Chapter 15: ETO Supply: Rations
Rations (Class 1) were probably the best-handled category of Quartermaster supplies on the European continent, or at least the one causing the fewest crises in the Office of the Chief Quartermaster. The reasons were inherent in Class I operations. A food shortage in any U.S. military unit, no matter how small, was regarded as a major emergency, to be corrected by whatever action necessary within the ascending chain of command. This phraseology is used deliberately, since no matter at what level, a commanding officer is responsible for the proper subsistence of his men. In all wars the technicians of the U.S. Army who have shared the combat commander’s responsibility for the subsistence of the troops have had a vivid awareness of the overriding importance of their mission—what one expert has termed a “subsistence philosophy.”1 Emergencies in food supply in the ETO were almost always local, involving transportation or distribution. They were dealt with summarily as they arose, by cutting red tape, juggling transportation priorities, or arranging for exceptions to command policies, as required. Public opinion would tolerate no other course of action. Even minor expressions of discontent over rations by combat soldiers were echoed in the form of outspoken criticism by the Stars and Stripes.2
For the U.S. Army, the real problems of subsistence were qualitative rather than quantitative. The objective was to give the combat troops—especially those in contact with the enemy—hot, tasty, varied, and nutritious meals, as soon as possible after the landings. Ideally, such meals should be prepared from fresh bulk foods rather than concentrated preserved items. The nutritional advantages of such a diet are clear, but for combat troops the psychological considerations were actually more important. The disadvantages and even dangers of a monotonous and unpalatable diet under combat conditions were widely underestimated within the Army. The common view was that men working in the open become hungry, and when they finally become hungry enough
they will eat whatever is available. So they will, as a general rule, but under the exacting conditions of heavy combat men require a continuous high caloric intake, not only to offset a high expenditure of energy but also to overcome the fatigue and nervous tension that inevitably accompany danger. Under such conditions considerable time may pass before the average soldier becomes hungry enough to eat, for example, an unheated combat ration. In the interim he may become seriously undernourished and weakened, so that his diminished alertness and lowered resistance to disease make him unfit for combat. Then rest and a special remedial diet are required to correct this condition.
A vicious circle appears to operate. Although hungry, men eat only small quantities of monotonous and unpalatable rations. Combat continues, and at the next meal, because of undernourishment, they are more exhausted than before. Exhaustion inhibits appetite, so that at this meal they eat still less. Because of external discipline or unusual conscientiousness, some may eat to keep up their strength despite lack of appetite. As fatigue mounts during prolonged combat, food so taken will lead to nausea among all except the most vigorous. The only effective preventive measure to maintain the efficiency of men in combat for extended periods is to provide varied and appetizing meals prepared from fresh food and served hot.
The OCQM consistently maintained that providing such a diet was a major objective, to be accomplished regardless of the extra work involved in administration, transportation, or storage. The Medical Corps was entirely in accord with this thesis. The common catchall expression “combat exhaustion” was merely another way of saying that most nonbattle casualties were caused by a combination of physical and psychological factors in varying proportions. The condition was very real even though a more exact diagnosis was almost impossible. It would appear to be significant that at “exhaustion centers,” which existed solely to treat battle fatigue cases, a special diet was an important part of the treatment. Moreover, attractive meals were considered a major factor in rapid recovery by the wounded.3
Early Class I Operations
According to plan, the troops on the beachhead at first subsisted almost entirely on the operational rations they had brought with them. Large-scale issue of food began on 9 June 1944 (D plus 3) and consisted mainly of C and K Rations. But by D plus 6 more than half the rations consumed were 10-in-l’s, a proportion that rose to more than 85 percent by the end of the first month on the Continent. In the second week of operations in Normandy, most First Army units drew their rations from truckheads in the Fork de Cerisy and at Isigny, which was supplied from the ration dump established by the 5th Engineer Special Brigade near OMAHA Beach. By D plus 19, a week after it had been cut off, the Cotentin Peninsula
was crossed by a string of Class I truck-heads.4
The earliest effort to supplement the restricted diet of the troops aimed at providing fresh bread and fresh coffee. Though slightly delayed by the decision to bring in additional combat troops, bakery companies with mobile British equipment began to arrive on 30 June. Within two days they were producing fresh bread in quantities that rose rapidly to a rate of 40 pounds per 100 rations. Freshly roasted and ground coffee was somewhat slower in reaching the troops. Initially, the First Army quartermaster had decided not to bring in the large, top-heavy roasters over the beaches, but he changed his mind after seeing the types of heavy equipment landed successfully by other services. The decision to separate them from the bakery companies delayed arrival of the coffee roasters about a month. Although a small amount of soluble coffee was included in the operational rations and was generally acceptable to the troops, all agreed that more coffee should be included. Additional amounts of soluble coffee (1½ pounds per 100 men) were therefore issued with the operational rations until the coffee roasters arrived.5
