I eat ration meals at times. There sho be a holiday where people recreate the recipes and dress to remember what we suffered through. Then again, I also celebrate the end of Small Pox and Stanislav Day, so there's that. We have to remember
my grandparents told me about it and how hard it was. after they passed away ( my grandpa (former RAF pilot) died aged 65 - my nan ( former WREN) died aged 80 ) i was looking though some of their old boxes and i happened to find they still had the ration books from the war. i now keep them safe in a locked metal box in my room not even my own mother know about them. ( the last stamp was made on 5 aug 1945 shortly before the end of WW2)
What we really need is, a ministry that's responsible for protecting the people from disease outbreaks. I don't know, like some sort of Center for Disease Control or something. It would be really nice to have something like that up and running right now.
@@3.2187_Kilometres I may be bullied for saying this just like one time before when I understood a joke, but I'm American and tea is actually pretty gud
me how... the concussion, the noise, I imagine all the windows were broken by then but the house musta shaken, I mean god damn I wake up when my dog is snoring weird cause he is sleeping funny
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Front: Stalin: Yeah, we need more food. Tell Ukraine to screw off and give everything to us for the war effort. Adviser: But comrade Premier, won't that cause a massive nation-wide famine leading to thousands of casualties, and eternal resentment for your rule? Stalin: You have implied that I stuttered. Off to gulag.
This is misleading. Ukraine fall under Nazis controls within 3 months of the invasion, with Kiev fall in September. There is scorched earth carried out by the Soviets, but were limited due to the quick advance of the Wehrmacht. Meanwhile it is the Wehrmacht whose scorched earth reduce many Soviets cities into rubbers, including Novgorod being razed. Collectivisation is another problem. The entire Soviets were under ration since Lenin’s death. Economic activities were restricted in order for Stalin to rapidly industrialised the Soviet Union. This is 2 very different matters, not to mention the Ukrainian were not the specific target of collectivisation, many other members of the Union suffered under collectivisation and many of whom are Russian, not Ukrainian. Ukrainian and Union members who lived in cities are largely unaffected by collectivisation.
@@lc9245 Not questioning the validity of anything you said, but it is also well documented that much of the grain produced in the Soviet Union was intentionally withheld from citizens despite it being very much available.
In Australia everything is rationed right now. Just stupidly. Can't buy more than 2 jugs milk or 1kg meat or 1 packet of toilet paper... Almost everything has a limit... No more than 2 spam. 1 bag of rice.... Single Bachelor or family of 6 has the same rationing. :/
The distaste for spam after having to eat so much of it during the war eventually led to many survivors of the war swearing never to eat it. This led to in 1970 when the surrealist comedy group Monty Python created a skit in which spam was a part of practically every dish in a restaurant which an old couple complained about. Over the course of two minutes the word spam would be said 132 times, including with vikings chanting it. Then during the days of usenet and later the early internet junk email would be sent to email. People started calling it spam because it was repetitive and undesired much like the singing of the vikings in the Monty Python skit. And that is how war time rationing made the name of a salted meat product from the US to also be the name of unwanted emails. The public consciousness works in strange ways.
It was only the wife that was complaining, the husband wanted her Spam. Wife: Can I just have the egg beans and Spam without the Spam. Husband: can I have her Spam! Vikings: Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spam Spamty Spam Spamy Spam!!
@@thecoolguy7403 it was brought in by conservatives, if you dont have rationing and the poor starve, Then you really will really have a revolution, better to bring in a few soc-dem interventionist policies in crisis than get shot in the streets (Trump is even bringing in universal basic income, which is too commie even for Scandinavia rn lmao )
7:00 Commentators in early 1940s be like: "It's Manchester United vs Liverpool in the most important game of the year, We will find out who harvests more carrot in 90 minutes"
My grandma told me that during the war her father bought her a bicycle on the black market. It was a racing bicycle which was the only one available so she took a wrench and flipped the handlebars upside down so it would be more comfy to hold onto the handlebars.
