WWII Rations and Mess Kits

Goose for dinner??

 

It's not just for breakfast anymore.

 

LOL Notice that all the other troops are smiling .

 

The Logan Bar or D Ration
The first emergency chocolate ration bar commissioned by the United States Army was the Ration D, commonly known as the D ration. Army Quartermaster Colonel Paul Logan approached Hershey's Chocolate in April 1937, and met with William Murrie, the company president, and Sam Hinkle, the chief chemist. Milton Hershey was extremely interested in the project when he was informed of the proposal, and the meeting began the first experimental production of the D ration bar.
Colonel Logan had four requirements for the D ration Bar. The bar must:

1. Weigh 4 ounces
2. Be high in food energy value
3. Be able to withstand high temperatures
4. Taste "a little better than a boiled potato"

Its ingredients were chocolate, sugar, oat flour, cacao fat, skim milk powder, and artificial flavoring. Chocolate manufacturing equipment was built to move the flowing mixture of liquid chocolate and oat flour into preset molds. However, the temperature-resistant formula of chocolate became a gooey paste that would not flow at any temperature.
Chief chemist Hinkle was forced to develop entirely new production methods to produce the bars. Each four-ounce portion had to be kneaded, weighed, and pressed into a mold by hand. The end result was an extremely hard block of dark brown chocolate that would crumble with some effort and was heat-resistant to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
The resultant bar was wrapped in aluminum foil. Three bars sealed in a parchment packet consisted a daily ration and was intended to furnish the individual combat soldier with the 1,800 calorie minimum sustenance recommended each day.
Colonel Logan was pleased with the first small batch of samples. In June 1937, the United States Army ordered 90,000 D ration or "Logan Bars" and field tested them at bases in the Philippines, Panama, on the Texas border, and at other bases throughout the United States. Some of the bars even found their way into the supplies for Admiral Byrd's third Antarctic expedition. These field tests were successful, and the Army began making irregular orders for the bars.
With the onset of America's involvement in World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the bars were ordered to be packaged to make them poison gas proof. The 4-ounce bars' boxes were covered with an anti-gas coating and were packed 12 to a cardboard carton, which was also coated. These cartons were packed 12 to a wooden crate for a total of 144 bars to a crate.
Colonel Logan had specified that the D ration taste only a bit better than "a boiled potato", believing that if the chocolate bar tasted good, troops would eat them casually instead of waiting until they needed them for an emergency meal. Unfortunately, the Hershey chemists may have erred too much on the side of unpalatability; the D ration was almost universally detested for its bitter taste by U.S. troops, and was often discarded instead of consumed when issued.[1] Troops called the D ration "Hitler's Secret Weapon" for its effect on soldiers' intestinal tracts.[2] It could not be eaten at all by soldiers with poor dentition, and even those with good dental work often found it necessary to first shave slices off the bar with a knife before consuming.[3]

[edit] The Tropical Bar

In 1943, the Procurement Division of the Army approached Hershey about producing a confectionery-style chocolate bar with improved flavor that would still withstand extreme heat for issue in the Pacific Theater. After a short period of experimentation, the Hershey company began producing Hershey's Tropical Bar. The bar was designed for issue with field and specialty rations such as the K ration, and originally came in 1-ounce and 2-ounce sizes. After 1945, it came in 4-ounce D ration sizes as well.
The Tropical Bar (it was always called the D ration throughout the war, despite its new appellation) had more of a resemblance to normal chocolate bars in its shape and flavor than the original D ration, which it gradually replaced by 1945. While their attempt to sweeten its flavor were somewhat successful, nearly all U.S. soldiers found the Tropical Bar tough to chew and unappetizing; reports from countless memoirs and field reports are almost uniformly negative. Instead, the bar was either discarded or traded to unsuspecting Allied troops or civilians for more appetizing foods or goods. Resistance to accepting the ration soon appeared among the latter groups after the first few trades. In the Burma theater of war (CBI), the D ration or Tropical Bar did make one group of converts: it was known as the "dysentery ration", since the bar was the only ration those ill with dysentery could tolerate.[4]
In 1957, the bar's formula was changed to make it more appetizing. The unpopular oat flour was deleted, 'non-fat milk solids' replaced 'skim-milk powder', 'Cocoa powder' replaced 'cacao fat' and artificial vanilla flavoring was added. It greatly improved the flavor of the bar, but it was still hard to chew.