While grateful for the coffee and fresh bread, the troops had used still other means to augment their diet and relieve its monotony. McNamara reported that two or three oranges a week proved very popular. Some of the more enterprising units consumed B rations which they had hoarded on their kitchen trucks before departing from Britain.6 Irregular though this expedient was, it did not violate sanitary and political directives as did the 9th Infantry Division quartermaster who, when his organization was in bivouac from 1 to 9 July, supplemented the ration by purchasing forty-four beef cattle and six calves from French civilian sources. There was plenty of food in Normandy, but only because it could not be transported to urban centers. Even more than the Allied landing, the preinvasion bombing of railroads and bridges had imposed a hardship upon the inhabitants of French cities, who had fared reasonably well under the German occupation. In Normandy, individual efforts to obtain from civilian sources fruit, eggs, cheese, and other items by purchase or barter were not uncommon during the first month, but ADSEC speedily reminded all supply officers that such unofficial activities were forbidden, and that livestock was among the items specifically not to be purchased according to current ETO directives.7
For about six weeks as the combat forces doggedly fought through a maze
of hedgerows, rivers, marshes, and canals, operational rations suitable for that type of combat were on hand. But even operational rations were not interchangeable. Each type had its own special purpose and on 14 July, Littlejohn noted with some concern First Army reports that the troops were consuming 140 percent of the anticipated number of 10-in-1 rations, but only 50 and 40 percent respectively of the planned number of K rations and C rations. At this rate, the entire reserve of 10-in-1’s would be consumed before 31 October, the earliest date on which an immediate requisition would arrive; moreover NYPE had warned him that production of 10-in-1’s was limited, and requisitions already on file would exhaust the supply then available. He suggested to McNamara that units demanding seven 10-in-1 rations per week receive one C ration augmented by one-third of a K ration, and one K ration augmented by one-third of a C ration, thus saving two 10-in-1 rations each week. He also suggested that, if tactically feasible, the B ration be issued immediately to 75 percent of the troops, instead of 50 percent as planned. Meanwhile on 8 July the B ration had been issued for the first time. Even this first issue was received by more than half of the troops in Normandy, and during the next eight days the consumption of 10-in-1’s dropped so rapidly that no shortage actually materialized. This experience was merely the first of a series of potentially serious shortages which failed to become critical because of a favorable turn in the tactical situation. The average of issues in Normandy for the month of July-57 percent B rations, 28 percent 10-in-1’s, and the balance in K’s and C’s—fails to indicate even a potential difficulty.8
Levels of Class I Supply
Far more serious than the shortage of 10-in-1’s was the fact that it had developed without the OCQM’s becoming aware of it. Col. Robert T. Willkie, chief of the Subsistence Division, visiting the far shore on 2 and 3 July, had noted troop preferences and current consumption trends, but had failed to obtain any useful or reliable statistics on inventories or cumulative consumption. McNamara’s reports, already mentioned, were no more than rough estimates expressed in round numbers. On 16 July Littlejohn wrote to Colonel Franks, the new acting quartermaster of ADSEC, outlining the statistical reports required, and a limited amount of information began to flow in. Six days later, Littlejohn asked Willkie to prepare a systematic Class I plan which would balance current rates of consumption against supplies on hand and due in through 31 October, and which would also aid in preparing accurate requisitions for the subsequent ninety days—that is, through 31 January 1945.9
Writing to the Chief Quartermaster from Cheltenham on 25 July, Willkie
enumerated the steps necessary to achieve Littlejohn’s desired objective, a steady and reliable flow of B rations—changing to A rations as soon as possible —for troops on the Continent. First of all, the 60-day level authorized by the War Department would have to be computed “ex-ship”—in other words, ships waiting to discharge their cargoes in European waters were no longer to be considered theater assets. Then the D ration, the 5-in-1, and the 25-in-1 hospital ration, all of which were actually special purpose supplements, were no longer to be computed as part of the level of supply. But these were merely procedural reforms to simplify computation. The real problems were to shift the theater’s current assets from the United Kingdom to the Continent at a rate compatible with the transfer of troops, to estimate future requirements by quantity and type of ration for both Britain and France, and to plan for direct receipt of future shipments in the United Kingdom or on the Continent as required. Conforming to Littlejohn’s directive, the first portion of this plan was concerned with supply levels. Bearing in mind that troop strength on the Continent would nearly double during the interval, Will-kie proposed to shift the days of Class I supply by 31 October as follows:
| 23 July 44 | 31 Oct 44 | |||
| Type of Ration | U.K. | Continent | U.K. | Continent |
| Total days all types | 64 | 14 | 59 | 46 |
| A | 45 | 0 | 54 | |
| B | 8 | 4 | 1 | 34 |
| C | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| K | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 10-in-1 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 8 |
Willkie’s plan was submitted the same day to Franks, who promptly approved it, but with the notation that continental Class I reserves, not including two days rations in the unit kitchens, were as follows on 27 July:
| Ration | B | 10-in-1 | C and K | All types |
| Days | 1.9 | 3.7 | 12.5 | 18.1 |
In other words, in less than three weeks the critical shortages had shifted from 10-in-1 to B rations. On the other hand, 10,900,000 B rations, roughly 13.5 days’ supply for the forces on the Continent, were either offshore waiting to be discharged or under way from U.K. ports.10 Not mentioned by Franks, but a very clear corollary of the continental position as presented, was the fact that Willkie’s “ex-ship” formula was no more than a pious wish. Franks merely requested Littlejohn’s aid in persuading G-4 to grant a priority to move the supplies ashore, and expressed no alarm about the supply of B rations.