Food inspector: this is a fine meal Also food inspector: now that, was a FINED meal Restaurant manager who wasn't told earlier: *LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE SH--*
My grandma has a good rationing story. Her and her older sister were out shopping and the store had a policy of 1 bag of sugar per family. When they got to the checkout the clerk asked if they were sisters. She looks her dead in the eye and cooly says, “Never seen her before in my life.” The clerk believed her and they bought two sugars.
I remember dealing with that so much back during the early days of the recent pandemic. People thinking they could trick me by saying they weren’t together when they were buying more than what was allowed. I wasn’t paid enough to care so unless they were buying way too much toilet paper, I didn’t care.
I have had the chance to speak with a gentleman who served in the home-guard his name was Jack. When Jack moved from England to Canada in 1950's he said that England was still rationing food, clothes and other goods. He crossed on a Cunard liner and he said that there was so much food that he could hardly believe it.
Makes sense, Canada had a smaller population during ww2 then Britain and far more arable land to grow crops. Today Canada has a little over half the population then Britain, 38 million for Canada compared to 70 million for Britain.
@@DESIBOY-fe7nm might come as a surprise but India can feed it's 1.3b people by itself, that's mainly because 60% of those people are engaged in agriculture. Food is rationed monthly. The only time India had a famine was during the British rule which you can probably guess why it happened.
Soviet union didn't stole food from colonies and starved million to win the war .Still Russia is far superior than your tiny island. UK navy can't even dare to take it's ship from a small county like Iran hahahahahahah .
Fun fact: While WW2 rationing limited people to 1 fresh egg a week it also limited Churchill to 1 bottle of premium Cognac/Brandy a day, somewhat below his daily consumption target.
In fact when Churchill was shown the weekly ration for one person laid out on a table - the 1 egg, 4 rashers of bacon, 2 oz butter, however many oz meat - he said ''you could make a reasonable meal from that''.
Ian from forgotten weapons did a good rationing "simulation" where he ate a weeks worth of rations throughout the week, eating potato leek soup and whatever. Its a good food week, probably the only food week i watch
Now use ring pulls. I have had a ring pull Spam can with fungus on the meat. Threw it away. Never happened with Spam cans and a key. The can seals were way better. I have stopped buying canned Spam.
In Canada we had rationing as well, albeit it not nearly as limiting as in the UK. My parents both grew up during that time and the lessons learned weren’t lost on them. I remember my mother baking “War Cake” decades after the war was over. It was a recipe using maple syrup, flour, margarine and one egg. It was a dense, chewy square that actually tasted pretty good. I guess people got pretty innovative back then.
@@Labyrinth6000 I’ll have to ask. It may have been one of those recipes my mother never wrote down (like most of her recipes) and she’s beginning to get a little forgetful lately so I can’t promise anything.
@@GurpreetSingh-es1cn mai bhi Indian hi hu. In Angrezo ne Apna desh to luta hi. Mgr Africa, Southeast Asia or kai sare desh lute hai. Bharat bhi colony hi thi.
1940 Currency: Tin food and tea 2020 Currency: butt wipes (toilet paper) When the Currency of the Apocalypse Turns our to be Toilet paper instead of bottle caps: :(
1940s: staying vigilant, and not being discourage even if their homes are being destroyed 2020 italy: During covid 19 staying vigilant by pumping music from their balconys Staying strong can be different
2020 USA: panicking (because some people seriously need to practice controlling their emotions. If ya don’t control your emotions, they’ll control you) and hoarding stuff, which is only going to make the outbreak last longer than it should. Remember to think about the long term results of your actions instead of just the short term results.
3:57 ahh, I mean surely everyone would be respectful of other people needing food, surely no one would hoard insane of food which probably would never be consumed. I mean it’s not like it’s happening right now.
One can play spot the idiot in the Supermarket. These were the ones stocking up on frozen food and fresh food for a lock down forgetting that they are dependent on an electricity supply to keep the freezer running. If one persists in wishing to stock up one should buy canned or dried food. Also take note of the best by dates, milk puddings go brown after a few months, some stuff lasts for years. Also remember to use in the order the food was purchased as the contents of the cans may be in edible when one gets to them if one does not. I did not bother to stock up for the lock down and never went hungry.
