FEEDING THE TROOPS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20132, 29 December 1939, Page 2

FEEDING THE TROOPS

LARGE SCALE “PICNIC”

DELIVERY TO FRANCE BEEF PREFERRED LONDON, Dec. 1. Feeding the British Army in France has been compared to “a picnic on a large scale.” It certainly is a picnic de luxe, for 500 tons of food are landed and distributed daily between 200,000 men. On the menu shipped over the Channel are 250 different items, ranging from meat and two vegetables (tinned) to cigarettes and a choice of rum or cocoa, milk and sugar, in dirty weather. The meat comes chiefly from the Argentine and Australia, and it is mainly beef. Your soldier does not care much for mutton and lamb —even New Zealand; at ledst his past experience of the way cooks have mishandled it has given him a prejudice. He has too many memories of cold, fatty, congealed mutton stew. New Zealand butter is most popular, and it is supplied regularly to troops in the Middle East.

From the army’s viewpoint, the •soldier is “fed in accordance with a rationed scale." This is decided upon by War Office officials, with the assistance of the Medical Research Council. Every item on the menu becomes in their eyes largely a matter of calories and vitamins; the soldier must have a balanced ration “sufficient to feed a man under any conditions in which he may be called upon to operate.” Eully Beef Days Past

Variety is insisted upon. The days of eternal bully beef and biscuits are as dated as the muzzle-loading rifle. If one type of food is not available, the soldier receives its near equivalent. If there are no fresh vegetables, he gets his tomatoes, beans and peas from tins. If bacon is short he receives “meat loaf,” which is made from pork with a cereal "base,” usually oatmeal, or pork and beans. The purchase of army food is the job of "the director of army contracts. Before he gives an order, however, samples have to be submitted to the tender care of the analytical chemist, •who subjects them to various tests. Meat, for instance, is placed for three weeks or so in a heat chamber so that its keeping qualities in hot climates may be estimated. A satisfactory test means an order. Price is not the ruling factor, for food must be “in accordance with specifications,” to use cold army terms.

Once it is ordered the first stage of the “picnic” has begun. It is accumulated in huge reserve depots where there are immense stores. From these depots it is taken away by the Movement Control, which has the job of arranging for transfer to France. Here it may be mentioned that the British Army is confronted by a task unknown to Continental forces. It has to transport its supplies to ships for conveyance to France, and there it has to mass them again in main base supply depots. Supplying: the Front From these depots the food leaves for the front in “pack trains” in bulk. It is shifted up to supply rail heads, and here the Movement Control hands over all further duties to the Royal Army Service Corps. The Divisional Supply Column removes the food to its own headquarters, where the R.A.S.C. “breaks bulk” ready for the next stage of distribution to the brigades. Under cover of night, and with adequate protection against gas,

the column begins the last stage of distribution to the troops. Through the pitch darkness they drive to a pre-arranged rendezvous, and from there are conducted to meeting points where guides meet the supply lorries. There is yet another .stage to be completed in this complicated "picnic,” and the guides lead the lorries to the “delivery points,” where the R.A.S.C. is relieved of further responsibility, and the food is handed over to the various companies to which it was dispatched. It is intended for consumption the following day; actually it is one of the principles of supply that a unit always has three days’ stores in hand. Better Food To-day There is no doubt that the food served to the soldier to-day is better than it was in the last’ war. More attention has been paid to its preparation. One of the many improvements is the replacement of the old cooker wagon, which rumbled along after the troops full of eternal stew, for the petrol cooker. Wherever possible, men in the trenches are served with hot meals; the food is kept heated by being placed in haybox containers. “Tommy cookel-s” are also supplied. Th6y burn solidified, smokeless alcoholic fuel, and are most useful for warming the inner man. Where possible, the ration is supplemented with fresh vegetables and eggs. Beef is mainly frozen, and Argentine preserved meat is preferred to Australian. It is less fatty. Two ounces of tobacco, equal to about 50 to GO cigarettes, and two boxes of matches are issued to each man weekly. Neat rum is issued in wintry weather, but troops who prefer it can take cocoa, milk and sugar as an alternative. Beer is not issued as part of the army ration, but, in common with other “supplements.” it can be secured at N.A.A.F.I. canteens. The British Army claims that, in general, the British soldier is fed more liberally and in better quality than soldiers in any other army in the world.