WWII Rations and Mess Kits

Here is something I found on the Web. "That each Italian soldier went to war equipped with his own government-issued espresso maker." Anyone know if this is true?

 

A SHORT WWII RATION HISTORY
In 1939, the U.S. Army developed a new classification system for its ration system based on tests conducted in the late 1920's and 1930's. The system was based on the classification of all rations as "Field Rations". The Field Ration Type A would closely correspond to the old Garrison Ration, and consisted of fresh food products prepared at some sort of permanent facility (mess hall). The Field Ration Type B would be essentially the same, with the subsitution of canned and dehydrated foods where refrigeration was not available. These were often prepared in some type of temporary small unit or mobile mess facility.
The Field Ration Type C, Type D, and Type K were to become the new individual combat rations, and were intended to provide adequate food to soldiers unable to be provided with any other type of standard ration for a short duration of time, say up to five days, or one day in the case of the D-Ration. Necessity or improper of the use of the combat rations by shortsighted commanders led to extended issue of the rations beyond their intended purpose. This in turn led to complaints regarding the monotony of the meals and the complete phasing out of some of the rations, such as the K-Ration, by the end of the 1940's.
U.S. Army Ration Type C
This ration traces its direct lineage to attempts by the army in 1938 to standardize earlier experimentation. At this point, a system was sought to carry an individual ration of a complete, balanced meal for the combat soldier. Eventually, a ration composed of six key-opening cans (one days ration), three meat or M-Units and three bread or B-Units, was recommended.
The M-Units consisted of: The M-1 Unit of Meat & Beans; the M-2 Unit of Meat & Vegetable Hash; and the M-3 Unit or Meat & Vegetable Stew. The B-Unit consisted of biscuits, a confection, sugar and coffee, additional soluble beverages being added later. The ration was tested in 12 oz., 15 oz. and 16 oz. cans, with the 12 oz. adopted as standard in late 1940. The smooth, gold-tone lacquered can was also adopted as standard at around the same time.
Labeling information was printed directly onto the can (although my research has turned up at least one period photograph with paper labels) and by approximately 1942/1943, labeling specifications required that the cans be marked with lithographed labels on the body or top as follows:

• U.S. ARMY FIELD RATION C
  M-1 UNIT (or M-2 or M-3)
  MEAT & BEANS (or MEAT & VEGETABLE HASH or MEAT & VEGETABLE STEW)
  List of Ingredients
  Net wt. 12 oz.
  Round U.S.D.A. Inspection Legend
  To Open: Use key attached to B-Unit Can
  

Test and early war cans appear to have had less information printed on them. For instance, they did not include the M-Unit information or the list of contents printed on them.

Labeling of the B-Unit can was similar, reading as follows:

• U.S. ARMY FIELD RATION C
  B UNIT
  SAVE KEY TO OPEN M-UNIT
  BISCUIT, CONFECTION, BEVERAGE
  

Labeling location and details varied with manufacturer and by year and the weight of the contents were often listed. Coffee was listed on early cans, since no other soluble beverage existed. Later, lemon and cocoa powder were added and the beverage contained in the can was embossed into the lid.
At some point during WWII, olive drab painted cans were introduced. In the closing year of the war, the number of meals was expanded to ten and additional items were added to the B-Unit for variety.
For shippment, 48 cans, eight cans of each M-Units and 24 B-Units were packed into nailed wooden box. Late in the war, improved cardboard containers replaced the wooden crate for packing and shipping.
U.S. Army Field Ration Type D
First emerging in 1937, this ration was intended to replace the emergency or "Armoured Ration" of WWI. Made up of vitamin fortified cholcolate bar containing chocolate sugar, oat flour, cocoa fat, skim milk and artificial coloring, three, 4 oz. bars constitiute a ration. This ration was only intended to be used for short durations, about one day, when no other ration was available.
Tests in 1940 called for some of the bars tested to be first sealed in aluminium foil, then wrapped in parchment paper, then kraft paper wrapped around the long axis, and then twelve bar being packed into a tin can.
By February 1942, packaging required the bar be wrapped in moisture resisting cellophane (due to an aluminium shortage) and placed in a waxed paperboard outer box. Orignial examples seem to indicate that the aluminium foil and parchment paper inside the waxed cardboard carton was used concurrently. The individual boxes were then packed into cartons of 12, which were in turn packed into wooden crates (12 to a crate for a total of 144) for shippment.
U.S. Army Field Ration Type K
Owing its origins to a three meal pocket ration developed for the paratroops (Parachute Ration), the K-Ration was adopted and standardized in 1942 by the U.S. Army due to its superior packaging, ease a of carrying and great variety of components.
Over the course of the war, its components constently changed as newer and more acceptable products were developed.
According to the Summer 1944 Edition of The Officer's Guide, the army K Ration consists of the following:
DESCRIPTION OF THE "K" RATION
Breakfast Units: K-1 Biscuits; K-2 Biscuits; Meat and Egg M-Unit; Fruit Bar; Soluble Coffee Product; Sugar Cubes; Cigarettes; Chewing Gum; & A Key.
Dinner Units: K-1 Biscuits; K-2 Biscuits; Cheese Product M-Unit; Confection; Lemon Juice Powder; Sugar Cubes; Cigarettes; Chewing Gum; Matches; & A Key.
Supper Units: K-1 Biscuits; K-2 Biscuits; Meat Product M-Unit; Chocolate Bar (Field Ration D); Boullion Powder; Cigarettes; Chewing Gum; Toilet Tissue; & A Key.
At least four distinct variations appeared during the war, and my research indicates there were seven in all, each varying somewhat in contents and packaging. All consisted of three meals, Breakfast, Dinner and Supper, and were packaged and marked so on both the inner and outer boxes.
The ration culminated in the colored "morale boxes" with a wax coated inner box and a colored box to indicate Breakfast, Dinner or Supper, each of which was a different color.
Twelve complete rations (twelve Breakfast Units, twelve Dinner Units, and twelve Supper Units) were packed in a cardboard box and overpacked in a nailed wooden box for shipping
Unit and Special Purpose Rations
Special rations developed during the war included:

• The jungle ration;
  The mountain ration;
  The 5-In-1 ration; and
  The 10-In-1 ration.

All contained numerous canned, dehydrated or dryed foodstuffs, as well as components from other rations. Also, all were packaged in one to four part cardboard containers.
By mid-1943, all but the 10-In-1 ration were discontinued in a trend to reduce the number of special purpose rations.
Per the Summer 1944 Edition of The Officer's Guide, an abbriviated list of 10-in-1 included the following:
A TYPICAL "10-IN-1" MENU
Breakfast: Cereal; Bacon and Eggs; Biscuits; Jam; Coffee; and Milk.
Dinner: An abbrievaited K Ration and K Ration Egg Product M-Unit.
Supper: Corned Beef Hash; Lima Beans; Biscuits; Butter; Chocolate Bar; and Grape Drink.

 

Now that we have Ron's take on the rations, I wonder if Jack could give us his story on them?

 

Just as it is today, Canada was a little like the British, a little like the Americans, combined with French and other cultures that made it Canadian.

A special cookbook was issued to the War Brides who came from Britain to Canada, the entier cookbook is here. Canadian Cook book for British Wives, Cookbook for British Wives, CanadianWarBrides.com

The first few pages tell what was different in eating customs.

 

True, JC. You just have to give me time Jeff, you know I always have something to say when Canada comes up!

I gave a partial reply to post 33 in my post re the War Brides. As in the US, there was and is a degree of regional custom in meals that is often driven by both availability of product and ethnicity. In the past the availability and ethnicity of a given area was stronger than today when most of us have been exposed to most foods and where I can walk into any of my local grocery stores and buy any ethnicity food. I don't know if it is true, however, that food is as dominant a factor elsewhere as it is here. Sometimes it seems as if we aren't eating we're talking about it, watching it, or reading about it! In the WWII first person books that I've read by Canadian servicemen, food comes up very frequently. For many of the servicemen, the Depression had reduced their access to many foods - then they were in Britain for several years where regardless of earning more per day than the British troops they were also rationed as what was available depended on what the Merchant Fleet could bring across the Atlantic.