Admittedly, Willkie’s calculations were based on limited data. The entire far shore was still a combat zone, so that the pipeline factor (21 days from ship to depot, 16 days for interdepot shipments, and 2 days from depot to truckhead) was based on experience in Britain. Willkie noted that a longer line of communications in France might require a still larger pipeline factor. Four days for losses (at sea, in the pipeline, in battle, or through overissue) and 1 day for consumption were based on current experience. Simple subtraction indicated that on 31 October the safety factor would be 16 days in the United Kingdom and 3 days on the Continent. The chief of the
Subsistence Division considered this level dangerously low, and hoped to improve it by the end of the year.11
The most carefully and accurately calculated portion of the plan, based on recent experience data, involved the division of the supply level into the types of rations required. According to long-range calculations, extending into 1945, 82 percent of the troops would subsist on kitchen-prepared (A or B) rations, and 18 percent on operational rations. In actuality, for the entire European campaign the average was 78.9 percent A or B rations and 21.1 percent operational rations, so that the long-term accuracy of this forecast was excellent.12 But even as the analysis was being prepared, tactical developments on the Continent made all previous experience data obsolete and virtually useless. July 25th will be remembered as the day that Operation COBRA was launched, crushing enemy resistance at St. Lô and leading to a decisive breakthrough. On 30 July Littlejohn wrote to Franks at ADSEC:
My dear Johnnie:
It looks as though the military situation is very much improved and the supply situation is going to be put to a severe test. I am sorry that we did not have Cherbourg stocked according to plans but that is water over the dam.13
The breakout from the Normandy beachhead developed into a pursuit with logistical characteristics quite different from those of combat. During the month of August consumption of operational rations averaged not 18 percent as anticipated, but 48 percent.14 (Table 14) Since at this rate, the reserve of operational rations might be exhausted in a matter of days, the OCQM took corrective action. On 7 September 1944, a circular letter informed supply officers at all levels that the following maximum issues of operational rations would be enforced upon the Continent during the next thirty days:
| Ration | Percent of Issue to Armies | Percent of Issue to COMZ |
| 10-in-1 | 32 | 0 |
| C | 20 | 5 |
| K | 10 | 0 |
In other words, quartermasters were directed to furnish 38 percent (minimum) of B rations to all requisitioning units in the combat zone, and 95 percent B rations to units in the Communications Zone, irrespective of the desires of the receiving units. Significantly, the circular recognized that units which did not require operational rations for tactical reasons had been demanding them because the B rations did not arrive in the
Table 14—Types of Rations Issued on the Continent
(Percent)
| Month | Types A/B | Type C | Type K | Type 10-in-1 |
| 1944 | ||||
| June (6-30) | — | 14 | 15 | 71 |
| July | 57 | 06 | 09 | 28 |
| August | 52 | 14 | 14 | 20 |
| September | 58 | 18 | 10 | 14 |
| October | 79 | 07 | 05 | 09 |
| November | 88 | 03 | 05 | 04 |
| December | 87 | 03 | 05 | 05 |
| 1945 | ||||
| January | 91 | 02 | 03 | 04 |
| February | 91 | 02 | 04 | 03 |
| March | 88 | 04 | 05 | 03 |
| April a | 74 | 08 | 07 | 11 |
| May | b 87 | 02 | 04 | 07 |
| June | 94 | 01 | 03 | 02 |
| July | 96 | 01 | 02 | 01 |
| August | 95 | 01 | 02 | 02 |
| September | 92 | 02 | 04 | 02 |
a Issues on the southern line of communications are included in the percentages from 1 April 1945 onward. Percentage of type rations issued in the former SOLOC area from 15 August 1944–31 March 1945 are: A/B, 69; C, 08; K, 08;~07; and D, 08 SOLOC considered type D rations to be a separate category, not a supplement, and reported on that basis.
b To May 8 (V-E Day) 81 percent, Average this column, D-day to V-E Day, 78.9 percent.
Source: IRS, Carter to Bue Weare (no date), sub: Percentage of Type Rations Issued on Continent. Reprinted in Littlejohn) ed., Passing in Review, ch. 33, vol. II, app. 4G.
balanced proportions needed to prepare a meal. Detailed instructions for breaking down a 500-ton train or a 60-ton truck convoy into increments of balanced rations were included. The circular also specifically prohibited issuing
C or K rations for the noon meal to civilian employees, prisoners of war, and to COMZ units.15
The changed tactical situation also called for a revision of the theater’s level of supply, and on II September Littlejohn requested the following level for the entire theater:
ETO Level Ex-Ship
| Ration | Days of Supply |
| B (augmented) | 37 |
| B | 10 |
| 10-in-1 | 8 |
| C | 2 |
| K | 3 |
| Total | 60 |
Even if immediately approved, this new level could hardly be expected to change the situation before mid-December. The important aspect of the new plan was the single theater-wide supply level. Despite the optimistic retention of the “ex-ship” formula, this concept reflected cargo discharge difficulties. The number of ships awaiting discharge in European waters was so large that a few
returned to the United States without unloading, and many were diverted from Normandy to the United Kingdom. Cross-Channel transportation in shallow-draft vessels to minor French ports made small but fairly adequate supply shipments from Britain available on the Continent. A major consideration in retaining large reserves in Britain was the possibility of emergency airlift to the forward areas. This could be accomplished far more easily from the United Kingdom than from the crowded airfields and disorderly ration dumps in Normandy.16
This authorized level of Class I supplies remained unchanged until 3 March 1945, when the War Department directed that it be reduced to 50 days, including cargoes on ships in European waters.17 During most of the European campaign actual Class I levels on the Continent were far below those authorized. In mid-October the Communications Zone held 18.6 days of supply, and the level was allowed to drop to 119.6 during the following month, when priorities were assigned for unloading ammunition. But by then the principle of supply in depth was finally being implemented, and a week’s supply in each army, plus nearly 5 days in ADSEC, were important supplements to the COMZ reserve. By early February 1945, 23 days of rations in the Communications Zone, 15 days in ADSEC, and 5 to 7 days in each army constituted a total of more than 6 weeks’ rations for each combat soldier of the 12th Army Group. Meanwhile, before SOLOC headquarters was disbanded on 12 February 1945, CONAD had accumulated a reserve of 11.1 days’ supply for the 734,000 troops of the 6th Army Group, including the 260,000 men of the First French Army, and Seventh Army held another 5.2 days. On 17 February the first consolidated report by the unified Communications Zone estimated 25 days of supply within its own depots for the entire theater, including French and miscellaneous forces and prisoners of war.18
For U.S. troops in the theater, problems of Class I supply appeared to be solved. But even as this report was submitted the Allied armies resumed the offensive toward the Rhine and difficulties with food supply promptly reappeared —first as a transportation problem for ADSEC and army level quartermasters, and almost concurrently, as a far greater problem in terms of international aid and population statistics. By definition, a level of ration supply can only be computed in terms of a definite number of people to be fed, and in the spring of 1945 such figures were always uncertain and sometimes entirely lacking. The OCQM had already encountered the problem, and in February had submitted the estimates reproduced in Table 11. But that was only the first of a series of estimates.