United States military chocolate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

You mentioned "bacon pastries". My wife makes em all the time. It is called quiche. DELICIOUS stuff. Egg, bacon, cheese, baked in a pastry shell. She then ladles some homemade 74 alarm chili on top. Then puts sliced habanero peppers on top. Then some chipotle cheese. Then, and this is why I love her to the ends to time, she gives me a cold Corona with lime.

Sorry I have been away for a while. I am getting my teaching license, and this semester is a real beast in terms of coursework, student-teaching, sub-teaching (to make SOME money), Powerpoint presentations, and research. I am also doing coursework for my PhD in Curriculum and Testing (proposed dissertation: The Immediate Effects of Meta-Cognitive Assessment on Primary Knowledge Acquisition" how about THAT for some educationese? ) Ciao all!

 

Hey John Christian...I wanted to mention...

My real name is Lawrence. I saw Wizards in the theater, back in the 80s, in Greenwich Village. I was wearing a forest green down vest at the time. When "Larry" came on and started speaking of itself in the third person, I instantly went from being "Lawrence" to "Larry". I hate that name. I mean REALLY hate it. But I LOVE the movie. Love Bakshi, and wish he hadn't accidentally killed himself on one of his self-designed S&M machines. Oh well, we all have to go SOMEHOW! LOL

 

One of my favorite WWII related movies . My favorite is the "Fritz" sequence LOL. I missed out on getting the "Fritz!! They killed Fritz!!" T-shirt. I happen to have some movie posters,the movie on VHS and DVD and the RPG books. I did have an original animation cel from the movie too.

 

Recipe for a replica D-ration bar.

"D Rations, D Rations yummy yummy D Rations. All right so they the
ration of last resort, but at least they kind’ a keep your tummy full
and if you use my recipe they don’t taste too bad. What I have done is
take the original recipe and modify it a little considering we’re like
60 years later. First off the list of ingredients to make 1 D Ration.

3 oz of Hershey’s Milk Chocolate chips or chunks.

1 oz of Table Sugar

1/3 oz of Nonfat Dry Milk

3 table spoons Oat Flour

2 to 4 drops Vanilla Extract

Paraffin Wax as needed (Gulf canning wax works fine)

1 D Ration mold (Mine is a soap disk big enough to make 2 rations. I
had to cut the bottom off with my table saw.)

All of these ingredients are available at any grocery store. Ok here’s
how to cook it up.

First measure out the table sugar, nonfat dry milk and oat flour and
put them into a food processor or blender. Now mix it up until you
have a fine powder. The reason for doing this is that if you don’t you
will get a D Ration that is really gritty when you eat it. Also, it
makes it easier to mix with the chocolate later.

You need a double boiler; it can be nothing more than a smaller pan
that sits in a lager pan that has water in it. The thing is you need
to heat the mixture from the boiling water not from the stove,
otherwise you will burn the chocolate. Place the chocolate into the
double boiler and melt it the best you can until you get a smooth
mixture. I have found that I have to add some paraffin wax to get the
chocolate to melt into a smooth mixture. Don’t add any more than you
have to. Also, here is a tip from Hershey’s. When melting the
chocolate add a drop or two to it. The trick is that it keeps the oils
mixing and will help keep the melting temperature up and will last
longer in the heat.