A couple of different quotes from the books:

Tug of War Dennis Whitaker

Re the Breskens Pocket
The North Nova Scotia Highlanders:
"A full keg of rum told its mute story of the havy casualties. Sparks had all the rum rations sent over to the fighting troops, about six or seven hundre ounces a day: "A number of the men never took there rations and A and B Echelons didn't get much, so we ended up with gallons of rum. But by then we just didn't have enough officers or men to drink it up."

Actually, I'll continue in the next post, as I keep timing out when I'm typing up excerpts from books unless I type it up elsewhere first, and I get frustrated when it just disappears!

 

Morning bacon is the strips, which is why I always find it amusing to see back bacon called Canadian Bacon in the U.S. I have to say though that the bacon I've had in the U.S., plus the milk, and the butter do not taste the same. The bacon I get tends to be hickory or maple smoked and what I had in California and Florida I found tasteless (however the orange juice in both those locations was superior!). I notice regional differences here though in some meats and dairy products - both the seasonings, preparation, and I expect as a result of the minerals from the soils in which the grass or grain are grown which the animals eat.

 

Tug of War

The Bresken Pocket

"And always, there was the water. Fighting on land flooded by the Germans and soaked by the raw October rains, the riflemen were continually wet and cold. To Dan Spry, this was the unbeatable foe: "The troops were always soaked and really exhausted. If we'd had fresh, warm dry men to to put in there we could have done the job faster. As it was, we finally had to pull some out, send them through the mobile baths, give them clean dry uniforms and socks, serve them a decent meal and few tots of rum and then we'd leapfrog them back into the fight and pull some other poor Water Rats out."

At a time when grimness took on a whole new meaning, the smallest particle of humour could be life saving. Spry recalls the incident that sent a wave of chuckles through the trenches. Feeding the tropps was just one of the major difficulties in moving supplies forward. Only at night could Compo Rations,* heated up in vats of hot water, be ferried over by crews from the quartermaster's store. To troops isolated in sodden trenches, a tin of hot food tossed from a passing rowboat was a welcome break.

"In the course of heating up the tins, " Spry smiles, "the labels would sometimes get burned off. One night, a soldier broke silence with a roar of protest. "Goddamn it, this is the third night in a row I've been given tinned jam!""

*The endnote here says "Compo-rations, which were usually packaged in units of fourteen meals, consisted of a variety of tinned goods that were supposed to provide all the daily dietary need. Each pack would contain several kinds of meats - sausage, stew, spam, bully beef, etc. - vegateables, fruit, cheese, butter and jam, as well as cigarettes, candy and toilet paper."

 

Part 1

The Guns of Normandy: A Soldier’s Eye View, France 1944 George G. Blackburn
4th Field RCA, 2nd Division
Chapter 6 Compo Rations July 1-10

“In time you learn that the main part of Caen, lying west of the Orne River, the airfield at Carpiquet, and a series of villages – with names like Verson and Bretteville-sur-Odon, soon to become familiar to 2nd Division – have been taken. But throughout July 8 and 9, the guns of 4th Field remain limbered up in the calm, green pastures of Sommervieu. And when the last vestige of water-proofing gunk is removed from the vehicles, the daylight hours are largely occupied with learning how to deal with “Composite Ration Packs” – boxes of canned rations designed to allow men to mess in small syndicates, each syndicate heating up its own food.

This, evidently, will be the arrangement from now on, and individual boxes have been issued to each gun crew, carrier crew, command-post crew, and so on. But this presents certain problems in logistics. A daily menu, supplied with each box, provides for ‘breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper’ for fourteen men for one day, or seven men for two days, or 3.5 men for four days. Even overlooking the fact there are no half-men in the syndicates, these multiples present puzzles in scheduling and rationing for the mathematically inclined in six-man gun crews, four-man carrier crews, and command posts with more than seven but fewer than fourteen men.

