Good old days...

[12thengr]

I don't know if the writer of this article or book has knowledge of MREs or not. He certainly don't know squat about social conditions i.e. G.I.s In the late 70's even I didn't have problems finding willing frauleins and the black guys were certainly better at it than I was. Maybe it was because we had c-rats and MREs hadn't come out yet.

[housil]

Housil, from what I have read, conditions for the German soldier were horrid towards the end. No fuel, no ammo, no food, no replacement uniform items, no anything. It's very, very true that wars aren't won or lost with tactics, but logistics.

You are right. At the End, our´s we short in every supply. Many things became replaced by a substitute. So "replace-" became the new word for anything like "replacment honey", "replacment coffee", "replacement ..."

The French still use the German word "Ersatz..." if something is from bad quality

[Woodland]

Thanks for clearing that up guys! I can't believe how much I forgot from what I learned at Fort Sam Houston; but I still recall going to the field and having to treat soldiers who insisted on bringing coca-cola and other empty calories to the field on a summer day and drinking a couple cans with their MRE or MCI and we all know what that can lead to. Even in the wintertime with several inches of snow on the ground and temps hovering around 0, we still treated just really stupid issues involving the empty calories that guys would consume to stay warm, stay awake, whatever. Our superiors quickly found that about the only way to deal with it was to have a "pogey-bait shakedown" before we left the unit for the field. This basically involved checking the unit vehicles and field gear of everyone to make sure they did not have a case of soda or a ton of chocolate bars stashed away------or empty canteens! It got pretty old for a bunch of alleged adults to have to be inspected like kids because they knew everything. My apologies to everyone, this should be under off-topic but I tend to get carried away, please excuse my wandering and reminiscing.

I really like your stories I'm sure you could write a book about your service time.I would buy it.

[Woodland]

For some reason, I did a (religious) lent 25 years ago with no eating for 40 days - like Jesus did in the desert. I was a construction worker and all weight I lost in this 40 days with NO eating was 3 lbs (1.5kg).

How did you make it? I lost 8kg during the first 3 weeks or so.From 74kg I went down to 65-66kg. I wasn't weak,I was fit and quick and felt good.Just my thinking slowed down since I couldn't sleep more than a few hours a day.

[Woodland]

Thank You for the stories Norton. The rangers in the jungle were actually Merill's Marauders I think.

[Woodland]

They also both out the Germans and Italians loved U.S. K and C rations.

Everybody loves US rations
I still remember when I first read about MREs in a Hungarian military magazine back in '95...When the US Army came to Taszar AB. I wanted to have some of those magic dark brown bags I had to wait 4 years till I could buy the first dozen...Now I'm addicted

[housil]

For some reason, I did a (religious) lent 25 years ago with no eating for 40 days - like Jesus did in the desert. I was a construction worker and all weight I lost in this 40 days with NO eating was 3 lbs (1.5kg).

How did you make it? I have lost 8kg during the first 3 weeks or so.From 74kg I went down to 65-66kg. I wasn't weak,I was fit and quick and felt good.Just my thinking slowed down since I couldn't sleep more than a few hours a day.

Serious?
No clue ( or the Lord took care about me )

The most rich I had was milk/cocoa three times a day. When a baby can life from milk for month and growing, why not me too? After the third day, that hungry feeling went away....

[housil]

For some reason, I did a (religious) lent 25 years ago with no eating for 40 days - like Jesus did in the desert. I was a construction worker and all weight I lost in this 40 days with NO eating was 3 lbs (1.5kg).

How did you make it? I have lost 8kg during the first 3 weeks or so.From 74kg I went down to 65-66kg. I wasn't weak,I was fit and quick and felt good.Just my thinking slowed down since I couldn't sleep more than a few hours a day.

Serious?
No clue ( or the Lord took care about me )

The most rich I had was milk/cocoa three times a day. When a baby can life from milk for month and growing, why not me too? After the third day, that starving went away....

[Norton]

He said ' you rarely saw any captured German soldiers with rations on him"

There were two reason for this.

The main reason was, "we" always had a field kitchen trailer (Gulaschkanone) + field bakery with every unit and they were setup at every break to feed the troops.
http://www.dererstezug.com/IronRation.htm

The second reason is, there wasn´t a really "individual ration" as you know it from the US. We had an "iron ration", but that was actually an emergency ration for the infantry.
Bread, hard tack, (canned) sausage etc. was given out and carried in the mess kit.

There is a third reason, this late in war, "we" were short in supply so the troops lend it from the locals (farmer) and promised, to give it back. We pay back - even until today...

Thank you that was an interesting web page on Iron Ration
I have one other WW 2 veteran friend that is still alive. He was in the 103rd Infantry Division in France and Germany.
I asked him about German rations, he said they sometimes carried hard boiled eggs and occasionally pickled eggs.
He noted the Civilian farmers had pickled eggs in huge earthen crocks. So this matches what you told us about local farmers.

One thing I found interesting about WW 2 field rations was the opinions the field troops held about other nation's rations.
I read a book about fighting in North Africa written in the 1950's told from the German point of view..
The German Author noted the Italians had Delicious rations. The British and Germans both prized Italian sausage.
He said the monotony of each Armies own field rations was broken when any foreign rations were captured.
Thus a British item disliked by British Troops was welcome by Germans as it was a change of pace.
He did not note if these items were field kitchen items or crew's rations carried in Armored vehicles
Other Items like British Tea and Jam were welcome by all in Libya

[Horsesoldier]

It got pretty old for a bunch of alleged adults to have to be inspected like kids because they knew everything.

One thing I learned quickly about the military, after going in as an adult who earned his own way and lived by himself for 7 years prior, is that everything is designed to cater to the lowest common denominator. Mommy isn't there to help you make good choices, so we have to drill it into everyone, even if you're the only moron in your squad who can't handle "real" life. Being proactive and helping your fellow troops out will help, but every now and then someone (maybe even in another unit) will do something stupid enough that you'll get stiffed for it as well.

I was always a huge believer in Big Boy Rules, but then you would see the occasional junior enlisted guy who decided to live on Skittles and MRE poundcake in the field and stuff. I remember talking to one guy who was literally running on nothing but MRE desserts and candy, spiced up with a package of Oreos and some bagged candy he'd bought at the Shoppette before we went into the box. I put stuff to him as suggestions rather than orders about maybe trying some complex carbs and protein like from, say, an MRE entree in between sugar bombs both for short term performance and longer term health benefits. His answer was diabetes ran in his family, so he was screwed anyway and didn't see the point in eating healthy . . .

Soft drinks are an even bigger problem, though, in high heat. I've seen guys fall out as heat casualties within hours if they're just running on soft drinks. The better NCO'ed units I've been in usually allowed reasonable pogey bait, but were zero carbonated beverages in the field (and zero alcohol, which still had to occasionally be said back in the 90s).