Once the chocolate and wax o is melted add in one half of the ground up
sugar, milk and oat flour. Mix it up as best you can and then add a
teaspoon or so to the mixture. This will allow you to get the mixture
to a consistency that allows you mix it all together. Once you get it
mixed add the other half of the ground stuff and add another teaspoon
or so to get it to mix up.

One thing you will notice is that as the mixture sets under heat in the
boiler, the water will start to separate out. Don’t worry about it, it
mixes back in just fine. Now let the mixture cook for about 10
minutes. Give it a good stir every minute or so.

Now it’s ready to pour into the mold, but first give it one last good
stir. Pour into the mold and then put everything into the freezer.
Let sit until it is good and cold. Remove from the freezer and then
remove from the mold and let it heat up to room temperature. Cut with
a sharp knife to shape as necessary and you got a D Ration.

What you end up with is a hard block that will crumble up with a little
effort, just like the original. Unlike the original, at least from
what I have read, the taste is pretty good considering and is entirely
eatable. I would however, following the original instructions and eat
it slowly. Wrap it up and put in a Repo D Ration box and you are good
to go."

Zombie Squad • View topic - D-ration recipe

 

"This was great, but why did the rest of the trainees hang over our shoulders and ask "do you want that bit of fat ?"
Breakfast the next morning supplied the answer to this question. She was a hungry ship.
A plate of porridge and a thick slice of bread with a mug of tea was the ration. Dinner and Tea comprised of equally sparse meals. Sausages, Potatoes, Cabbage and steamed puddings were the order of the day. On Sundays we were given a boiled egg or black sausage for breakfast.
As each long table finished their tea there was a rush for the gangway. Down onto the pathway beside the canal, up the hill, over a field and into Sharpness Docks. The first five or six boys to arrive at the dockers canteen would be able to buy a plate of dinner, the next group could get the remaining sandwiches the next a slice of cake, the rest had to be content with a mug of tea.
As I said earlier, a total of 30 boys joined the ship every Monday. "

BBC - WW2 People's War - Life in the Merchant Navy: Training, Rations, Dangers and Exotic Sights

 

The 1933 Navy Ration Law
Reprinted from the 1971 Commissaryman 3&2 rate training manual
The present Navy ration law is authorized by 10 U.S. Code 6082. The navy ration is a quantity allowance of food. Each person, so entitles, may be served the following quantities of food each day:​

• 8 oz. biscuit, or 12 oz. soft bread or 12 oz. flour​
• 12 oz. preserved meat, or 14 oz. salt or smoked meat, or 20 oz. fresh meat or fresh fish or poultry​
• 12 oz. dried vegetables, or 18 oz. canned vegetables, or 44 oz. fresh vegetables​
• 4 oz. dried fruit, or 10 oz. canned fruit, or 6 oz. preserved fruit, or 16 oz. fresh fruit, or 6 oz. canned fruit or vegetable juices or 1 oz. powdered fruit juices or 6/10 oz. concentrated fruit juices​
• 2 oz. cocoa, or 2 oz. coffee or ½ oz. tea​
• 4 oz. evaporated milk, or 1 oz. powdered milk, or ½ pt. fresh milk​
• 1.6 oz. butter​
• 1.6 oz. cereal, or rice, or starch foods​
• ½ oz. cheese​
• 1.2 eggs​
• 1.6 oz. lard or lard substitutes​
• 2/5 gill oils, or sauces, or vinegar​
• 5 oz. sugar​

Baking powder, and soda, flavoring extracts, mustard, pepper, pickles, salt, syrup, spices and yeast as required.​

 

Does anyone have any info on the foodstuffs carried on the submarines of the Axis and Allied navies?

 

I bet to the European civilians even Army rations looked good.