There are various types of Compo boxes, each identified by a letter of the alphabet (from A to E at least) stencilled on the box, each type containing a different variety of tinned food. And deliveries to the troops are not all of one type for one day and another the next, but are a mixture so that there is no telling what you will get next.

The various types of boxes have been shuffled and mixed up at some supply base to ensure variety even within units, and to head off any charges of favouritism that might result from delivery patterns of more popular types of boxes.

The virtues of such rations are easily recognized, particularly for isolated OP (observation post) carrier crews. But still a fourteen-man box means four-man crews eat the same grub for three and a half days, and if, through the luck of the draw, their next box carries the same letter of the alphabet (as it may well do), they’ll eat the same thing for seven days. And who’s to say they won’t get the same box three times in a row, providing no change of menu for ten and a half days.

For a while at least there’ll be a certain excitement in receiving a Compo box. Finding you’ve been given the one with the can of peaches is like winning a lottery."

 

Part 2
Continued from Post #49

​

Composite Ration Pack​

Type E​

(14 men for one day)​

​

Contents and Suggested Use​

BREAKFAST Tea * 3 tins (2 tall, 1 flat
Tea, Sugar & Milk
Powder)
†Sausage (1 hr.) 2 tins
Biscuit * 1 tin
Margarine * 1 tin
(*Items marked thus are also to provide for other meals)
DINNER †Haricot Oxtail
(1/2 hr.) 12 tins
†Vegetables (1/2 hr.) 2 tins
†Pudding (1 hr.) 3 tins (2 large, 1 small)
TEA Tea - (*see above)
Biscuit - (*see above)
Margarine - (*see above)
Sardines 8 tins
SUPPER Cheese 1 tin
Biscuit - (*see above)
EXTRAS 2 tins (1 round, 1 flat –
7 cigarettes per man)
Sweets 2 tins (1 tall, 1 flat)
Salt - (packed in flat
Matches - sweet can)
Chocolate 1 tin (1 slab per man)
Latrine Paper
Soap 1 tablet

DIRECTIONS​

Tea, Sugar and Milk Powder. - Use a dry spoon and sprinkle powder on
Heated water and bring to boil, stirring well. 3 heaped teaspoonfuls to 1 pint of water.
†May be eaten hot or cold. To heat, place unopened tins in boiling water for
the minimum period as indicated. Sausage and pudding cut into ½-inch slices,
may be fried (using margarine) if preferred.)


Since everything is already cooked, the tins have only to be heated up. And though only a few syndicates, such as battery-command posts, have equipped themselves with little petrol Primus stoves, within hours of the need presenting itself, the sand-box stove comes into common use. This consisted of a tin box (the bottom half of a hardtack tin) loaded with sand and saturated with petrol. The fumes rising from the sand are set alight, under the other half of the hardtack tin half-filled with water in which the unopened ration tins are set to heat. While very smoky and grossly energy-inefficient, sand-box stoves can’t be blown out by wind, and their flickering flames are capable of staying alive through all but the heaviest rain.

 

Part 3 from posting #50

A great deal of time is spent reading directions and experimenting with methods of heating the contents of cans of “M & V” (meat and vegetable stew), “Steak & Kidney Pudding” (a can lined with thick dough and filled with a solidified concoction posing as chopped beef and kidney), “Sultana Pudding” (resembling a dried-out fruit cake that can be sliced and eaten cold with slices of canned cheddar), and “Treacle Pudding” (a caramel-coated creation that is especially pleasant when warmed up). One thing you quickly learn is that if the contents of a can requires heating to be really palatable, then it must be heated through and through – something not easily accomplished in the case of the “Steak and Kidney Pudding,” due, you suspect, to the efficient insulation provided by the thick mass of dough lining the tin and surrounding the glutinous mess within.

It won’t be long before repetition destroys all enjoyment of these rations, but so far Compo meals have been in some ways superior to many past meals developed by the cooks from fresh rations. A notable exception was breakfast the first morning: pre-cooked bacon. Cold, it plopped out of the can in a sickly white, cylindrical blob. Heated, it turned into liquid grease, which when poured off left a pitiful residue of red strings representing the lean meat that had streaked the fused rashers.

