Best fed troopers?

That led me to think which army fed its front line troops the best
while in
combat?

As an American I am familiar with C, D, and K rations and that most
soldiers
did not think much of them but it does seem that they had the
requisite amount
of calories and nutrients and that few American troops actually went
days
without some kind of nourishment.

On the other hand I have read that Americans often captured German
troops who
were apalled at American rations and other Germans who volunteered for
front
line duty in order to get enough to eat!

John Dupre'

It depends on how you view best fed. If the criteria is enough food
that the soldiers recognize on a regular basis with no outages then
I'd say the American GI and his allies were the best fed by far. If
the criteria is home cooked meals and fresh baked bread, and the judge
didn't actually have to serve in the Wehrmacht, then an American
professor might actually pick the German rations. However, the
Germans often went with little food for long durations depending on
the theatre they served in. They often had to scrounge for their own,
and when you see photographs of them, they were decidedly underfed,
and most of the field units look downright starved, which they were
often. Compared to photographs of wellfed, wellrested, happy GI's,
the GI wouldn't trade his lot for anyones. The worst off were
probably the Russians, Fins, and Germans, possibly trading places
depending on time of year and theatre.

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Fins? Well here the rations at smallest were about 3000 kcal
(12500 kJ). At most of the time they were well above 300 kcal.
The rations included also significant about (100-200 grams) meat
daily which was much even considering peace time standards of the
day, let alone what civilians got during war.

Osmo

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The British Army Catering Corp was acknowledged as the best
organised feeders of troops, largely because the British did not
rely completely on US pack rations but operated a dual system of
rations and mobile field kitchens at company level which prepared
hot food from fresh (ish) ingredients. Thus front-line troops
always had nutritious cold rations on which to rely if cut off
from their lines of communication, and hot food when not actually
in combat. Stories of cooks braving artillery and mortar fire to
carry dixies of hot stew and suchlike to frontline troops are
legion - the Canadians reputedly even had armoured carriers to
get the food forward. Tanks and other AFVs had their own petrol
stoves on which to cook (the famous Tommy Cookers). Montgomery
and Slim (to name but two) both placed high reliance of feeding
the troops well and promptly.

The US Army tended to rely overmuch on its C & K rations with the
result that front-line troops often went for surprisingly long
periods without hot cooked food. In the Ardennes, British
officers of Montgomery's 21 AG HQ were horrified to come across
static US units which had had no hot food for three weeks or
longer - any platoon officers allowing that to happen to British
troops would be sacked. The front-line situation compared badly
with the lavish (many said over-lavish) provision in the rear
areas with giant portions, plentiful freshly-baked bread, ice
cream and fruit. About 50% of the millions of tons of food
shipped to Europe for US Army consumption was wasted.

> I am reading Vaino Linna's The Unkown Soldier which is about a machine

It should perhaps be noted that the division is advancing
through a deep forest area and has to built its supply road
as it proceeds. The regiment is conducting a still wider
flank movement to cut the enemy´s avenue of retreat, and
the supply units are struggling.

Though the field kitchens (on company level) are horsedrawn
and thus not absolutely limited to roads, they cannot keep
pace with the platoons. Also, the stove is heated with wood
and cannot be effectively used on the move.

The bread (hard platelike rye bread - eaten also by civilians
in normal times:-)) is part of the "dry rations" issued for
a number of days in advance. The company has also received
(literally translated) "iron portions" - "for use in emergency
only when cut off from supplies only" to sustain them until
the field kitchens catch up: they partly fear the hunger will
get worse later if they eat them too soon, and partly they are
still conscripts who hesitate to disobey an order (not to eat
them yet)...

Janne Glad

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