Not just for military service. If you’re in the position that you need a usable meal that does not need time to fix or clean up after, then something like this might help for a few days. I’m currently in this position - I need meals that don’t involve cooking or cleaning. Same for traveling, either by train or bicycle. Did train-travel in May of 2021, and I was sort of prepared for the return trip.
I learnt how great those pockets were while a army ranger in the early to mid 80’s. After leaving the army I still loved my BDU’s and those cargo pockets. Now while fishing I used them to carry my beer cans, and a pint of Jack in my back pocket. They hold A-LOT of beer cans ! Good times from what I can remember. 😂
you can cut off a chunk of the fruit bar, and put it in a cup of hot water and make a fruit tea quite easily. That would go well with the butter biscuits.
The soldiers at the front more often had real coffee than the civilians at home. At home they had "Ersatzkaffee". It was a mashup from 50% real coffee and 50% Mukkefuk (roaster grain and chicoré roots)
According to the book "Rations of the German Wehrmacht in WWII" the "German Assault Ration" had some variations in content (probably due to delivery issues. Some rations contained XOX Kraftkekse (which seemed to taste like sweet dog bisquits according to the U.S. report) instead of bisquits, some Milupa chocolate caramels. But all of them seemed to contain cigarettes of different makers. Sometimes the bisuits weren't wrapped at all, sometimes in celophane, sometimes in commercial-looking wrappers. The entire ration seemed to be a wild mish-mash.
Much in common with the D ration. The coffee/chocolate bard probably has caffeine in it like the ShoKaKola chocolate so you downed the equivalent of about 1-2 cups of coffee
This is more of a supplemental pack vice a meal. Whenever possible German soldiers were fed from field kitchens. Jim Pool's two books on Wehrmacht rations cover this and many other items.
Exactly! Most European armies continued to do "hot field meals" up to the 90's....... Americans thinking that this was the "normal issue" they are kidding themselves 😆
There was no chewing gum in a WW2 german ration. Actualy even in my Time in the german army (1993-1994) there was chewing gum in the MRE (EPA in German) but, all hell would break lose if you were seen chewing it. German army was never found of the Ami shit ;-)
Lmfao yeah American rations are utterly terrible! I knew a lot of people who would swap alot of stuff to get those spice that had paprika and pepper in it
Most likely very few German soldiers would have ever had these rations? Almost all German soldiers ate food from mobile kitchens with the troops or foraged food from the local areas! According to every military history I have read!
In the USSR the orders were "live off the land", but with the Russians practicing scorched earth, wasn't much to live off of. Yes, definitely a lot of field kitchens in the rear areas, with runners bringing hot chow forward. This is standard practice in every military, soldiers want hot chow as often as possible. No one wants to eat field rations for long. This was basically a pack of sugary treats. A supplement to brighten your day once in a while. This was not a meal.
@@MREScout Also very much a last resort thing if you're cut off from the supply lines. Wont make you well fed but would def help morale more than some canned meat which could be very benefitial I imagine in certain situations
Too Bad You were not able to include the Pervitin ration that came with the food rations for the Germans. Meth amphetamine was a huge driving force in the German Army. I am loving the video series . Check out the history of canned meat rations and Napoleon's Battle strategies.
It's not "Flanner". The Chocolate is from "Manner" a Viennese Chocolate factory which Produces chocolates and chocolate wafers of many different sorts until today.
Looting is generally very common in wars I guess. Weapons are also often taken and some are really sought after. And others are left behind because they are so bad 😅
Two similar Rations the Germans also issued were the- Frontkämpfer im Grosskampf (Front Line Fighter Large Battle) ration. And the Zusatzverpflegung für Frontkämpfer im Infanterieverband "(Additional ration for front-line infantry units)
Two similar Rations the Germans issued were the- "Zusatzverpflegung für Frontkämpfer im Infanterieverband "(Additional ration for front-line infantry units). And the "Für Frontkämpfer im Großkampf" (For front-line soldiers participating in large battles). By War's end, the Rations were being issued in mere Cellophane Bags !
Say you should review the current Australian 24 hour ration packs A through to H, they are great, and there is still the dehydrated long range patrol versions.
@@carrisasteveinnes1596 Yes in the late 1970's i was eating 24 hour ration packs packed during the late 1960's. Cereal block, etc, mind you the tinned cheese and fruit salad was good.
I had a quite decent horsemeat casserole in France recently, as well as an osso-bucco style of horse shanks with seasonal vegetables. I preferred the casserole.
That Fruchtriegel, we still have that kind of candy around here (Sweden), classic candy. You can even get hand made with few if any preservatives other than sugar. Love it..
Hello, US ARMY 1968-1971 here. We were fed WW2 era rations @Ft. Bragg, NV in July 1968. After I got out of the Army I joined my father's Candy brokerage business in Maryland and worked it for 25 years. I am very familiar with many of the Candy companies that sold to the US military and to companies that made up rations for them. I remember seeing pallets of Hershey Desert War chocolate bars in one of my civilian customers warehouses. The boxes and wrappers were desert sand in color. The owner told me to taste one. It was horrible and I spit it out. I cannot imagine any American eating it and figured it was refused by the troops. It was like trying to eat beeswax. Did you ever encounter these in Iraq ?
Back when I was a kid they had a candy that was peanuts I’m trying to remember the name of it I think it was called like a squirrel chew have peanut some nuggets and chocolate covered sounds like that type of candy but the nugget was more like a caramel very stiff
@@markusmaier2277 dont say waffles it confuses english speakers. Call them waffers. Can't tell you how often i see sad Americans confusidly leaving the manner shop because they thought they could get a hot waffle. But yess definitely one of the best austrian sweets in my book
My grandfather bought after the war in 1945 two big boxes of "iron rations" from somewhere (was the time, when they starved nearly in Germany) to bring his family through the hard times. I found three of them left in the basement, after my grandfather had died. They contained each a can of meat, some "Knäckebrot" (a kind of triple baked bread, that nearly can't get bad) and dry pie-soup; no chocolate or cigarettes or whatever. I am sure, this packet you had, was some "sweets&fun-pack" for the soldiers and not something like the real iron-rations, each German soldier had...
My other grandpa, driver of a Sdkfz 251 APC, told my he like the candy but hate to get this packet. It mean a offensiv of the russian must start the next days.
Yes, they also had Pervitin which was a tablet like a pill or in a powder, that was also an amphetamine. Germany wasn’t the only country issuing meth pills to its soldiers, the US had emergency survival rations with similar pills in them, they probably still do to this day. Anything to stay awake. Also some rations are designed to not “pass” easily through the body meaning less chance to be caught in a gunfight with your pants down
You said that these were introduced late in the war, does that mean 1944 or 1945 or what? I noticed that one of the wrappers was dated 1941. That's fairly early.
K rats were discontinued after WW2. The early MREs were in use during the Gulf War. A lot of menu improvements were made for the MREs during the mid/late 1990s and were actually quite good overall by the time OIF came about. We had plenty of kosher/halal certified MREs downrange, which were mainly commercial items and of excellent quality. I was downrange in both conflicts.
It's not an authentic ration. It's a re-creation of how the rations would have looked back then. The production date is just there to make it give it a more authentic feel. That said, there ARE rations from ww2 and even before that that are actually still kinda "edible"