"When we got word we were leaving Regensburg, we gave the family who owned the apartment more 10-in-1 rations, but not before we took out the goodies like cigarettes, candy, fruit cocktail, and date-nut bread. At this point, I think they were wishing we would stay because the father just kept smiling and gushing. Food was scarce, and there was no meat available. The 10-in-1 rations were heavy on meat and vegetable products in cans. To us, these rations were becoming more of a liability than an asset, because they took up too much room in the truck and we just did not have the proper stove or utensils to prepare the food they contained."

http://www.gallagher.com/ww2/chapter22.html

 

I dunno, but it was alright in the Soviet Navy, so it seems


I suppose beans were excluded

From http://www.btinternet.com/~mikeco158/eden.htm :



Life on a submarine? It's all here!

From BBC People's War: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/72/a4167272.shtml

http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/domestics.html

Not great but... http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_life_like_aboard_a_German_submarine_during_World_War_2

 

Thanks Za!!! Interesting photos and info .

 

I seem to remember a good photo of the interior of a U-boat stuffed to the ceiling with food and supplies . Does anyone have a photo or have seen that? How about US or Japanese subs?

British Subs.

2. Food
'Fresh' food was loaded before sailing, but would soon deteriorate. Bread was stowed in almost every crevice of the boat, but would be mildewed in days. Within ten days the only food left would be canned. From this point of view, submarine crews fared well in comparison with the civilian population: the dehydrated or tinned meats, fish, milk, cheese etc. was well above the standard ration. The Cox'n, responsible for messing in British boats, had little or no training in catering and was mainly worried about keeping his books straight. Nicknames of 'Hunger' and 'Famine' abounded among the 'grocers', as they were also known. Among the 'favourites' of the regular meals at sea would be 'Herrings in Tomato Sauce ('HITS'), Palethorpe's pre-cooked sausages (snorkers), tinned steak and kidney pudding ('Baby's Heads'), and a mixture of tinned bacon, tinned tomatoes and scrambled dried egg ('Train Smash'). At other times there was Cheese Oosh - from 'Hoosh', an Eskimo word, taken from the Canadian Navy - made from (reconstituted) egg and milk: at the right consistency, it became portable food. Then there were Baked Beans ('Windy Beans' or Haricots Musicales - for obvious reasons). A qualified cook was rarely carried, and those that did the job were asked to prepare a hot meal on surfacing at night and a hot breakfast before diving at dawn. The cook(s), though, could only use the galley - little more than a large cupboard - when the boat was surfaced, and that was generally at night when the engines were running to recharge the battery.

Crews got accustomed to one hot meal after dark and one early breakfast before diving again. The trouble was that, often, the time of surfacing in the evening would depend on circumstances 'up top', and the cook would usually have very little time to prepare something sustaining.

Meanwhile, up on the bridge, the Captain would often spend the first half-hour or so of darkness mulling over the day's event and thinking out his patrol. One story abounds of the captain who insisted that he be brought a coffee or cocoa to the bridge almost immediately, and in a 'full' cup. This was difficult for many to achieve, climbing the swaying conning tower one-handed and keeping the cup's contents in place. But one man did always seem to manage it. Before that captain left his boat for the last time, he asked his temporary steward how he had managed to do it. "Well, sir, maybe I can tell you now. When I get to the bottom of the ladder I take a big gulp. And when I get on to the bridge I spit it all back in t'cup!"

Another difficulty lay in getting rid of the waste. Gash (rubbish, garbage) of all kinds was crammed into reeking buckets and bags and ditched, as a carefully planned evolution, on surfacing. And that all had to go into the Control Room and up into the oncoming gale coming down the conning tower - in darkness.

While French submarines had wine - but no smoking - the British had their rum. One eighth of a pint per day per man (though not officers). But when in the day is it best to issue spirits? It would seem sensible to have a tot at the end of the day on surfacing, though the crew were, at that time, over-tired, short of oxygen and over-supplied with carbon dioxide. There was no other time, though, so the evolutions of surfacing, running the diesels, ventilating the boat and perhaps reloading torpedoes would need to be completed before thinking about the reviving tot and something to eat. Anyway, it was looked forward to, as it made the food taste better. Interesting stowage problems, though. Say 48 'entitled' men in the boat, with enough stores for six weeks away, that's 6 pints a day, so in excess of 30 gallons of rum to be kept. The containers suffered an uncommon amount of 'breakage' and a generous amount of 'spillage' was allowed for.

