rum in the early morning cuppa? In the infantry it was just tea! Black, hot sweet tea! There would be someone detailed to collect a cooking billet of tea at reveille and you would dip your enamel mug into the brew to collect your ration. The 'gunfire' was the flatulence that followed drinking the hot tea on an empty stomach!

If it had had rum in it, we would never have seen the orderly until picked up later on in the day when he had slept it off!

Joe Brown.

 

I'd have thought the Medical Services / RAMC museum would be able to clear it up? If bromide was used it must have been done under some level of medical supervision.

 

Snopes article by Barbara Mikkelson is good - 'the Saltpeter principle'. I have asked old soldiers about this notion on occasion and they largely concluded it was mythical - potassium bromide was first conceived of as a cure for epilepsy, which was thought to have been caused by masturbation? It does indeed calm sexual excitement but the side effects are lethargy and lack of attention - the original, 'do not drive or operate machinery while taking this medication'. Can't see it leading to an efficient fighting force, although wikipedia says tons of it were used in a year by hospitals in the late 19th century as a means of calming seizures and 'nervous disorders' - replaced by pheno-barbitol before WW1 and by barbiturates and various psychotropic drugs later. Paul Fussell in 'Wartime' (a good read for anyone) has a whole chapter about sex and I think while sexual activity and the contraction of venereal disease was indeed a huge problem for all military organisations, particularly those in peacetime with large numbers of young men 'abroad' in every sense of the word; wartime didn't remove the subject, it just forced it lower down the league table of preoccupations.

 

IT was common knowledge that bromide was added to the tea in the training establishment. Oddly enough, we had precious little to do with members of the opposite sex... I certainly did not! In that way the war robbed us of a normal youthful age of discovery.....

It was not until I came out of Hospital that I discovered Girls.. I then tried my very best to make up for lost time.. And it has to be said, with a deal of success.... HUGE GRIN

I enjoyed this voyage of "Discovery" And the company of the lovely Girls. that helped me spend my hard earned cash... Even BIGGER GRIN.
Happy memories..... And it also has to be said, that I did my very best in this "Voyage of discovery"

 

I had the misfortune (believe me, at age 15, it is a misfortune) to attend an all boys Roman Catholic boarding school in Northern Ontario. The eggs always had a green tint to them, but I attributed that to the abilities of the cook, who it turned out had been a cook in the Wehrmacht 30 years earlier. His specialty of "peanut butter soup" wasn't much better.

But for the 60 or so of us forced to eat that slop daily it had zero effect on libido. Just ask the lasses who attended the all girls college on the other side of town.

Regards,

Dave

 

That is so sad

 

In his book Sex and the British, the author Paul Ferris refers to the use of bromide to reduce the sexual libido of soldiers. But once again, it's not true.


http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/06/29/2611115.htm#.UcyRQDsp9NM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromide

 

and why wouldn't you want your soldier , standing to attention on parade?

Gunfire is still supplied to troops today, but usually only on special occasions such as christmas / corps day.

Im afraid the Bromide Tea was just a huge urban myth - mind you, for those of us who served in the cold war and after
the myth surrounded the laxative-laced chocolate bar in the ration packs!!

:biggrin:

 

As I recall bromide just buggered up a good cup of char. I was always to knackered in training to worry about the fairer sex. I was too spotty to pull anyway!! Even "self help" was too much bother!!
Gunfire was issued by the officers on Christmas morning... a hot cup of char liberally spiced with rum. Not always welcome as one would be sleeping off the previous nights excesses.
Lionboxer