The Bulk of Their Diet in the Trenches Was Bully Beef (Caned Corned Beef), Bread and Biscuits.
Trench Food
A full of 3,240,948 tons of food was sent from Britain to the soldiers fighting in France and Belgium during the Kickoff World War. The British Ground forces employed 300,000 field workers to cook and supply the food. At the offset of the war British soldiers were given 10 ounces of meat and 8 ounces of vegetables a day. Equally the size of the army grew and the High german blockade became more than effective, the army could not maintain these rations and by 1916 this had been cut to six ounces of meat a day. Later on troops non in the front-line only received meat on 9 out of every thirty days. The daily bread ration was also cutting in Apr 1917. The British Ground forces attempted to give the soldiers the three,574 calories a 24-hour interval that dieticians said they needed. However, others argued that soldiers during wartime need much more than this.
Soldiers in the Western Front were very critical of the quantity and the quality of food they received. The bulk of their diet in the trenches was bully beef (caned corned beef), breadstuff and biscuits. Past the winter of 1916 flour was in such brusque supply that breadstuff was being made with dried basis turnips. The main food was at present a pea-soup with a few lumps of horsemeat. Kitchen staff became more and more dependent on local vegetables and also had to use weeds such as nettles in soups and stews.
The battalion'due south kitchen staff had just ii large vats, in which everything was prepared. As a result, everything the men ate tasted of something else. For example, soldiers often complained that their tea tasted of vegetables. Providing fresh food was also very hard. It has been estimated that information technology took up to viii days earlier breadstuff reached the front-line and so it was invariably stale. So also were the biscuits and the soldiers attempted to solve this trouble past breaking them upwards, calculation potatoes, onions, sultanas or whatever was available, and humid the mixture up in a sandbag.
The catering staff put the food in dixies (cooking pots), petrol cans or old jam jars and carried it up the advice trenches in straw-lined boxes. By the time the nutrient reached the front-line it was always cold. Eventually the army moved the field kitchens closer to the front end-line just they were never able to get close plenty to provide regular hot food for the men. Sometimes a small group of soldiers managed to purchase a small primus stove between them. When they could obtain the fuel, which was always in curt supply, they could heat their food and brew some tea.
Full general John Monash pointed out: "Information technology takes a couple of thousand men and horses with hundreds of wagons, and 118 huge motor lorries, to supply the daily wants of my population of xx,000. With reference to food we also have to encounter that all the men in the front lines regularly get hot food - coffee, oxo, porridge, stews."
On 18th March 1915 Harold Chapin wrote to his mother: "We are fed on Bully Beef (ordinary Fray Bentos, you know the brand) and lovely hard biscuits which I admire. Concluding nighttime I added to my menu a bloater and some bread and marmalade, duff and coffee".
stretcher-bearers trying to prepare hot nutrient.
Nutrient was often supplied in cans. Maconochie contained sliced turnips and carrots in a thin soup. As one soldier said: "Warmed in the tin, Maconochie was edible; cold it was a mankiller." The British Army tried to hide this food shortage from the enemy. Yet, when they announced that British soldiers were being supplied with 2 hot meals a 24-hour interval, they received over 200,000 messages from angry soldiers pointing out the truth of the situation. Men claimed that although the officers were well-fed the men in the trenches were treated appallingly.
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Harry Patch later reported: "Our rations - yous were lucky if you got some cracking beef and a beige. Yous couldn't go your teeth into it. Sometimes if they shelled the supply lines you didn't get anything for days on end. There were five in a auto-gun team, and everything we had was shared among us. I used to get a parcel from home. My female parent knew the grocer pretty well."
Nutrient supply was a major problem when soldiers advanced into enemy territory. All men carried emergency food called iron rations. This was a can of peachy beef, a few biscuits and a sealed tin of tea and sugar. These fe rations could only be opened with the permission of an officeholder. This food did not last very long and if the kitchen staff were unable to provide nutrient to the soldiers they might be forced to retreat from land they had won from the enemy.
