FOOD OF TROOPS

Patea Mail, 5 January 1940, Page 4

FOOD OF TROOPS

BULLY BEEP DAYS GONE DELIVERY IN FRANCE Feuding the British Army in Franco has been compared to a picnic on a large scale. It certifhdy is a picnic de luxe, for 500 tons of food are lauded and distributed daily between 200, 000 men. On the menu shipped over flic channel are 250 different items, ranging from meat and two tinned vegetables 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 docs not care much for mutton and lamb —even New Zealand; at least his past experience of the way cooks have mishandled it has given him a prejudice. Ho 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 sojdicr 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 in the mean becomes in their eyes largely a matter of calorics 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. BULLY BEEF DAYS PAST Variety is insisted upon. The days of eternal bully beef and biscuits are as dated ms the muzzle-loading rifle. If one typo of food is not available; the soldier receives its nearer equivalent. If there are not fresh vegetables he gets his tomatoes, beans and peas from ■tins. If bacon is short we receive "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 fot 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 lias 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 ship for conveyance to France, and there it has to amass them again in main-base supply depots. SUPPLYING THE FRONT From those 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 B.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 prearranged rendezvous, and from there they are conducted to meeting points ■where guides meet the supplv lorries. There is yet another stage to Ire completed in this complicated “picnic,” -and the guides load the lorries -to the “delivery points,” where the K.A.B.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’ store in hand. BETiT.It 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 the preparation. One of the many improvements is the replacement of the old cooker wagon, which rumbled along after the troops full of eternal stew, by the petrol cooker. Wherever possible, men in the trendies are served with hot meals; the food is kept heated by being placed in hay box containers. “Tommy cookers” are also supplied. They 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 moat is preferred to Australian. It is loss fatty. Two ounces of tobacco, equal to about of) to lit! cigarettes, and two boxes of matches are issued to each man weekly. Xeat mm is issued in wintry weather, but troops who prefer it ean take cocoa, milk, and sugar ns an alternative. Beer is not issued as part of the Army ration, but. in common with other supplements, it can be secured at TAAI'T canteens. 'The British Army claims that, m general, the British soldier Is fed more liberally and in better quality than soldiers in any other army in the world. ,