In each box there are two tins of “Boiled Sweets” (hard candies that contain no sugar), small slabs of very hard and remarkably tasteless chocolate (one per man per day), and two tins of cigarettes, one flat and one round, allowing seven cigarettes per man per day.

But, unquestionably, the feature of Compo rations destined to be remembered beyond all others is Compo tea: tea made from tea leaves already mixed with powdered milk and powdered sugar,. Directions say to “sprinkle powder on heated water and bring to the boil, stirring well, three heaped teaspoons to one pint of water.”

Every possible variation in the preparation of this tea is being tried, but so far it always ends up the same way. While still too hot to drink, it is a good-looking cup of strong tea. Even when it becomes just cool enough to be sipped gingerly, it is still a good-tasting cup of tea, if you like you tea strong and sweet. But let it cool enough to be quaffed and enjoyed, and your lips will be coated with a sticky scum that forms across the surface, which if left undisturbed will become a leathery membrane that can be wound around your finger and flipped away like something made of gutta-percha.”

 

Im still waiting to see about the Italian Army personal espresso machines. LOL

 

Assault Lunch
The need for a lightweight, small, and concentrated ration to provide assault troops with an easily carried prepared food, which would bridge the gap between the beginning of actual combat and the restoration of normal supply functions, became evident during the amphibious campaigns in the Pacific in 1944. An early improvisation of such a ration packed in the Hawaiian Islands included such commercial products as hard candy, chocolate bars, gum, cigarettes, and matches. The packet was assembled in a waterproof, flexible bag and distributed to troops just prior to the assault landings. The candy theme was followed in the subsequent development of the Assault Lunch. Progress was accelerated late in 1944 when the military characteristics for such a lunch were defined by the Army Ground Forces. An assault ration, AGF stated, should provide 1,500 to 2,000 calories; be unaffected by temperatures ranging between -60 F. and 130 F.; be packaged to protect contents from mold, moisture, rough handling, and pilferage, be easy to open and remain stable for six months. During the period preceding the specification, consideration was given to adding fruit Juices, soluble coffee, and compressed cereal but such items were not in the end included.56 As specified, the Lunch contained chocolate bars, caramels, dried fruit (prunes and raisins), chewing gum, peanuts, salt tablets, cigarettes, matches, and water-purification tablets. The components were placed compactly in a plastic-film packet with an adhesive-tape reclosable feature. Forty-five packets were packed in a 6½-gallon metal drum for shipment and distribution.
Because the item came at the close of hostilities, its effectiveness was never fully established. In September 1947, the specification was cancelled for the cryptic reason that the item was "no longer required for quartermaster supply." 57
Type X Ration
A "confidential" specification for Ration, Type X was issued early in 1944. 58 This ration was intended as an assault-type item to be issued to troops 'just before or during invasion." Components were K biscuits, chocolate or D bars, bouillon powder, soluble coffee, fruit bars, sugar, gum, hard candy, canned meat, and multi-vitamin tablets. Packaging designated a partial assembly of components in a water-vapor-resistant box. The entire ration was packed in a wax-dipped or wax-paper-wrapped carton. The theme of secrecy was carried out in the labeling requirements which stated that "there shall be no labels, printing, or identifying marks of any kind on any packaging materials for this ration nor on any component parts of the ration." It was reported that 600,000 rations were procured in December 1943 and an additional 250,000 in December 1944. No results of tests or field experiences are contained in the records, probably because the participation of SR&DL was limited to preparing the packaging requirements for the specification. The X ration may have some claim to being a predecessor of the Assault Lunch in purpose but there the resemblance ends. This "confidential" item proved to be one of the rations of World War II which was developed for a special purpose and then disappeared.

Army Rations-Historical Background

 

Also has any of out WWII Vets here had the opportunity to try the rations of our allies or enemy?

 

Hey Skipper? Any finds on the French "rations de combat" for WWII yet?

