Bear in mind that this wasn't standard daily rations but emergency rations (Eiserne portion , literally iron rations) only to be eaten if they were so in the shit that they didn't have access to field kitchens which was the norm, one man in the section would go back and bring food to the front from the Gulaschkanone (mobile field kitchen) and soldiers not actually on the front line would go and eat at the field kitchen. German mess kits are perfect for this as they have lids which are closed securely and the runner can carry a number of them.
@@MrFredstt I think the US pioneered field rations compared to other armies - C rations had tins of meat stew and vegetables for example while British and commonwealth armies still got tins of corned beef in each pack. Even on the front line if they were not cut off, German soldiers were supplied by field kitchens. The design of their mess kits meant it was possible to send soldiers back to the field kitchen with their colleagues' mess tins and bring hot food back.
@@MrFredstt In the first episode of ''Generation War'' there's a scene where a lad bringing a bunch of food back in mess kits is caught out in the open as Ivan attacks their position.
I believe the meat paste became a part of standard rations around the time of the Battle of Stalingrad. Autopsies on German soldiers revealed that most had zero or nearly 0% body fat. Data also showed that soldiers from there often suffered from refeeding syndrome when they left there and were given better "rich" foods to eat in the rear or convalescing in Germany, etc. So the medical experts recommended issuing this potted meat to increase the fat and protein content of the diet. As an aside, Bruce Catton wrote in on of his Civil War books that for a time one of the "western" Union armies had much access to local foods when they invaded northern Alabama. Many got sick, and actually felt better when they went back on their hardtack-based campaign rations. So, consistency seems to be an important facet as well.
@@mth469 Interesting. They also think that many soldiers of Napoleon's Grand Armee died from refeeding syndrome after the Retreat from Moscow when they reached Lithuania, and had a lot of food suddenly available to them. I suspect many people released from concentration and POW camps during WW 2 probably succumbed to this condition as well.
@@valentinius62 In any scenario, always taper in and taper out. If taking medicine for instance, gradually increase the dosage when getting on it and gradually reduce the dosage when getting off it. Stopping a medication you have been taking for a while without tapering out will mess you up. Same for food. Same for water. Same for many things in life.
@@valentinius62 I have read that in WWII, when the Allies freed the camp survivors, they had to keep the survivors from eating too much too soon. The problem was recognised.
@@lancerevell5979 Yes, I recall that. Also, it is suspected that the deceased members of Napoleon's Grand Army who were found in graves in Lithuania died from refeeding syndrome after the retreat from Moscow.
Should have had a German wartime or repro esbit stove. As the Wehrmacht served hot meals basically at all times even in the battlefront Iron Rations where only seen as a temporary emergency food. Troops didn’t just carry these around eating them at will. Only specific orders to do so we’re given normally under dire supply conditions.
And WWII repro Mess Kit and Canteen w/cup. Available on Amazon, though not cheap. I paid nearly forty bucks for the mess kit, but it is an excellent design.
@@johndoogan3712 Yep I know they used Esbit cookers, which have been around since the 1930s. However this wasn't a routine thing, and rations like this were ''emergency'' rations i.e. when they were in deep shit. Even front line troops normally sent a guy back with their mess kits to collect food passed forward from a ''goulash cannon'' i.e. field kitchen, a trailer with a chimney which looked like a cannon when the chimney was folded flat for transport. Their mess kits are ideally designed for this as they are deep, clip shut, and have bail handles. If you watch ''Generation War'' there's a scene where a lad bringing a bunch of food back in mess kits is caught out in the open as Ivan attacks their position.
I read elsewhere that later in the war, many Wehrmacht troopers ditched the gas masks (as neither side used gas) and used the cannisters for carrying other stuff. These cannisters were required to be carried by top brass. Typical German over-engineering. Everybody else used lighter bags. I have the repro German mess kit and canteen. I have used them on moyorcycle camping/roadtrips. They work very well. More useful for me than the USGI kits.
They're probably trying to avoid using trademarks of companies that are still going. If it's shoka chocolate?? It's hideous amounts of caffeine and sugar, no meth. You can get it at Varustalika mail order from Finland.
@@jelkel25 In Germany before and during ww2 there was an over-the-counter drug called Pervitin, which is methamphetamine. I am not certain but I believe it was issued to soldiers as well, but if not they could have easily picked it up at a drug store before going off to invade Poland or something.
@@bluudlung Can't remember seeing or reading about Pervatin being put into chocolate, usually small white pills but meth could have been put into chocolate, I don't know.