I can remember my great grandma. She survived the Great Depression as well as the war. Anytime we went out everyone had to finish their meal or else you’d hear about it from her lol. She would reuse anything she could. Including washing and reusing straws, and plastic silverware, and plastic microwave trays. Events in the lives of people from those years changed them forever!
In Taiwan we have rations for masks now. Everyone can get 2 masks with less than 1USD over the government website or from a pharmacy with his National Health card every week.
@Death Metal Highly debatable, as what do we count as this "country kills" obviously we count wars and deaths by colonization, but do we count every death that ever happened in Britain. Besides it's impossible to pin down which country has indeed killed the most because lack of evidence and another thing why are you blaming us modern Brits? It's not like we were the ones who did all the horrific deaths so bringing up the "your country killed more than Hitler" is kinda pointless.
Yes, women wanted stockings so badly they would paint their legs with gravy; or those willing enough even became hookers for American soldiers so they could get stockings from America 😳
It was actually gravy browning powder and a little water I think. The seam at the back was put on with an eyebrow pencil. I suppose in the blackout you would not notice. Female vanity, a multi billion pound industry today.
Turned some friends on to an old pbs show called the victory garden. Used to watch it with my great grandmother born in 1904...she would tell stories of ww2 and what it was like growing and canning vegetables and raising cattle, hogs and chickens to trade food for other food among neighbors. She was a wealth of information, living through ww1, the dust bowl, great depression, and ww2. Her knowledge was a gift that still gives today. I once received a gingerbread cake baked, sealed and preserved in a 1qt Mason jar and sent all the way to FOB Cobra Iraq on my 23rd birthday.
My parents were kids during the war but because they lived in the country had access to "illegal" eggs, chickens, pigs hidden by farmers away from farms, extra milk, butter and all sorts of produce that many never had beyond the ration amounts. They even got thrown sweets and gum by American troops they say, yelling the obligatory "got any gum chum?".
@@yoboikamil525 0:34 Of the two old men in the front of the group the one holding the rifle across his chest is holding a Henry-Martini Rifle. Those were the standard infantry rifles of the British army during the Zulu wars some 70+ years prior.
My grandma ( French ) has talked to me only once about the war, from 1940 till 1944. She told me how, horrified, she saw on the newspapers that the Germans were advancing inexorably toward her city ( Rouen ), and how she and her whole family had to leave because of the heavy fighting that started to occur in the city. They were now on the road, during the exode, with thousands of other french civilians, when German stukas bombed them ( I was playing as a stuka in a computer game and she recognized it ) and everyone died around them. Then how until 1944 they were terribly suffering from malnutrition, and that the only thing they cared about was that little ration card they had to show to the local provider to get a little bit of food. My point is that the crisis we're going through today, even if it shouldn't be taken lightly, is cat piss compared with what our elders went through and that a lot of people I know should stop complaining all the time
Fun fact: The whole "carrots are good for your eyes" thing was created around this time in britain because of the extensive propaganda surrounding home grown foods, such as carrots
Fun fact in ww2 the RAF said they had night vision from carrots this was to hide that they had radar because we knew where german aircraft were I just remembered this
There were also rumours during the war that the Germans had discovered some wonderful new vitamin that they were issuing to their troops and fighter pilots. It was actually amphetamines. There turned out to be downsides.
@@taskforceboi8977 Well no, the Germans also had developed a form of radar as well. They also used directional radio beacons to help their bomber squadrons to navigate. It wasn't perfect over such a long distance but it helped.
Yes, a lack of beta carotene can cause vision problems but an excess of vitamin K will not improve vision beyond a person's normal capacity. It can, however, give a person a faint orange tint to their skin.
7:05 FYI, the balloons you always see in this time period are 'interdiction balloons'. They are what they appear to be, except there is a grenade attached to the balloon, meant to detonate if a plane were to detach the rope... At the time, what people feared the most was (propeler) fighter planes strafing with machineguns or diving for a precision bombing run ! Interdiction balloons prevented exactly that as the plane would end up at very low altitude once done with its manœuvre, and likely collide with one such balloon, prompting an explosion that wooden planes of the era couldn't wistand !
