Also Flash, if you make corporal, you have your corporal's mess payment taken out of your wage every month, even if you never step foot in it. I also don't think the public knows just how much infantry soldiers spend on equipment when they go to war. Some spend hundreds for the privilege of fighting for their country.

Ref # 20. That's all about to change Major. Next month Pay as You Dine (PAYD) is being introduced. You only pay for what you eat. The fear is cash strapped squaddies will live off tins of cold baked beans in their rooms or fill up on crisps.

Teutonic beasts as usual.

 

T-Dog

Those scrambled eggs and bacon bits were the only British ration  I heard of being taken off the list as being too vile. The eggs looked like yellow plastic and the ham/bacon was rotten.

Tiny can opener. I still carry mine on my key-chain.Incvaluable for corned dog cans if the tab splits.

Bagged finger food.Unsatisfying, I'll bet. People need a bit of bulk. So, the lads will start carrying biscuits, and mash them in.

Once upon a Labour time, we tried dehydrated rations. Brilliant. Someone forgot they required about 4 pts of water per man to reconstitute, per meal. 4 pts (UK) weighs 5 lb. But didn't the civil servants have fun messing around with it! Jobs for the boys! 

ARE YOU GUYS STILL SERVING M AND V IN YOUR RATIONS FLASH?

Meat and veg? haven't a clue. Used to be a big satisfying night meal. Treacle sponge after that.

Curry powder with the treacle sponge was simply showing off what a hard man you were.

Canadian troops were of course famous for their original uses of the condensed milk tubes.

Best meals were breakfast on a cold and frozen prairie at Suffield. I was HQ pl comd then, so was with coy HQ. My turn to cook every 4 days.We had those huge double burners; opened the tins of sausage, beans, bacon roll, tomatoes, the night before, (30 odd tins) just drop them into the big cookers pans, fry 2 doz eggs, soft bread ration .

 

THEN, (this was my speciality) hot water for shaving. Great thing about Suffield, only went tactical about 09.00

M&V REFERS TO MUTTON AND VEGTABLES. VERY BIG IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR FLASH. (BRITISH RATIONS)

THIS IS A PIC OF IT BEING COOKED UP. SORRY ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE PIC'S.

 

 

THE AMERICANS ALSO HAD A MOBILE SHOWER AND LAUNDERY UNIT WHERE YOU COULD TAKE A SHOWER AND GET YOUR CLOTHS WASHED WHILE YOU WERE DOING IT. I FIRST SEEN IT BEING USED ON THE REFORCER EXERCISES IN GERMANY IN THE EARLY 70'S.

ALL YOUR CLOTHS WENT INTO A NYLON NET BAG AND WAS TIED AT THE TOP. ONLY PROBLEM WAS YOUR CLOTHS ALL CAME OUT THE SAME COLOUR NO MATTER WHAT THE COLOUR WAS BEFORE YOU STARTED. AT LEAST THEY WERE CLEAN.

DID YOU USE EMMERSON HEATERS FLASH TO HEAT YOUR WATER?? A LARGE GARBAGE CAN WITH A PETROLIUM BURNING DEVICE INSERTED IN IT. DEVICE HAD IT'S OWN SMOKE STACK AND WORKED BY FUEL DRIPPING INTO A BURNER AND HITTING A SLASH PLATE. IF NOT LIT PROPERLY IT WHENT OFF LIKE A MORTAR. FOR ADDED PLEASURE PEOPLE THE ODD TIME PLACED AN OLD TIN CAN OVER THE STACK BEFORE LIGHTING TO SEE HOW HIGH THEY COULD SEND IT. CHARGEABLE OFFENSE IF YOU GOT CAUGHT.