As someone said, earlier this would have been emergency rations,Iron Rations. A can of meat or stew, Hardtack like biscuits, tea or coffee, and sugar, a tin of cheese, maybe some dried fruit? A jet boil? An Esbit stove and a German mess kit would have been more historically accurate? Sorry, but I couldn't help it? Nice, interesting display. Oh, yea I forgot about the chocolate.
After finding a new hole bunch of videos of people eating actual vintage emergency rations (most by the same guy, who I was constantly worried about getting food poisoning or worse), it’s nice to find someone trying a reproduction instead. It allows us to see what the ration would look like without me worrying about the rust and rot on the product.
You may be right that this one is factional, but the Prussian Army allready inventet the soldier caryed, standardised, industrieal produced Army Ration 1867 with the famos Erbswurst (peasoup; was solt comercial until 2018), hartack and/or Bread and meat tins as Eiserneportion Iron Ration. This was only be used when no kitchen was availible or the lines to th kitchen wher brocken(food cames to soldier not soldier to kitchen)ad an officer ordered to open the Ration. But also the Ration was one keyelement of the success in the war against france 1870/71. The Wehrmacht had as well some Moral and Energy refilling addional rations with food, sweets and Cigarettes, These where handed some per month for personal use.
The correct labeling should have been "Eiserne Portion" (i.e. "Iron Portion"). The "Eiserne Ration" (i.e. "Iron Ration") was the contemporary description for the so to call ultimate fodder for horses, mulis etc. And it's dark chocolate because this sort of chocolate is more resistant against melting in warm conditions. It has nothing to do with european or german taste or preferences (we Germans also favor milk-chocolate!).
Oh and as an American soldier, haven't seen a whole lot of soups in the field rations (MRE'S). There's a beef stew one but its honestly just a ration pack trying to replicate the meal itself. As for the hot drink there's usually a coffee or hot chocolate aspect you can use
Because American MREs are actually poisonous trash instead of food. Once I tried a Euro ration (literally any of them) i realised US MREs are only impressive to grade schoolers.
I don't recall getting soup or hot stew, either. I associate those with European hot rations. The US Army has long been obsessed with hot coffee, though. Reminds me of the cook in the John Wayne movie The Cowboys who promised hot biscuits and coffee every morning no matter what. When I was in, there was a doctrinal aversion to sacrificing resources for water beyond the bare basics (mostly coffee I guess). Though there are mobile field showers and laundries, many frowned upon them as a waste of water, transport, fuel and personnel. They also didn't want maneuver troops especially carrying around extra water for rehydrating food nor fuel and portable stoves. The MRE was developed to be not only lightweight, but also to eliminate the need for adding water, and the need for external heat resources. I did get a C ration or two that had a packet of blue trioxane tablets, probably for making...coffee. Of course, at this time, we were facing off against the Warsaw Pact and a highly fluid, mobile scenario was being anticipated. Thus an eye to increasing mobility, reducing supply chains, not clogging up roads with extra vehicles, etc.
@@valentinius62 well times are a little different now. Coffee is still considered essential. The logic behind the modern MRE makes sense. Water is heavy. I've only seen field shower and laundry units once or twice, and the showers were supplemented by contract shower setups. Of course we were out there for nearly a month, and I was with a sustainment brigade so there wasn't a huge amount of maneuvering at our level. I know our forward support guys would get rotated back to our AO whenever possible for shower and laundry. I assume the manuever guys were as well, but I never saw them. I was one of the battle captains and also the force protection OIC because we were a bit short staffed so I was lucky to get 10 minutes to use the latrine. Most days my options were get some extra shut eye or wait in line for over an hour for a shower so I usually made do with baby wipes. Glad I brought as many as I did. In a real pinch we just sent guys back to main contonement with as many laundry bags as they could carry as part of a detail. No shortage of volunteers for that because they knew they could grab a quick shower and hit the shoppette to grab some pogey bait.
Pre-Falklands War, British Army Compo individual ration packs used to contain sufficient makings for about 4 drinks/day - 1 per meal plus a spare. After the Falklands, and based on the learnings there, the quantity of brew kit in an individual ration pack went up markedly. IMS the quantity of hot drink makings went up to about 8 - 10 pints/day (plus flavoured electrolyte crystals). Give a squaddie sufficient brews and he’ll keep going all day.
