British two-man ration, 1980s

Baldy · Post by **Baldy** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:48 pm

I found this photo in a magazine from 1987 and thought it might be of interest:

Looks like mostly commercial items, and several packages have what I think are Chinese characters on the labels. Was this packed in Hong Kong when the British maintained a garrison there? Anyway, I've never heard of a two-man ration pack before or since.

dirtbag · Post by **dirtbag** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:06 pm

Hmmm
All civvie except two tubes of... jam and Vegamite ???
Ozzy?

Baldy · Post by **Baldy** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 1:14 pm

No, definitely British. The original magazine article was about British rations, the box is unmistakably British, and surely only the Brits have 'bacon grill' in their packs! Based on what I've read elsewhere, I think the tubes are sweetened condensed milk, which was replaced by powdered milk.

YouTube · Post by **housil** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:47 pm

Commercial items in brit. rations are nothing unusual.

I have three 10-man-boxes:

They have lots of:

norge · Post by **norge** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:39 pm

british it is,had a few when i was yunger in the begining of the 80s
the same picture is also in one of my books from the mod uk
about survival.
chers from norge

Baldy · Post by **Baldy** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:27 pm

I've since remembered reading that it was once common for British ration packs to contain chocolate labelled in Arabic, made in Britain but originally intended for export. Therefore I may be way off track with my earlier hypothesis.

Garron · Post by **Garron** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:17 am

Mars bar chocolate had arabic writing at one point,

I know a few squadies who served in the 1980's and they loved the tubes of sweetened condensed milk, said it made a good sandwich filler

.... dunno about that myself.

though the oat meal blocks we get haven't changed in ooo about 50 years, My grandfather served in the 60's and used to save the blocks from when he was on training or out on manouvers (cold war exercises as he was stationed in Germany on Honest John rockets) and give them to my mother when she was young, she says they taste the same.

Garron

Baldy · Post by **Baldy** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:04 am

though the oat meal blocks we get haven't changed in ooo about 50 years

We used to have something called a 'cereal block' that was normally eaten cold, like a biscuit (cookie). Tasted like shortcake. Probably much the same thing.

cold war exercises as he was stationed in Germany on Honest John rockets

I find that very interesting. Two of my personal interests are the history of the Cold War in Europe and missile systems.

YouTube · Post by **housil** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 12:10 pm

Baldy wrote:
Two of my personal interests are the history of the Cold War in Europe (...)

Don´t hesitate to ask if you want first hand information

We grew up with the iron curtain just in front of us (one hour far)

See this:
viewtopic.php?t=1087&highlight=iron+curtain

Baldy · Post by **Baldy** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:28 pm

Thanks for the offer, Housil. You can start by translating this site for me:
http://www.lostplaces.de/cms/content/view/135/33/
... only joking of course!

From what I can understand, it's about 'preparations to cut off German highways' in the event of war. While it's interesting, it's also pretty scary. (Apologies to Kman for going OT.)