03 - Food, Drink and Rations

As near as I can recall chow was not a big holdup either on troop trains or a ship. The mess car was in the center of the train. The back half of the troop train would walk to the front of the train turn around and fill up their plates and coffee cups on the way back. Then the troops in the front of the car would do the same. As I remember it never took more than an hour. Also we always used plates and coffee cups not the field mess gear we were issued. Amazingly, we got three meals a day! When we had cold cereal we split the side of the box poured in milk first and sugar. This way no bowl to wash.

We always had our meals in the mess hall. We ate family style with real cups and plates and stainless flatware knives, forks, spoons, plates, cups, Eight men to a table with one NCO at each. All food came in bowls and you helped yourself, if you were piggish (some one let you know about it). The K.P.’s kept the bowls full and most generally there was always enough for seconds if you wanted some. We had pancakes, bacon, hash browns, toast, but not always on the same day. Usually we had fried eggs only on Sundays as you had to stand in line as they cooked them as you liked them. There was most always meat once a day and most always fried chicken on Sundays. I always found the meals well cooked and always enough family style, eight men to a table. Most of the time our food was excellent with chicken once a week. Roast beef, Pork and always plenty of vegetables. Coffee and most always cereal with milk. A few times a week french toast, pancakes, sausage and bacon were served. Once in a while we got cream beef on toast. What we call S.O.S S__ on a shingle wasn’t a favorite.

On the troop ship’s we would eat standing up. No benches were available. The tables were on stanchions and they could be raised or lowered. On the trip overseas most of the guys were sea sick. So the result was it was never crowded. We took turns going to mess on the ships. First the port side would eat first and the starboard side would eat second. We would line up and the line would serpentine through the ship. We always had three meals a day with the exception of the Dutch ship Hollanda. We went to Leyte Philippine Islands on Hollanda in 16-19 January 1945. On that ship the noon meal was an apple and a sandwich. We did not go Hungary.

When we got to the Philippine Islands our kitchens never tried to keep up with us so we ate old rations. C Rations K Rations etc. The K rations came in a box about the size of a Cracker Jack Box. It had matches, cigarettes, toilet tissue, hard biscuits (hard tack) cheese and stuff like that. The box was coated with wax so we could use it to heat water for instant (powdered) coffee. The first of its kind was called George Washington Soluble Coffee and tasted like the sweepings from the log cabins at Valley Forge. The C Rations were something else. One can was beef hash, vegetable stew and pork and beans. The only time it was bad was when we were in combat. When we had C Rations, K Rations and I told you about them.

Now while the war in Europe was in full force they got the lions share of everything. Men (replacements), ammo, food you name it. Most of our stuff came from Australia. Well they didn’t know beans. Whenever the sun would shine on the beans they would blow. Needless to say we did not eat them if we could help it. The Australian sugar was unrefined. It had large granules and was pretty brown. One day they sent some fresh sides of beef! One of our men was a butcher by trade. They made us the best steaks and at dawn the next morning we were to push off on a big drive to catch the Japs unawares. The beef was just a little tainted. It had been un-refrigerated. We couldn’t get our pants up for about eight hours. One day our rations got hijacked by the Japs, and we were without food for about three days. When we got Hungry enough we dug camotes (sweet potatoes) and cooked them in our steel helmets and flavored them with salt tablets. We had been told not to use the pot as a cooker due to a coating on the metal, but it did work. Now I must mention the drink that came with the rations. The flavors were Concord grape, imitation orange and imitation lemonade. …Just add water mix and shake. Tastes like nothing else. Real battery acid. I still can’t drink concord grape juice fifty years later. We also had tropical butter and chocolate. We tried to cook some eggs with the butter. It never melted and the eggs stuck to the pan.