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)

HMS/M Unseen's Senior Rates Mess in 1945.


http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/domestics.html

 

Christmas on a Dutch Sub. Another navy that wasn't alcohol free?​

​

Christmas on board O 19 (korporals quarters) while on patrol and submerged, 1944. note all the beer? bottles. (Photo: © Collection H.M. van der Veen / P. van der Veen). ​

​

Christmas on board O 19 while submerged and on patrol in the Java Sea, 1944. Mess boy Sikous has baked a cake. From left to right: C.D. Convan (liaison officer RN), Pim Kiepe (chief engineer), Jaap Drijfhout van Hoof (CO), Theo Gleichman (background), Mess boy Sikous, Herman Staring (navigator) and H.M. van der Veen. (Photo: © F.Laman Trip. Collection H.M. van der Veen / P. van der Veen). ​

​

Christmas on board O 19 (korporals quarters) while on patrol and submerged, 1944. (Photo: © Collection H.M. van der Veen / P. van der Veen).

http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/pictures/pictures_o19_wwii.htm​

 

I won't swear to this, but many nations bottled (and still bottle) fruit juices in bottles much like those pictured. My Dad brought back a couple of bottles of a fruit juice (peach?) that was in bottles much like those pictured when he and Mom came back from Norway in 1966.

 

That may make more sense. Would any one have any info on which navies were "Dry" and what was the alcohol rations were for those that weren't?

 

Found this on another forum and thought it would be a good addition to this threads. It talks alittle more about Naval rations .


The Pacific War Encyclopedia, James F. Dunnigan & Albert A. Nofi, Checkmark Books, 1998, pp 230-232







US Army Rations - World War II - WW2inColor Talk

 

Interesting question. How would we manage today?

"The Standard Rations

I read with great interest the article on this site from the Derby Telegraph Bygones WWII: Cabbage patch army beat the rationing blues during wartime[[1]] Eric Swales memories of that era and how people had to manage on food rations got me thinking just what sort of meals were made then – what recipes were created using only the standard rations?
I found the following details on what the standard rations were. The quantities are per week unless otherwise stated:
Food rations
1s 2d (approximately 1 lb 3 oz or 540 g) of meat (offal or sausages weren't rationed)
4 oz (113 g) bacon or ham
3 pints (1.7 l) of milk per week or 1 packet of milk powder per month
2 oz (57 g) butter
2 oz (57 g) margarine
2 oz (57 g) fat or lard
2 oz (57 g) loose tea (teabags were not used widely in the UK)
1 egg per week or 1 packet (makes 12 “eggs”) of egg powder per month
2 oz (57 g) jam
3 oz (85 g) sugar
1 oz (28 g) cheese (vegetarians were allowed a bigger cheese ration, as they gave up their meat ration)
3 oz (85 g) sweets
2 lb (907g) onions (onions were only rationed between 1942-1944)
plus, 16 "points" per month for tinned and dried food.
Non-food rations
67 (later 48) “points” for clothing per year (e.g. 2 points for a pair of knickers, 5 points for a man's shirt, 5 points for a pair of shoes, 7 points for a dress and 26 points for a man's suit). Clothing rationing points could be used for wool, cotton and household textiles. People had extra points for work clothes, such as overalls for factory work. No points were required for second-hand clothing and fur coats, but their prices were fixed. Before rationing lace and frills were popular on knickers but these were soon banned so material could be saved.
16 oz (454 g) of soap per month (household soap, beauty soap, and soap flakes, but not shaving soap)
How on earth would we manage today? "