Used to eat rations from WWII as a dependent living in Germany late 60s early 70s. Had an esbit stove and plenty of fuel. C rats mainly. No German WWII rations could be found..
If you get the 1944 version is it horsemeat, bread thats a quarter sawdust, and tomato soup thats actually water with the same red dye they use to color the transmission fluid in the trucks? Any chance for a meth pill? I dont use em myself but Hanz is starting to get the mites again if you know what I mean...
Interesting. Speaking of soup, not much soup served in the field in the U.S.Army. Combat individual rations ( 1970's C- Rations) never had any type of soup. 1980's MRE's again no soup. F.t. Jackson 1970 basic training the cooks brought out large pots of noodle soup. On very cold days this was done so no trainee's died from hypothermia. The soup made from dry powder mix was nasty. Most of the soup was dumped out of our canteen cups on the ground.
I have a huge bag of the small bits from the British army rations, tea, coffee, chlorine tablets, juice powders to get rid of taste of said chlorine, matches and I can't remember there being any powdered soup. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not.
@@jelkel25 Back in the late 80s/early 90s there were cup-a-soup type white sachets of soup in every 24 hr ration pack - I remember mushroom as being most common - and small foil sachets of beef stock, both of which could be added to ''all in'' stews in a mess tin with contents of tins (minced beef etc.) mixed with crushed biscuits brown.
One of the emergency rations, was called Erbswurst. It was made into a sausage, that had dried, ground up peas or pea flour, bacon fat and spices. It was supposed to make a rich soup. Sorry, but I just thought about it?
That was dolled out as needed, usually either by the Captain of the company, or by the medics. It was fairly rare to have an average soldier have more than a single pill on him, and more often than not, not even that. Use of Pervitin was at its peak during the Blitzkrieg, and a bit into Operation Barbarossa, then quickly fell off due to the brass figuring out about the very undesirable side effects (such as the sometimes two day long hangover that often happened when the troops came down) and the very nasty nature of a good deal of the boys getting addicted and having to basically be kept on watch while they detoxed was not conducive to battlefield logistics. During the retreat out of Russia, after losing the 6th Army in Stalingrad, use of Pervitin started picking back up for use of rear guard troops. The thoughts were basically that the rear guard, if encountering a heavy force of Russians attacking the retreating German collumns, would then be best used in more of a 300 capacity than the normal, "hold them off for a bit, then retreat yourself" rear guard. During this type of action having soldiers that were unafraid of death (one of the things that tended to happen on Pervitin) was useful, because they were almost definitely going to die. Also, long term side effects were not worrisome, because any guys coming back into the fold after such an action would be so few in number as to not be concerning logistically. It was a cold, calculated, and diabolical thing to do, but hey, that is why they are known universally as the bad guys.
OK. The ones I've seen, the meat ect was in aluminium foil type packages, like what is used for more expensive cat food in the UK. Modern French army rations still use them. Maybe those ones were made in France??
Soups are amazing for rations. They don't weigh a lot or take up a lot of space, but provide a nice caloric boost as well as hydration. And hydration is more important than food, for survival. Plus, who doesn't like soup? It tastes good, and it's easy to eat. Plus, if you have to treat your dodgy water, the soup covers up the taste of the nasty chemicals needed to make the water safe to drink. My hurricane prep foods contain a LOT of soups, because they keep a long time, are tasty, and provide a source of clean water if the infrastructure is compromised.
Imagine being a German soldier in those times and you get mortality wounded knowing the last meal you had was powdered soup and a couple chocolate bars.
Since rations had to be light in weight & easy to stack on a freight supply train, one would think today's common cup-o-noodles (Nissan) would be a perfect meal. I don't know if the Japanese had this during the war, but I wouldn't be surprised considering how inventive they were.
US rations typically didn't have dehydrated soup. The only things that needed water were the instant coffee and fruit drink mix. The meals were heat (or not) and eat, much like today's MREs.
strange most German repro rations I get come with matche stho this could be more of an "iron ration. when I play German solder I usually get a German ration and a soviet one (I captured) " as they are better for my palette.
5:50 i dont know what Gewdhrletstat means but its not german. I think it should be gewehrleistet mean. In this text are couple of wrong word... like lugern... it had to be lagern...