 

Parachute Emergency Ration
The predecessor to the parachute emergency ration used in the latter part of World War II was the bailout ration procured by the Air Forces in 1942. The bailout was designed as a survival item to be contained in the parachute pack and used after emergency parachute landings. In the final procurement in 1943, it included a combination of D bars, fruit bars, hard candy, lemon-juice powder, and K biscuits. After 1943, the bailout was abandoned in favor of the "ration, parachute, emergency," a pack designed to fit the pocket of the Air Force emergency vest. The components for the new parachute pack included sweet chocolate, hard candy, dehydrated cheese and crackers, bouillon cubes, sugar, cigarettes, water-purification tablets, soluble coffee, chewing gum, and a small cellophane bag to contain the uneaten food after the can had been opened. The ration weighed 11½ ounces and contained about 1,062 calories.69 The parachute ration went through the war without major change and remained in official standing until February of 1952 when the specification was cancelled.70
Airborne Lifeboat Ration
An airborne lifeboat ration was developed in 1944 to meet an Air Force requirement for a ration suitable for stowing in lifeboats dropped from aircraft to survivors of airplane ditchings or parachute drops over water. Initial requirements of the ration were governed by the storage space allotted for the purpose within the lifeboat. As standardized, the packaged ration contained food for two men for one meal, each package including a breakfast and supper unit. Two menus or component groupings lent variety to the units. The breakfast menu included a B unit from the C ration, a canned meat-food combination (four types were specified), condensed soup, matches, and toilet paper. In the supper menu, the B units and meat items were augmented with liferaft rations. Each menu was packaged in a fiberboard container and stowed in the lifeboat at the boat manufacturer's plant.71 The ration was unchanged in composition during the period it was in production. Procurement was halted in 1944 and development discontinued. The specification was cancelled in 1949.
Liferaft Ration
The request of a commercial airline for a ration to be used on liferafts has been cited by a World War II historian as the origin of the Liferaft ration.72 Although the quartermaster Corps produced a four-pound ration comprised of nine items suitable to the purpose in view, the ration was not adapted to Army use because of its bulk. A highly concentrated ration, weighing less than one pound and occupying a space not greater than 6 by 2 by 4 inches, was suggested as a substitute for the commercial prototype. To meet these physical requirements and on the supposition that food of high carbohydrate content was most satisfactory for sustaining life when water intake was restricted, the quartermaster Corps developed the confection Ration, Liferaft. The confections selected were fruit-flavored hard-candy tablets. Ten packages of these candies were contained in a key-opening, rectangular metal can approximately 4 by 3 by 3 inches in size. Chewing gum and six B-complex vitamin tablets were included to utilize all the can's space.73 Directions for use printed on the can declared that "one to two packages of candy and one vitamin pill should be eaten each day by each man-chewing the gum will help keep your mouth clean." Additional instructions appeared on a printed sheet placed in the can. They assured the user that the contents were "the best solid food for eating while living on a liferaft," directed him to eat two packages of candy and one vitamin pill each day, informed him how long the ration would last and how to open the bag for unused components, and instructed him not to open a second can until the contents of the first were used. They also told him to conserve the ration if he was successful in catching fish.74
A "lifeboat and liferaft ration" was procured as early as 1942 for use by the Coast Guard and the merchant marines. Components included C biscuits, pemmican, chocolate tablets, and milk tablets. Packaging was in airtight containers. Components were purchased by the Chicago quartermaster Depot for shipment to depots or ports where the complete ration was assembled under the supervision of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation.75

Army Rations-Historical Background

 

Not exactly Military rations LOL.

WWII recipes from the Ministry of Food



Last Updated: 1:10am GMT 29/03/2008





Two recipes by Marguerite Patten, a home economist at the Ministry of Food during the Second World War:
WOOLTON PIE
Ingredients:
advertisement