The difficulties are well illustrated by the experience of the ADSEC quartermaster, whose responsibility for feeding
POW’s increased from 150,000 to 1,500,000 in less than a week. Under such circumstances, a theater level of supply is only meaningful if the rations for the combat troops are rigidly segregated from those of prisoners and the civilian population, and that was not done. On the contrary, 50 percent of recovered Allied prisoners received the A ration, and after the end of hostilities all U.S. troops accepted a 10 percent reduction in their rations for the benefit of the civilian population of Europe.19
Uncertainty over the number of combat troops being fed was another source of difficulty. From the beginning of continental operations, statistical control over ration issues was a complicated process. In theory the daily telegram reflected the actual strength of units, but in practice there was considerable duplication. Individuals were often counted twice, at their own units and also as guests at other units or at leave centers, as students, or as hospital patients. Whole units on temporary detached duty sometimes appeared on two different telegrams, and such duplications were not always spotted by the regulating stations or issuing depots. All these factors were aggravated when troops were on the move, traveling by ship or train, and especially when they were on the march in the combat zone. Troops actually in combat were allowed a 10 percent augmentation of their rations, and the same allowance was made to service troops engaged in unusually heavy labor. Even these authorizations failed to explain the overissue of rations to U.S. troops, which averaged 115 percent of actual strength for the entire European campaign.20 But these statistics should not be regarded solely as evidence of poor control over issues. When the tactical situation was critical there were frequent changes in the type of ration requisitioned, and because of an inevitable time lag in deliveries, the wrong rations often arrived and could not be used. Mobile warfare is an inherently wasteful activity, and it should not be overlooked that it was principally during periods of high overissue that the war was won.
From the point of view of a field army quartermaster, the problem of supply levels often seemed more critical than at higher echelons. The tactical situation of a specific army often shifted more abruptly than that of an entire theater, and the margin of reserves actually available to the troops became progressively smaller as they advanced away from the base depots. Third Army, changing its line of advance repeatedly and moving with great speed, first felt the pinch on to August 1944. Over the next two days shipments were short about 350,000 rations, so that army and unit reserves were almost completely exhausted. ADSEC relieved the situation by opening a Class I depot near Laval on 13 August. Meanwhile VIII Corps, operating separately in Brittany, enjoyed a windfall of 150 tons of perishables and 13 carloads of potatoes captured in the St. Malo area.21
Loading a ration train for the Third Army, Verdun, December 1944.
The second week in September was the most critical period for Class I supplies in both First and Third Armies. Fortunately, Third Army captured 1,300 tons of frozen beef and 250 tons of canned meat at Homecourt near Metz on 9 September, and First Army made a smaller haul (265 tons of fresh beef) at Namur four days later. These were more than merely welcome variations of a monotonous diet. Ration issues to First Army were 260,000 on 11 September, about 100,000 less than the actual strength, and issues in Third Army for the period 8-13 September averaged 153,000 rations for a force of 213,000 men. Nobody actually starved, but First Army reported 1.5 days of supply on hand, and Third Army less than one day.22
The second half of September 1944 witnessed an improvement in the ration situation as sudden as the crisis in the first half. Typically, the 1st Infantry Division reported that it had received 12 days of B rations during the month, the first being issued on 18 September.23 Third Army reported that Class I for the month had included 40 percent B rations, and that 65 percent of its troops were receiving B’s at the end of September. First Army consumption was very similar.24 The months of hard combat that followed were comparatively uneventful for army Class I officers.