Generally it depended on 1. How intense the battle was, and 2. How mangled/ blood soaked the body was. Whole uneaten ration packs weren’t commonly found on the persons after they were killed in action. Rations were commonly consumed in between battles, or when given the order to hold their positions for the night/day. This is the only time, when they actually had enough time to set up, build fires, and consume rations. Rations were kept in the supply depot, at the HQ, until needed. Generally when given the order to gear up, and move out that was the time when rations were gathered up from supplies, usually each member of a squad or unit, was given specific tasks when gearing up, like one guy would get ammo, one guy would get medical supplies, one guy would get rations, and one guy would get water, and another if in a vehicle convoy fuel for the vehicle. In American K rations cigarettes were included in the ration, generally in a 3 pack. German rations, they separated cigarettes from the rations, for fear of the tobacco tainting the food, and instead just included them in supplies, that way whoever smoked would get cigarettes, and who didn’t, didn’t have to get cigarettes at all. The Americans all got cigarettes, and who ever didn’t smoke could just trade them for an extra pack of biscuits, or something that someone didn’t like as much. As far as looting itself, off of dead enemy’s, for rations, well there was rarely any food left over from a ration, food was kind of a shortage on all sides during the war, most generally they consumed around 950 calories a day, but burned like 3,000 calories a day. So buy the time it was time to eat, they were pretty hungry, hungry enough to eat the whole ration, and then still be hungry. Most of the time cigarettes, alcohol, and pistols were items looted, sometimes medical supplies were looted if found. The Luger pistol was one item sought after to be looted, mainly because of its value. The Germans only issued them to officers, and if you were caught with one on you, by a German soldier, or other officer, it told them that you’ve killed an officer to obtain it, and they automatically executed you for it. The Germans were probably the biggest looters of the whole war. They didn’t do their looting on the battlefield, but rather the towns that they seized control over in enemy countries, they looted, valuables like alcohol more specifically fine top shelf vintage wines, paintings, gold, gems, etc. They also looted off of prisoners from war, and Jews they captured, of personal jewelry, including wedding bands, gold false teeth even, was extracted right out of their jaws. All seized good pure enough was melted down into gold bullion, for one to make it untraceable, and irreplaceable, and two, to fund Nazi projects like, building more concentration camps, and building weapons facilities, and funding the sciences, and testing of top projects, like the V2 rocket, and jet engines for for the latest model of Luftwaffe fighter planes. The wines, were mainly for Hitler, as he was a fine wine aficionado, as well as Hitlers top men, and officers. You could literally say the entirety of the war on the German side was funded by looting!
@@hunterprowsemrereviews9141 some awesome points there, thanks for sharing. Like you said as the war was going longer and longer the troops were getting less and less food compared to the start of the war. Cigarettes, weapons, ammo, morphine like you said would be to big ticket items.
@@hunterprowsemrereviews9141 Actually the Pistole 08 (Luger) and Pistole 38 where not restricted to officers. Those often went for Walter PP and Mauser HSc. P08 and P38 where also issued to MG crews and tanks
you should try the German Scho-Ka-Kola it is an excellent tasting energy Chocolate with caffeine. Originally developed for German athletes participating in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. I wonder if you can get the original wehrmacht marked tins or reproduction ones?
when you cant read the label and have white granules, taste a little...unless you like a spoonful of salt in your coffee. I believe they would have had something simular to an americad P38 can opener, or something on their standard issue pocket knife.
nearly 100 year old ration from the greatest and most-feared empires in the world "tastes quite nice" Knäckebrot is a swedish-inspired bread which should be like british "sea biscuits" which are just biscuits but zero flavor because they are twice-baked water with flour cakes. just to get something in the stomache undoubtly a good filler for the soup, back in ye olden days people used to thicken soups with bread too.
Yes things have changed a lot. The WW2 food on all sides sucked. Eat that every day for every meal. No they didn't have pull tops on the cans. Even when you got fed at a kitchen unit it sucked. My dad told a story about some captured German food. He said there instant potatoes were better than the Americans but that's it. They fed it to some German prisoners first to make sure it wasn't left behind on purpose and poisoned.
It amazes me that the Germans had their own field rations but they could only eat them on command of their immediate CO. Germans really slacked off when it came to logistics and it never really made sense why.
German army operates on the idea that your field kitchen provides food to you. That was true even for the cold war west german army. They had portable thermos cases etc (called Thermen) for that. The post WW2 ones are jerry can sized
it would have been ideal that you would have boiled the water and prepare the soup and coffee using the German mess tins, using the original Esbit burner
Which chocolate bar has the pervatin? That was a joke everyone relax, figured it'd be a good joke regarding one of these sorts of videos that essentially evaluates the rations.