1 lb each of diced potatoes, cauliflower, swedes and carrots;
Three or four spring onions;
One teaspoonful of vegetable extract;
1 oz of oatmeal or rolled oats.
Method:
Dice and cook the potatoes, cauliflower, swedes and carrots in boiling salted water.
Strain, but keep three-quarters of a pint of the vegetable water.
Arrange the vegetables in a large pie dish or casserole. Add the vegetable extract and the rolled oats or oatmeal to the vegetable liquid. Cook until thickened and pour over the vegetables.
Add three or four chopped spring onions.
EGGLESS SPONGE
Ingredients:
6 oz self-raising flour with one level teaspoon of baking powder, or 6 oz plain flour with three level teaspoons of baking powder
2.5 oz margarine
2 oz sugar
1 level tablespoon golden syrup
A quarter of a pint of milk, or milk and water
Jam for filling
Method:
Sift the flour and baking powder. Cream the margarine, sugar and golden syrup until soft and light, add a little flour, then a little liquid.
Continue like this until it is a smooth mixture. Grease and flour two 7in sandwich tins and divide the mixture between the two. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until firm to touch, just above the centre of a moderately hot oven.
Turn out and sandwich with jam.

WWII recipes from the Ministry of Food - Telegraph

 

I may have to try these out .

 

"Rations as a Factor in Paratroop Efficiency" from Intelligence Bulletin

[SIZE=-1]A report on German paratrooper rations, from the Intelligence Bulletin, June 1944.
[Editor's Note: The following article is wartime information on enemy tactics and equipment published for Allied soldiers. In most cases, more accurate data is available in postwar publications.] [/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]

RATIONS AS A FACTOR IN PARATROOP EFFICIENCY​

[/SIZE]

It is popularly but wrongly supposed that German paratroopers are granted special ration privileges at all times. Membership in German parachute units (as in the case of U.S. Army parachute units) is on a voluntary basis, and in this connection the Germans put out a good deal of propaganda about special rations, to attract volunteers. The truth is that enemy paratroops receive special rations only just before actual parachute operations. When these soldiers are to go into combat as ordinary infantrymen, no additional rations are issued.
However, the specially planned rations that are given to German paratroopers prior to jumping (both in training and in combat) have a significance, the importance of which will not escape the intelligent U.S. fighting man. These rations include items which are not only attractive to the Germans, thereby building morale, but which will actually increase the physical stamina of the paratroop personnel. Incidentally, the special rations, creating a heartier appetite, lead to greater consumption of ordinary food; although the latter may be less attractive, they are energy-giving and naturally help to improve physical fitness.
White bread and dairy products, such as milk and fresh eggs, are considered real luxuries by the German soldiers; these items normally are not issued to troops of the other arms and services as part of the regular diet. On the day that a jump is to be made, German paratroopers are given the following, in addition to their normal ration:
approx. .7 lb. white bread
approx. .25 lb. crackers
approx. .06 lb. butter
approx. 1 pt. fresh milk
1 fresh egg
A ration of an entirely different kind is issued on days when long flights are to be made. The Germans have studied the nutritional benefits of specialized rations, and have concluded that on long flights regular rations sit too heavily on the stomach. The rations described below are issued only when two flights of two hours duration are to be made, or a single flight lasting four hours or more.
approx. .16 lb. crystallized fruits
approx. .25 lb. crackers
approx. .01 lb. sugar
approx. .04 lb. butter
1 bar of chocolate substitute
Analysis of this ration indicates that it contains an abundance of energy-giving foods which will sustain an individual without causing gastric discomfort.
The Germans have adopted an iron ration which is intended to last for a three-day period during operations. This emergency ration is similar to those developed by the United States and Great Britain. A ration of this bulk can easily be carried on the person, and provides the necessary "lift" for a man to carry out the most arduous tasks. It consists of: 2 cans of sausage
2 cans of cheese
1 bar of chocolate substitute
1 package of crackers
6 packages of chewing gum
1 package of lemonade powder
1 package of coffee mixed with sugar
1 tablet of solid fuel for heating The iron rations are intended to make the German paratrooper self-sufficient for a limited period of time. Inclusion of the fuel tablet allows him to prepare a hot beverage, and yet maintain individual security precautions. This tablet burns for about 5 minutes, yielding a smokeless white flame 2 or 3 inches high.



Lone Sentry: Rations as a Factor in Paratroop Efficiency (WWII U.S. Intelligence Bulletin, June 1944)

 

It seems that this type of field cooking became the norm in later years. I have a couple og West German field stoves that I use for camping.