Discontinuance of the Red Ball express in mid-November was a minor event, as rail service had been improving steadily. COMZ continued to forward Class I supplies direct to the armies until the last week in November. At that time Depot Q-179 at Liège, serving First and Ninth Armies, and Q-178 at Verdun, supporting Third Army, assumed this mission, with an initial level of 4.8 days. Meanwhile reserves had reached 13.4 days in First Army, 5.9 days in the Third, and 9.8 days in Ninth Army. Except in the First Army, where consumption of B rations dropped from 82 percent on 15 December to 49 percent on the 21st, the German Ardennes counteroffensive made little impact on the type of rations consumed. First Army also drew 6 days rations direct from the ADSEC depots around Liège while its own ration reserves were being evacuated. Third Army, feeding 100,000 more men at the end of December than at the beginning, nevertheless managed to issue 76 percent B rations during the entire month.25
During the quiet period that followed almost 80 percent of the rations consumed were of the bulk type, and the receipts of fresh meat and vegetables improved so appreciably that the B ration was officially redesignated an A ration. Late in January, Littlejohn attempted to reduce the Class I levels in the army dumps to 5 days. He contended that the armies seldom reported their reserves accurately and tended to leave supplies behind when they moved forward. On a recommendation from 12th Army Group General Lee set a compromise level of 7 days, and on 12 February, when SOLOC was disbanded, the same level was applied to the 6th Army Group. Actually, a small excess of operational rations was accumulated during this period of tactical stability, which proved very useful when the armies crossed the Rhine in March. By mid-April, the conditions of the pursuit across France eight months earlier were almost duplicated. ADSEC moved forward from Namur to Bonn, Germany, on 7 April, but no advance depots were opened, and supplies continued to move directly to the armies from Liège, Verdun, and Metz. By 21 April ration levels were 2.3 days in the First Army, 4.3 in the Third, 4.1 in the Seventh, and 4.4 in the Ninth. ADSEC had not moved any reserves forward, the Rhine bridges were still precarious makeshifts, and the forces east of the Rhine, including prisoners of war and displaced persons, were increasing rapidly. The 12th Army Group considered the Class I situation critical, but no U.S. units actually suffered. A shift to operational rations, comparable to that of the previous August, occurred especially in the First and Third Armies, where they accounted for 70 to 80 percent of all issues. Efforts to supplement these rations with butter and fresh meat, as well as fresh bread, were largely successful.26
Balancing the Ration
Related to the problem of attaining a dependable level of bulk rations was the
need to maintain them in a state of balance. On this subject, one of General Littlejohn’s subsistence officers observed that “getting a sound Type A or B ration to troops in a theater of operations is far more a matter of intelligent, farsighted transportation arrangements than a pure subsistence problem.”27 Nowhere was this contention better demonstrated than in the effort to deliver balanced bulk rations to retail consumers of Quartermaster services. The balanced ration was predicated on the availability of all the components necessary for maximum nutritional value and palatability, but the fact that a balanced B ration contained approximately 110 separate components constituted an inherent vulnerability to mishandling. The loss or misplacement of several components had the effect of disrupting the balance, and thereby the menus prescribed by the OCQM. Local corrective action to plan balanced meals further unbalanced reserve supplies.
This problem had been partially anticipated by the prestowing and commodity loading of vessels, with each carrying balanced bricks of Class I supplies.28 The early bricks consisted principally of operational rations, while later vessels carried an increasing proportion of balanced B rations. This innovation was enormously valuable, especially since months elapsed before the beach dumps in Normandy evolved into base depots capable of sorting supplies effectively. During those months NYPE acted as a Class I base depot for the ETO, and inevitably the normal difficulties between a base and an advance depot were multiplied by the tremendous distance and time lag involved. But the best proof of the value of commodity loading was that far greater difficulties and adjustments were involved in obtaining the few supplies requisitioned by other methods. Tea, cocoa, corned beef, and a few condiments were procured in England and hence omitted from commodity-loaded shipments. Getting these few items across the Channel and distributing them properly among depots on the Continent took much careful planning, coordination with other headquarters, and elaborate precautions against loss or pilferage.29
Difficulties with commodity loading, while not excessive for a large and complicated operation, were considerable, and centered around the problem of substitution. The practice of substituting items for unavailable ones began at zone of interior depots which shipped rations to NYPE without giving adequate notice of the nature of the substitution. For example, corn that was substituted for beets in the zone of interior was inventoried in the overseas depot as so much more corn. When beets were called for by the consuming organizations in compliance with the theater menu and they were unavailable, the issuing depot was in a position to substitute any one of several canned vegetables rather than maintain the original substitution of corn for beets. This chain reaction of successive substitutions had the effect of aggravating imbalances, with some items becoming excessive while others were in limited supply or
exhausted. Indicating how such an unregulated practice ultimately affected the menu, Littlejohn complained that the substitution of Boston butts for smoked ham without a corresponding reduction in pork loins increased the amount of fresh pork served from four to seven times in fourteen days and the substitution of dessert fruits for pie fruits contributed to a monotonous diet, rejected foods, and excessive waste.30
Though Littlejohn’s criticisms were valid, the OCQM was ultimately responsible for many of these discrepancies by its failure to submit requisitions to NYPE early enough to allow ninety days for delivery. From the port’s viewpoint even this amount of time was insufficient if the local depots supporting NYPE were to make good their shortages from secondary depots, rather than provide free substitutions from available stocks in the hurried effort to meet the ETO’s delivery deadlines.31
Recognizing the need for closer coordination, NYPE sent a succession of observers and liaison officers to the ETO. Once he was aware of the necessity, Littlejohn attempted to maintain an order and shipping time of 120 days. This effort was not very successful because changes in theater policy regarding feeding of non-U.S. personnel demanded repeated revisions of Class I requisitions. On investigation it developed that ship diversions were another major source of difficulty. Even a perfectly balanced brick destined for the United Kingdom was of limited usefulness if landed on the Continent, or vice versa. Usually such diversions were ordered to make available critical supplies of other classes, or even of other technical services, that were aboard.
