WWII Rations and Mess Kits

Dangerous in a submarine Za

 

Some things weren't very well thought out when it came to rations in close quarters. LOL.

Emergency rations for German aircraft in North Africa.

2 liters of bottled water

Emergency rations (hard sausage, hard biscuits, cola, Dextro-Energen,* Pervitin, cognac)

*Grape-sugar tablets.

 

US sub food.

"At his first meal he stared in disbelief at the quantity and quality of the food. That night the menu called for steak, mushrooms, fresh frozen peas, ice cream and the works."

Submarine Commander: A Story of ... - Google Book Search

 

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Galley (kitchen). USS COD SS-224 World War II Fleet Submarine.​

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When compared to other submarines the US Navy Mess looks spacious!!!



Mess. USS COD SS-224 World War II Fleet Submarine.

 

The British submarine galley compared
unfavourably with the US Navy version,
but it worked.

The intimate surroundings of the forward mess. This is in HMS/M Graph, the ex-German Type VII U-boat.

Two pictures from HMS/M Seawolf, above from 1943, in the Stokers' Mess., and, left, from 1945, teatime. (These lower four pictures kindly supplied by the late Dave Perkins, NS, Canada)

Compared to the US sub above which would you choose?

 

H.M.S RELENTLESS

"The food was generally good apart from the “proverbial destroyer breakfast” which consisted of a cup of tea, a cigarette and a good cough. Actually at the beginning of each sea trip there was available a slice of bread, butter and jam, whilst stocks lasted.
The messing arrangements were “canteen messing” which meant each mess prepared its own food for the one cook to cook it. Any baking had to be prepared on the mess deck. Each mess was given an allowance and bought its own food from a central point. If we overspent we had to make it up out of our own pocket; but if we underspent we got a shareout. Mostly we broke even."

BBC - WW2 People's War - THE STORY OF MY LIFE ON BOARD THE DESTROYER H.M.S RELENTLESS 1944/1945 CHAPTER 1

 

"Christmas 1942, like the previous Christmas, saw the Squadron split again. C Flight were preparing the landing ground at an airfield called Gzina well ahead of the main army forces while the rest of the Squadron remained at Marble Arch. However, the Squadron cooks didn't forget C Flight; they sent them a truck loaded with turkeys, hams, plumb pudding, sweets and beer, all part of some special supplies flown up from Alexandria. In Marble Arch, a big combined Army-Air Force church service was held and attended by General Alexander and General Montgomery, who read the lesson"






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On a holiday note. We all have heard of the US and British armies and their tradition of serving a hot Christmas dinner and for the US a hot Thanksgiving dinner. Does anyone know of any other holiday meals or traditions in the other militaries?

 

A few great stories and photos of Thanksgiving during the war.

Thanksgiving During WW II

Happy Thanksgiving from the Skylighters



Admiral Halsey (center, top) eats Thanksgiving dinner with the crew
of the USS New Jersey (BB-62) November 30, 1944 (U.S. Navy Photo,
National Archives No. 80-G-291498).

 

I seem to recall that the UK forces celebrated "Boxing Day" in the field also. Is that correct?

 

Eating Thanksgiving dinner at the Front

 

From canned eggs to fresh lobster, local veterans have seen it all
Sunday, May 28, 2006
U.S. Marines line up for chow served in the jungle of Guadalcanal in January 1943. The World War II battle for the Japanese-occupied Pacific island lasted from August 1942 to February 1943.
By Marlene Parrish
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteOriginally known as Decoration Day, a time to honor and decorate the graves of the men and women who lost their lives serving our country, Memorial Day has also come to be the official beginning of summer's picnic and grilling season. As a salute to both our military veterans and our obsession with food, we talked about food with men and women now serving, as well as with veterans of earlier conflicts. We asked them where they served and what they were served -- specifically, "How was the grub?"
WORLD WAR II

John NevilleCommander John Neville, retired, V.P.B. 961 Anti-submarine Warfare Squadron, lives on Mount Washington. "ON DEC. 7, 1941, I was playing bridge in the frat house at Westminster College. We had the radio on. When we heard FDR's speech saying, 'This is a day that will live in infamy,' that was the first we heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The speech profoundly affected us; we were aghast.
By January, our campus was flooded with service recruiters. As a group, we said, 'Let's sign up as naval aviators. That's the cream of the crop.'
From 1943 to 1946, I was stationed in the Pacific, deployed to a tiny coral reef island, Palmyra. We were only eight officers and about 50 enlisted. I flew PBY air-sea rescue aircraft and TBFs, torpedo bombers. I was the pilot, with a radio man and a gunner. Sure, we were shot at by the Japanese, but our planes were so well-built that we were not knocked out. I had friends who had to jump.
After an operation, we'd return to the island. Our skipper wore wings, but he was afraid to fly. True! He was sort of a Captain Queeg type. While we were gone, he'd have one of the seamen take him out fishing. We'd fly back to a dinner of freshly caught fish. That was the first time I had fresh tuna and shark steak.
We also had this little skinny guy, a chief gunner's mate, who liked to wade out into the surf and catch langusta by hand. They're sort of like king crabs. We'd cook them up in kettles, fresh out of the ocean. We felt bad for the poor guys in the trenches eating rations. I never saw them."

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Christmas 1944 Huertgen Forest

 

Dinner

 

2nd Squad, 2nd Platoon "B" Company299th Combat Engineer Battalion November 1944

 

"It seemed that the period from then to early March of 1945 was just a series of attacks, holding actions, retreats all within the region of Alsace in the region of the Maginot and Siegfried lines. We lived in foxholes, barns, and houses and sometimes with no shelter at all. We survived on K-rations, C-rations and an occasional hot meal. In the states, complaining about the Army food was a favorite topic of conversation but in combat, the kitchen crew (Mess Hall) did everything in their power to get us good hot food, if at all possible. For our 1944 Thanksgiving dinner they prepared a turkey dinner with all the fixings but were not able to reach us with the dinner until several days later."

Roger

 

"On Thanksgiving day 1944 we had a Thanksgiving dinner on the front line. The field kitchen crew had set up two tables in a clearing in the forest. There was a big bowl of turkey and dressing and a smaller bowl of other fixings. After we ate they put the tables back at the edge of the forest."

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