Food at the Front

Yuck

Stationed in wartime Britain, food was at the front of everyone's minds. Canadian servicemen and women thought about, wrote home about, and complained often about the food available in Britain. Many in their early 20's, these young men and women recalled mom and dad's cooking and the food they were used to growing up across Canada. Like the citizens of Britain, the services deployed to Britain before the eventual invasions of the continent were at the mercy of whatever food was available. You can recall perhaps as a child going over to a friend's house for dinner, and their parents cooking wasn't how your parents cooked - and you were either delighted or horrified. But you either ate or went hungry, so is life. 
But in August 1941 Canadian troops stationed in Britain actually staged two sit-down strikes because of only being provided two cooked meals per day. And the inventive new alternatives to the usual foods Canadians ate were met with suspicion. Margarine was a recent invention and "huge white blocks of it, hard as stone, decorated every table." Dinner in the messes on airbases in Britain were often boiled or fried Brussels sprouts, potatoes, and some kind of meat, "like greasy mutton." Breakfast often included more Brussels sprouts reheated from the night before and referred to as "bubble and squeak," or a simple fare of one piece of bread soaked in cooking grease and fried. Powdered milk and eggs were among the other ersatz creations available. And although they were often argued to be inedible, like dinner at your friend's house - you either ate or went hungry. However it was not only the Canadian troops that were unhappy with their food, and throughout Britain, Canada, and Australia, it was generally accepted that if these young men and women were risking their lives in the fight, they at least deserved something good to eat.

J. Douglas Harvey DFC, CD, Wing Commander recalls how aircrews felt about a diet containing mostly Brussels sprouts:

"They did their part in keeping starvation at bay, but they couldn't have been a worse choice for aircrew required to fly at high altitude in unpressurized aircraft. Modern diets for aircrew call for less volatile ingredients. Luckily we all wore oxygen masks, which filtered out most of the gaseous smells."

Aircrews stationed in Britain were at the ridicule of other branches of the military, who were often stationed ships or in the trenches, which may have provided less than favourable living conditions. The Air Force were sometimes treated to a little extra while stationed in Britain, especially those of Bomber Command.

"Our crew would journey far afield searching for a café that served something that tasted like food. We found such a spot in the town of Rippon ... [I]t was owned by a young widow. Her air gunner husband had been killed over Germany. This gal, much to our satisfaction, discriminated. Seated in the small, permanently crowded café, you were surrounded by army types. The featured item on the menu was bacon and eggs, always a rare treat. If you were in air force uniform your eggs always sat a little higher on your plate. Underneath the two eggs lay a small steak. None of the army guys got this treatment and we felt special."

Ready for War

Throughout the other branches of the military the complaints of food were much the same. But by mid 1943 food quality in the military seemed to have improved, resulting in less squabbles and strikes due to the efforts of the Army Catering Corps. First established in 1941, the Army Catering Corps trained cooks in the army how to properly prepare food including: how to make a roux, salmon and potato cakes, a variety of stews and hotpots and how to prepare dehydrated foods so that they would at least be edible. 

Soyer Stove

Wiles Steam Cooker

In the Australian army, the preparation of food in the field was cooked on what was known as a Soyer Stove. Dating back to the Crimean war of 1853-1856, these stoves burned food to the point of being almost inedible. While some of us don't like things too crispy, the other downside was a nearly 85% of vitamins were depleted from the food. The solution was the Wiles' Steam cooker, cooked food in 20 minutes and could be done so while on the move, retained 75% of vitamins, and also made the food seem edible. 

Water was also an issue wherever you were, and access to clean drinking water was sometimes not possible without added chemicals or filtration. Water for the British Army in Egypt was said to contain so much chlorine and salt that milk curdled in tea. So gave rise to what was known as "char" very strong tea drunk with condensed milk and as much sugar one could get their hands on. 

In Burma, due to the multi-ethnic, religious, caste, and nationality of the British Army, Indian quartermasters had 198 different ration scales to determine what food went to who and how much. 

As the war progressed and nutritionists and food scientists made progressive steps to help feed the Armed Forces, overall nutrition and food quality improved to help keep morale high.