Gradually, all these difficulties were overcome. The increased order and shipping time operated to decrease substitutions, and the OCQM arranged to be informed by cable whenever such action was unavoidable. Local distribution menus were revised to help use up excesses. Commodity loading of ships, already described, reduced the number of ship diversions. Under Littlejohn’s persistent prodding, his Military Planning Division and the Transportation Branch of the Storage and Distribution Division ultimately organized depots in Britain and on the Continent into one coherent system.32
Obstacles to the forward delivery of the desired ration components were not confined to difficulties between the OCQM and the zone of interior. Every transfer point and every handling
operation along the continental axis of supply constituted a threat to balance. Contributing to what has been described as a “quiet nightmare” were: (1) the tactical necessity of rapid unloading despite the absence of materials-handling equipment on the beaches; (2) the accumulation of scrambled supplies which required sorting before they could be balanced and loaded onto trains; (3) breaking up of balanced trains by an irresponsible shunting of cars en route to the depots; (4) emphasis on tonnage rather than selectivity during the build-up in forward areas; and (5) pilferage all along the line of communications, beginning with the stevedores at the beaches.33 In retrospect, probably the most serious fault of all was a lack of adequate documentation. Undocumented cargo could be handled with a comfortable anonymity, and it was almost impossible for inspectors to trace the errors, sins of omission, and outright thefts committed along the route.34
Farther inland, still other disruptive influences were at work. Late in October, congestion of transportation and receiving facilities at Paris forced the suspension of shipments into that depot. This embargo was imposed abruptly, after portions of four commodity-loaded cargoes had been shipped to Paris from Le Havre, and nearly 8,000 long tons of unbalanced, unsorted cargo had to be segregated, balanced, and shipped to Liège instead. Colonel Franks, the Deputy Chief Quartermaster, personally had to suspend all shipments of B rations from Le Havre for seven days while most of the Quartermaster personnel in Channel Base Section applied themselves to sorting the ration components. When the German “Bulge” counteroffensive caused a similar backlog to pile up at Cherbourg, Col. Chapin Weed, the commander of Q-171, arranged to have several Cherbourg streets blocked off and used them for open storage. Here the cargo of a Class I ship could be stored as a single unit until transportation became available. This expedient required the cooperation of the mayor of Cherbourg, the port quartermaster, and the quartermaster of Normandy Base Section.35
But these were isolated and unusual accomplishments brought about by the personal efforts of senior QMC officers. In mid-September Littlejohn noted that there were 63,212,685 pounds of unbalanced supplies, roughly ten million rations, in the theater, and a month later Willkie reported that 35 percent of the food on the Continent was still unbalanced.36 Steps were taken to set up intermediate collecting and sorting points at Soissons and Sommesous, which, it will be recalled, had recently been
terminals of the Red Ball express. Hopes were that Class I components could be matched up at these sites for balanced delivery to the armies, but Willkie was pessimistic about the effectiveness of this measure. He was particularly incensed by the failure of G-4 to provide a steady, programed flow of transportation to the inland depots. Even the OCQM representative at G-4 headquarters failed to understand that a series of last-minute opportunities to forward one or two freight cars to various destinations was no substitute for continuity.37 On sending one of his assistants to the field to continue the missionary effort in favor of balanced shipments, Willkie remarked dourly:
The puerile mind immediately thinks that once intermediate depots are established we do not have to worry further about how goods are shipped there. It makes no difference that you are in the midst of unloading a ship at the time, that the ship is loaded (as all ships are loaded) in layers, and that it takes the bottom part to balance the top part. To such a mind it is all right to start shipping in bulk at that particular moment; shipping in bulk—undoing all the work that has been done in the U.S. and destroying possibly two million rations because two million half rations are left at one end and two million half rations moved forward.38
Willkie’s pessimism was justified. The Soissons and Sommesous locations were quickly left behind by the armies and never developed into important depots. The sites ultimately chosen, Liège and Verdun, were so far forward that assembling reserves of food there progressed very slowly. Meanwhile the supply of the troops remained a hand-to-mouth affair, in which the safety factor was very small. If the armies received unbalanced rations they ate unbalanced rations, for there were no local reserves to make good the deficits. Toward the end of 1944, the OCQM was still seriously concerned.39 Measures had been taken in October to ship 18,000 long tons of selected ration components from the United Kingdom to combine with unbalanced rations on the Continent, but a carefully prepared plan to ship them by small coasters to specific small French ports had to be canceled. Liberty ships were offered as a substitute, but these could not be brought into the same ports. Unloaded at major ports, the supplies would not arrive quickly enough to alleviate the shortages.40 The unbalanced state of nonoperational rations, plus the allowances which had to be made for the pipeline factor, continued to reduce the levels on hand for distribution. With such a threat to the adequate delivery of nonoperational rations, it was clear that a drain on the supplies of combat rations could be expected. That such a solution could hardly be satisfactory was evident from the fact that this was precisely what the
use of A and B rations was designed to obviate.
The only real cure for the problem of balances would have required a surplus of labor at the ports to inventory the backlog as well as supplies continually being received, and a surplus of rail transportation for interdepot hauls. Neither of these surpluses was available until after the end of hostilities, but various expedients alleviated the situation. (See Chart 3.)