5:45 surely you don't mean that they only received that much a week? That's barely 2000 calories worth of food: 1 egg - 90 cal 4 oz marg - 50 cal 4 oz bacon - 600 cal 2 oz butter - 200 cal 2 oz tea - 0 cal 1 oz cheese - 70 cal 8 oz sugar - 880 cal Total: 1890 cal. How could they stretch that for a week? That's beyond starvation level of diet, which requires 450-800 calories a day.
“Britain was diverting its food to parts of Europe that were rebuilding after the war” while America made sure to destroy the British economy enforcing repayments. Typically British. Also typically American.
I've got a 1938 "Rational Association Friendly Society" book that seems to be unused. It's amazing how these little peices of history survive up to the present!
For the non British people who are laughing about the Tea being essential thing, take this from a Brit, if tea stopped being available civil war would erupt within 2 hours
People managed to get by on it, though. Although there was also the British Restaurant which was used to either supplement your ration or used when you ran out of ration coupons.
British army: uses Lee Enfield rifle, Bren gun, Vickers gun, and mills bombs, and bayonets. Home guard: Winchester rifle, Lewis gun, Molotovs, and a rake????? A rake?????? Guys seriously??????
Some person: *serves inspector meat and fish combo* The inspector after he ate the meal: *that was good, now you get fined for serving me a combo that's not allowed*
a lesson to any country , never import the majority of your food your in trouble in case of war or embargo. The U.S. is getting in same trouble with its dependence on chinese goods
Can you imagine the current population during this? “Those bombers ain’t real” “I’m not wearing a gas mask it stops me from breathing” “I’m leaving my lights on Bombs won’t hurt me”
3:00 An addition to this video is that many of those supplies came from the British Commonwealth. Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. These merchant seamen from these nations risked their lives onboard ships without military escort guard until they reached at least the South or Mid Atlantic and were under constant threat from German U Boats operating as far as the Pacific and Indian Oceans. In order that Britain could continue the war effort these nations also went without, rationing their food sources so that Britain could continue to be fed.
I agree the commonwealth played a important role in ww2 and were very brave in doing so however British merchant seamen did the exact same job as Canadian, Australian,new Zealand merchant seamen only to come back to there towns & cities in ruins and possibly there loved ones dead from the air raids
@@reminiscence4142oh really?? Can you name me a single British extermination camp in India or name me any Indian women that were forcefully sterilised or disabled indian children that were murdered by British doctors🤔??? ...thought not!. Yes the empire was not perfect but to compare it to the Nazis is ridiculous. the only reason India is a democracy and that we have a "free world" today is because of the British empire. Britain stood alone against the combined dictatorships of the world and a lot of it's people died defending democracy so show some respect instead spouting your anti British rhetoric
Wow! The WEEKLY rations were as much as most of us can eat in a day. You can see that the system relied heavily on the civilian population’s personal stock. Today, especially in America, most people laugh at “preppers” as being some fringe group of crazy people. During Hurricane Harvey and again during this coronavirus pandemic, I’ve seen people panic buying and hoarding all sorts of things. Recently, during the pandemic it was the toilet paper and cleaning supplies. AFTER the panic rush lead to shortages, I saw my stores rationing. I’ve seen the stores ration eggs, milk, bread, canned goods, bottled water, soap, hand sanitizers, toilet paper, and meats. During Hurricane Harvey, I also saw the local gas stations rationing gasoline! Preparation isn’t about building an underground bunker and stuffing it with bullets and gas masks. It’s about buying just a LITTLE extra every time you shop so you have a little stockpile of things. FEMA actually encourages prepping just like the British government did in the early 20th century. If you don’t provide some preparations for yourself, you be left at the mercy of the government, the mercy of hoarders, or you’ll end up being pushed into becoming a thief.
I was doing a job painting deck just yesterday and guy 97 year old told how all the kids learnt to garden and older people helped teach him during the war as victory garden ..... he had one of most beautiful gardens I've ever seen
7:46 I like how she's smiling and making clothes from curtains while people are scared and panicking because of the air raid outside. It is a perfect representation of the British people's resilience and bravery during war time conditions.