Primary Sources
(1) In a letter to his parents, Private Pressey of the Royal Artillery described the quality of the food men were receiving on the Western Front.
The biscuits are and so hard that you lot had to put them on a firm surface and smash them with a stone or something. I've held 1 in my hand and hitting the sharp corner of a brick wall and but hurt my mitt. Sometimes nosotros soaked the smashed fragments in h2o for several days. And then nosotros would heat and drain, pour condensed milk over a dishful of the stuff and get it down.
(2) Richard Beasley was interviewed in 1993 about his experiences during the First World War.
In training the food was merely about eatable but in France we were starving. All we lived on was tea and dog biscuits. If we got meat in one case a week we were lucky, merely imagine trying to eat continuing in a trench full of water with the scent of dead bodies nearby.
(3) Harold Chapin, alphabetic character to Calypso Chapin (29th November 1914)
We are getting if possible busier and busier. A Brigade Gild arriving last night fairly late involved getting breakfast for all troops at vii.30 instead Of 7.45 and 8 (two batches) which meant upwardly before 5 and out in the rain (it was pouring) by five.thirty all the wood sopping: the fire trench half full of h2o and the carts and waggons beingness loaded and got out all over the shop.
We are being sorted into jobs. I fancy I shall stay on cooking. This is good because it is every bit useful a job as is going and i that demands careful hard work all the same it does not involve going into the actual firing line - a thing I have no ambition to do. Devious shell fire and epidemics are all I want to confront thanks, let those who similar the firing line take all the bullets they want.
(4) Major Graham wrote a letter of the alphabet to his family about the food supplied to soldiers on the Western Front.
I am distressing yous should have the incorrect impression about the nutrient; we always had more than enough, both to eat and drink. I requite you a day'south menu at random: Breakfast - bacon and tomatoes, staff of life, jam, and cocoa. Tiffin - shepherd'southward pie, potted meat, potatoes, breadstuff and jam. Tea - bread and jam. Supper - ox-tail soup, roast beef, whisky and soda, leeks, rice pudding, coffee. We have provided stores of groceries and Harrods have been ordered to ship us out a weekly parcel. However, if you like to send the states an occasional luxury it would be very welcome.
(5) Robert Graves wrote well-nigh his experiences of the First World War in his autobiography, Goodbye to all That. This passage refers to an attack where the battalion suffered very heavy casualties. Only three junior officers, Choate, Henry and Hill survived.
Hill told me the story. The Colonel and Aide were sitting downwards to a meat pie when Hill arrived. Henry said: "Come to report, sir. Ourselves and nigh ninety men of all companies."
They looked up. "So you have survived, have y'all?" the Colonel said. "Well all the rest are dead. I suppose Mr. Choate had improve command what'due south left of 'A'. The bombing officer (he had not gone over, just remained at headquarters) will control what'south left of 'B'. Mr. Henry goes to 'C' Company. Mr. Hill to 'D'. Let me know where to detect you if you are needed. Good nighttime."
Non having being offered a piece of meat pie or a drink of whisky, they saluted and went miserably out. The Adjutant called them back, Mr. Hill, Mr. Henry."
Colina said he expected a change of mind of mind as to the propriety with which hospitality could be offered by a regular Colonel and Adjutant to a temporary 2nd lieutenant in distress. Just it was simply: "Mr. Loma, Mr. Henry, I saw some men in the trench only now with their shoulder-straps unbuttoned. Come across that this does not occur in future."
(half-dozen) Private Harold Horne, Northumberland Fusiliers, interviewed 1978.