One measure that proved helpful, although misunderstood and criticized by the G-4 Division and even by General Somervell, was the accumulation of large reserves in the forward portion of the Communications Zone, a process that began in December. The proportion of unbalanced rations was somewhat reduced merely by assembling them, and the concentration of large, partially balanced tonnages at Liège and Verdun assured that whatever balanced supplies were available were located where they could be utilized. Another advantage of this concentration was that specific balancing components only had to be forwarded to these two locations. For example, on 11 February 1945, coffee was the most critical ration item on the Continent, with only 7.6 days of supply on hand. If coffee was disregarded, sugar, of which there was 19.7 days on hand, became the determining factor. But for the OCQM the significant fact was that discharge and forwarding of an additional 12.1 days’ supply of coffee—about 1,650 long tons—would raise the over-all level of balanced rations for the whole theater by 12.1 days, or 28,350,000 rations. The tonnage involved was small enough to be handled as a special shipment and Littlejohn always tried to have such cargo forwarded from Great Britain or the coastal depots by air, or by LST to a specially designated port. Since these supplies were always critical and the danger of diversion or pilferage was unusually great, an officer normally accompanied each shipment.41
The OCQM finally came to the conclusion that, under conditions prevailing in the ETO, attempts to maintain rations in balance while in prolonged transit would never be completely successful. Repeated experience demonstrated that trainloads lost their identity and became unbalanced if they were in transit more than forty-eight hours. Then an additional inventory and balancing process was necessary at the next stop along the line of communications. It followed that such stops should be held to a minimum. The OCQM held that the concept of phased supply in depth should not be applied to rations, but that they should move directly from ports or base depots to forward “filler issue” depots where enough reserves would accumulate to make possible balanced daily issues to armies or other major consumers. This view prevailed even after transportation had improved in the spring of 1945. For example, in March plans were for new advance depots in Germany to be supplied rations direct from Charleroi instead of from Liège and Verdun, which had now become intermediate depots; An additional advantage of this procedure was that it would prevent overcrowding and confusion at the intermediate depots,
such as had occurred at Paris the previous October.42
Balanced rations were a particular obsession of Colonel Willkie, who possibly attached excessive importance to this aspect of supply. In May 1945 Littlejohn complained to Col. Robert F. Carter, who had replaced Willkie as Chief of Subsistence a month earlier, that excluding unbalanced rations from supply level statistics gave an erroneous impression of the status of subsistence, especially if the shortage was only “a little salt, pepper, cocoa, or some other innocuous article.”43 He directed that all stocks comprising 75 percent or more of balanced rations be so tabulated. Stocks representing less than three-quarters of a balanced ration should be reported simply as tonnage. They could be easily utilized in special menus for non-U.S. personnel. As for the “innocuous articles,” the OCQM authorized and sometimes succeeded in distributing a condiment kit, which weighed about 22 pounds and accompanied each 1,000 rations. But breakdown into extremely small quantities was technically difficult, and these kits were always in short supply in the ETO.
Perishable Subsistence
The Cold Storage Depot Plan
In the United Kingdom, the British Government had provided civilian-operated cold storage facilities for the Americans, and prior to D-day U.S. troops had only minor opportunities to gain experience in this field.44 For the OVERLORD operation, plans were strictly in accordance with official doctrine. As with other subsistence, computation of requirements was a QMC function, but providing the fresh meat and butter required by the troops was a responsibility divided among several technical services. The Transportation Corps, using refrigerated rail cars or mobile refrigerated trailers, moved perishables from reefer vessels to static cold storage plants built or rehabilitated by the Engineers, and maintained by Engineer personnel. Here supplies were received and stored by QM refrigeration companies (fixed). As required, the supplies were issued to QM refrigeration companies (mobile) which transported them either to supply points, or to advance depots where army refrigeration companies exchanged empty trailers for full ones. Maintenance of equipment, spare parts, and such operating supplies as freon or ammonia were the separate responsibility of the service operating the equipment, with two exceptions: the Engineers furnished ice to the Transportation Corps for refrigerated rail cars, and the QMC arranged to maintain the refrigerating units on trailers operated by the Transportation Corps.45 Since
refrigerated trailers were components of motor vehicles, their maintenance, apart from refrigeration units, was an Ordnance responsibility.
The above division of responsibility was followed in detail in OVERLORD planning. The OCQM proposed to supply perishables to 40 percent of the troops ashore by July, and to 90 percent by the end of the year. The Engineer construction plan for the necessary cold storage space involved a capacity of 35,000 long tons by February 1945.46 The objective of this program—providing ¾ pound of perishables per man to 1,800,000 troops on the Continent by 1 January 1945—sounded modest, but the proposed 60-day level of supply was actually more than was ever achieved before V-E Day. For the first three months, up to 1,000 tons of perishables per week were to be ferried across the Channel in small reefers and issued immediately without being stored. Meanwhile, reserves were to be built up in the Rennes–Laval area along with other U.S. supplies and on D plus 90 issues from continental depots were to begin.
