Food and logistics of feeding an army in WW1 ...

How did they, what with, and when … feed the British Army of World War One – ever considered it?  This post refers to the Army and its entourages only … and not the Royal Navy, nor Royal Air Force, nor other necessary personnel at home … I can’t really conjecture about those.

John Nash: Over the Top

 I had thought about the food pre war – which would have been basic for most people, but gourmand still for many … as large parties continued to be held at the wealthy and nobles’ estates … as Escoffier’s La Ligue des Gourmands shows us:

The Savoy - Escoffier's
first London hotel -
later he managed the
Carlton and the Ritz

Escoffier (1846 – 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer … and still is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmets.  He founded La Ligue des Gourmands – a dining club for his friends in 1912.

This club spread throughout Europe and attracted thousands of members – it is notable for the Diners d’Epicure – menus that were served simultaneously in many restaurants.  The first was served to 4,000 members in 37 European cities – the last held in July 1914 in 137 cities and to 10,000 diners …

German Submarine zone 1915

… and as you will know: the ‘Great War’ began on 28 July 1914 with Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war with Serbia … Britain entered the war (together with the Commonwealth countries ‘by default’) on 4 August 1914 – after Germany had invaded Belgium on 3^rd August 1914.

Dodine

That first menu included Dodine de Canard au Chambertin, a duck casserole cooked in a dodine – looking that up it appears more to be a method (galantine) – a recipe and some infocan be found here.

A BBC tv programme on Mrs Beeton 2006

I got side-tracked as is my wont …

Really up until the First World War a cook’s life in the UK had been ruled by Mrs Beeton (if you could access some of her work), local seasonal food, and lack of refrigeration …

Women weren’t working but were doing the home chores … most did not have a cook, or scullery maid (or servants galore) … national newspapers had a women’s page with bossy exhortations on what to do and how to cope in those early years of the 20^th century.

Fray Bentos label from a tin

The early 1900s saw tinned food, including Heinz baked beans, Bisto gravy and Bird’s custard, introduced as new commodities, while ice closets were being added to the kitchen … also food was being shipped in from distant corners of the world … particularly corned beef from Argentina.

Electricity was not up and running – so much was still done by candlelight and cooking on coal/coke stoves, or braziers etc … electricity really only spread into homes during the 1930s …

Back to WW1 and the logistics of feeding the Army … most of this information comes from Jasper Copping’s article in the Daily Telegraph of 19 May 2013 which references the Guide by Andrew Robertshaw, curator at the Royal Logistic Corps Museum, to the food eaten by British Soldiers of the First World War with recipes for some of the meals.  Check out Amazon for a book – while the article will give you a fuller overview.

Apparently the ration strength of the British Army was 5, 363, 352 people worldwide, including over two million on the western front.  To feed these men the Army Service Corps had allocated 12,000 officers and 320,000 men …. as a side note: this was the size of the entire British Army sent to the continent at the outbreak of war.

The food was pretty good considering all things and very likely better than they had at home … but … the diet was high in protein, leading to ‘erh’ problems – with men suffering from boils and becoming, in the army euphemism “bunged up” – the amount of meat was reduced!

The men were paid in local currency and were able to buy additional food when not at home … an option not available to many back in Blighty – they simply went hungry.  Food parcels were sent from home – via a very efficient postal system.

Eric Henry Kennington: Signaller off duty (1916)

 Everyone had the same rations … the horses were fed first (I guess not the same food!), then the ranks, and then the officers – even though only a fraction of the men were ever in the trenches at any one time … there were also the administrative camps logistically keeping the wheels turning …

… the logistics would have included: field hospitals, staff quarters, railways, roads, communications systems, the postal system home, stores – food, clothing, spares and munitions … etc etc

Foods on offer included – bully beef, with another tinned staple from Scotland “Maconochie”: a pork and beans meal … curry was standard fare or used to spice up the stews … cooks were encouraged to forage for nettles, sweet docks, wild mushrooms and marigold flowers with which to season dishes.

There was no official vegetarian option, although provision was made for Indian personnel, which included mixed spices, Dhal and Attar … vegetarians received additional sugar or milk, instead of milk; while other variations were produced for the Chinese, Egyptian and Fijian ‘volunteers’.

Toast and Dripping

Cooks were careful to avoid all waste … leftovers were sold as swill to local farmers, while dripping was saved for use in the manufacture of explosives.


As the front lines extended and grew, food was prepared nearer and nearer to trenches with many cooks being killed …

Some of the dishes in the article:  Brown Stew; Potato Pie; Sea Pie (a suet crusted meat pie – why called sea pie: I’ve no idea!); Curried Cod; Milk Biscuit Pudding – feeds 100 men.

Egg and chips would have been available from the French countryside - provisions for those off duty (as such) …

Trench Cake – came from Elizabeth Craig’s Economical Cookery book (not our Elizabeth!) … flour, marge, vinegar, milk, brown sugar, currants, cocoa, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, grated lemon rind … make up and post across …

Other staples at home:  Butter Beans; Braised Lettuce; Potted Shrimp Curry; Gooseberry Fool, garden or foraged fruits and vegetables … fish sausages made from leftover fish and rice

Bee on blackberry flowers

Cakes were made without eggs and were very dry – to eat dripping would have been smeared on, dunked in a cup of tea – often their only evening meal.  Blackberry leaf tea was popular …

Swede

Basic foodstuffs, such as butter, milk, sugar, meat were in short supply, while wheat flour was so hard to get hold of, that people resorted to making bread with ground-up turnips (swedes).

Rations weren’t introduced in World War One til late in the War (1918) … there was a huge black market, so if you had money you could eat – if you were poor, you didn’t.

Otto Dix: The Ravens (Dawn)

It’s incredible how little people survived on – and they wouldn’t have understood nutrition (vitamins were just beginning to be found) … so we weren’t too healthy …

Robert Graves recalled that his wedding cake was covered with what looked like icing but, due to sugar shortages, was actually a plaster cast!! Ingenious cooks were creative for the effect … apparently when it was lifted off the cake, “a sigh of disappointment arose from the guests”!

An early Ice Closet

So much changed during the 19^th century and thrust forward when the War came along … the population had more than doubled since 1851 … which was difficult enough, but many weren’t healthy anyway … and then by 1916 imports of food had virtually ceased, because of the German blockades, so the nation was thrown back on its own devices.

We have come a long way … and I’ve seen huge changes in the last half century after the 2^nd world war … mostly I enjoyed school food so I can’t relate to the being bored and my mother was an exceptional cook, as to what was on offer in the trenches it must have been tricky at times .. but the range and nutritional value of what the troops ate was remarkably good.

I’m just glad I live in today’s age … and can enjoy my range of food choices … and eat fresh foods  … now what shall I have for dinner?  … that thought seems almost sacrilegious ….

Note:  I will be writing about WW1 from various angles and will spread the posts … there won’t be a series as such.

The Daily Telegraph article referred to above ... is here, with recipes and all ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

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