Ration parties from each company in the line went to carry back the rations which were tied in sandbags and consisted, usually, of bread, difficult biscuits, tinned meat (bully) in 12 oz. tins, tinned jam, tinned butter, sugar and tea, pork and beans (broiled beans with a piece of pork fat on top), cigarettes and tobacco. Sometimes we got Manconochie Rations. This was a sort of Irish gaelic stew in tins which could exist quickly heated over a charcoal brazier. When it was possible to have a cookhouse within like shooting fish in a barrel reach of trenches, fresh meat, bacon, vegetables, flour, etc. would be sent up and the cooks could produce reasonably good meals. Nutrient and tea was sent along in 'dixies' (big iron containers the chapeau of which could be used every bit a frying pan).
(vii) General John Monash, alphabetic character (11th January 1917)
The big question is, of form, the food and ammunition supply, the former term covering meat, bread, groceries, hay, straw, oats, wood, coal, methane series and candles, the latter comprising cartridges, shells, shrapnel, bombs, grenades, flares, and rockets. It takes a couple of one thousand men and horses with hundreds of wagons, and 118 huge motor lorries, to supply the daily wants of my population of 20,000.
With reference to food we also have to see that all the men in the front lines regularly get hot nutrient - coffee, oxo, porridge, stews. They cannot cook it themselves, for at the least sign of the smoke of a fire the spot is instantly shelled. And they must get it regularly or they would perish of cold or frostbite, or become 'trench feet,' which occasionally means amputation.
(8) General Sixt von Armin, report published past the German Army during the Showtime Earth State of war.
Information technology is necessary that fresh troops going into the line, when the precise land of the battle is uncertain, should be supplied with the 3rd iron ration. All troops were unanimous in their request for increased supplies of bread, rusks, sausage, tinned sausages, tinned fat, bacon, tinned and smoked meat, and tobacco, in addition. There was as well urgent need for solidified alcohol for the preparation of hot meals.
In various quarters, the necessity for a plentiful supply of liquid refreshments of all kinds, such as coffee, tea, cocoa, mineral waters, etc., is emphasized still more. On the other manus, the supply of common salt herrings, which increase the thirst, was found to be, as a full general rule, very undesirable. There is no necessity for an issue of alcoholic drink in warm and dry weather condition.
(9) Harold Chapin, letter to Calypso Chapin (18th March 1915)
Nosotros are fed on Corking Beef (ordinary Fray Bentos, y'all know the brand) and lovely hard biscuits which I adore. Concluding dark I added to my menu a bloater and some bread and marmalade, "duff" and coffee - having scraped an acquaintance with some of the engine room artificers who invited me to sup in the fo'castle. It was very hot in there but we supped in low neck. Bully fun!
(10) Harry Patch, Final Post (2005)
Our rations - you were lucky if you got some nifty beef and a biscuit. You couldn't get your teeth into information technology. Sometimes if they shelled the supply lines you didn't get anything for days on end. There were 5 in a machine-gun team, and everything nosotros had was shared amongst us. I used to get a parcel from home. My mother knew the grocer pretty well. There was always an ounce of tobacco and 2 packets of twenty cigarettes. That was handed to Number One to share out. That ounce of tobacco - Number Three was a pipe-smoker, same as I was - was cut in half. He had half and I had one-half. The cigarettes - 13 each for the others and they took information technology in turns to have the odd i. And if y'all got a pair of socks, and somebody else had a pair with holes in, they'd chuck them away and they'd accept the new ones. That was the life we lived because we never knew from one moment to the next when something would come up over with our number on...
Drink was either weak tea or water boozer from old petrol cans. Equally for food, nosotros had Crosse & Blackwell's plum and apple jam and dog biscuits. The biscuits were then hard we used to throw them away. Ane twenty-four hours I looked through the metallic aperture that we used to fire through, and ii dogs were out in that location fighting over i of our biscuits. They were fighting over which one should have information technology. Their owners had probably been killed by shell fire. They were but strays. They were fighting over a biscuit to keep alive. I thought to myself, "Well, I don't know, there's two animals out there fighting for their lives, and here we are, two highly civilised nations, and what are nosotros fighting over?"
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