From the first, doubts arose as to the feasibility of this program. As early as November 1943 the Chief Engineer suggested that the OQMG plan to use Quartermaster labor if relocation of prefabricated reefer warehouses became necessary after they had been set up, and on 27 December he informed the Chief Quartermaster that probably only 170 of the 206 standard refrigeration units planned would be available by D plus 240. Meanwhile, Littlejohn had decided that still more refrigerated space was required, and on 18 April representatives of the Chief Quartermaster, Chief of Transportation, and Chief Engineer met to reconsider the whole question. No change in the division of responsibilities arose from this meeting. But the Engineer representative announced that the whole storage construction program had been phased back 90 days—no newly constructed storage space would be available on D plus 90, and only 6,336 tons on D plus 181.47 The Chief Quartermaster found this program inadequate. The Chief of Engineers replied that it was not possible to change plans up to D plus 90, but that the total requirement could be met by D plus 240. Littlejohn then appealed to General Ross for reefer ships to be used as temporary storage, a solution that had already been proposed to the Chief of Transportation in Washington. As before, this proposal was turned down for lack of shipping. The QM annex to the OVERLORD Administrative Plan reiterated the scheduled plan of distribution and the division of functions already described, but did not specify the amount of storage to be provided by the Engineers, and the Engineer annex to the plan made no mention of construction of refrigerated warehouses. Equipment to rehabilitate existing cold storage plants was stockpiled in Great Britain, and this portion of the program was expected to proceed on schedule.48
Early Operations
In July, when perishables earmarked for the Continent began to arrive, the commodity-loaded refrigerated vessels carried their supplies to England where the cargo was split, reserves being stored in Britain while the balance was transferred onto smaller reefer ships bound for the Continent. But cold storage space in England was quickly filled, so that the transatlantic reefers had to ride at anchor while an insufficient number of smaller shuttle reefers carried their cargo to the Continent a few hundred tons at a time. The resulting delays in unloading occasionally extended to a month, and inevitably created friction between the Transportation and Quartermaster Corps.49
Meanwhile an advance detachment of the 283rd Refrigeration Company (Fixed) arrived on the Continent on 11 July, and in a matter of hours was at work repairing 280 tons of cold storage space in a shell-damaged dairy at Isigny. After this the 283rd, whose prescribed mission was limited to moving cases of frozen meats in and out of cold storage rooms, rehabilitated 80 long tons of cold storage at Les Veys and 375 tons in the naval arsenal at Cherbourg.50
Perishable supply operations began on the Continent on 15 July, when the refrigerated British coaster Empress of Athol brought in 489 long tons of balanced meats and butter to OMAHA Beach. Its cargo was unloaded by DUKWs and distributed to supply points in open trucks. The Empress of Athol made two more trips at seven-day intervals, and on 31 July the refrigerator ship Albangarez carrying 2,500 long tons of perishables berthed at Cherbourg, where unloading by DUKWs was also necessary. Apart from the rehabilitation work just described, no storage space was available on the Continent, and the arrival of the Albangarez immediately created a problem. Fortunately, by this time the 3601st and 3612th Transportation Corps Refrigeration Companies and the 279th and 484th QM Refrigeration Companies, all mobile units with motor-drawn trailers, had arrived, and were able to distribute the supplies without spoilage. This was a fundamentally inefficient method of operation, but unfortunately it had to continue for months as successive vessels docked and the storage space in Cherbourg did not materially increase.51
The QM Section of ADSEC found that if deliveries of perishable subsistence were not to come to a standstill, it would have to undertake all phases of the operation from shipside to truck-heads. It reconnoitered cold storage and ice-manufacturing plants, and directly supervised unloading of reefer boats at ports. It controlled the operation of all mobile refrigeration companies, Transportation Corps as well as Quartermaster, and directed delivery of all perishables to truckheads, distribution points, or cold storage. Meanwhile the fixed refrigeration companies, under ADSEC direction, rehabilitated cold storage and ice-manufacturing plants and also assumed responsibility for their operation and maintenance. After the St. Lô breakthrough, QM personnel
found and rehabilitated an additional 1,725 tons of storage space located as follows:52
| St. Lô | 250 |
| Rennes | 150 |
| Le Mans | 225 |
| Redon | 800 |
| Angers | 300 |
This space was less useful than anticipated, since the pre-D-day plan for a supply base in Brittany did not materialize. On 25 August the armies entered Paris, the refrigeration center of France, but the availability and usefulness of its tremendous refrigerated storage space could not be immediately determined. The real problem—storage capacity at the ports—was aggravated by the triumphant eastward advance. Two days later, with the D plus 90 deadline for the beginning of major cold storage operations on the Continent a week away, Littlejohn presented a somewhat alarming analysis of the situation to General Lee. Quartermaster troops had completed rehabilitation of 1,390 tons of space on the Continent, but only 900 tons were at Cherbourg and smaller Normandy ports where they could accept cargo directly from reefer vessels. No new construction had been completed and only one project had been begun by the Engineers. This project would ultimately provide another 2,250 tons of cold storage in ammunition caves near Cherbourg, but only after major technical difficulties were overcome. With this exception all Engineer troops were engaged in repairing railroads and bridges behind the armies which were pursuing the enemy across France. There was no prospect that any Engineers would become available for cold storage construction, and in any case Littlejohn questioned the advisability of more new construction in the current fluid situation. It was not yet clear where space would be needed. The OCQM had become convinced that for health reasons troops who had been eating operational rations for more than a month would each require a full pound per day of perishables when the pursuit ended. Moreover, ten weeks of practical experience had demonstrated that cold storage space used for retail distribution of mixed supplies was only 66 percent as efficient as anticipated, so that all space requirements had been increased by 50 percent. Even if the original Engineer plan had been carried out in full, the deficit in cold storage space would still be 26,433 long tons at the end of December 1944.53
Transportation and Storage Problems
The sole solution, from the viewpoint of the OCQM—and one that had been repeatedly presented to the War Department, The Quartermaster General, the New York Port of Embarkation, and ETO headquarters—called for use of 10,000 tons of small, slow, reefers from the United States as floating storage. If these vessels could be held in Channel waters an average of ten days beyond the normal unloading period they could
be docked at the nearest ports as rapidly as these could be captured and opened. The advantages of such a system were numerous and self-evident. Since small reefers would go to France and most large reefers to the United Kingdom, the OCQM considered that a shorter turnaround time would be insured for the larger reefers. Shortening the distance between the port and the combat forces would relieve the pressure on overland transportation, reduce the number of handlings required, and contribute to the continuity of supply essential to any successful military operation. General Lee agreed with this analysis, and sent a cable to that effect to the War Department on 30 August.54
This proposal represented a considerable scaling-down of Littlejohn’s original demands, and was in accord with current COMZ recommendations to the War Department regarding all types of shipping, endorsed by General Eisenhower. Nevertheless, NYPE answered that this procedure was not favorably considered. The reefer shortage was as critical in the Pacific as it was in the ETO, and the latter’s allocation was limited to five fast reefers with a capacity of 23,000 tons and five slow ones carrying 12,000 tons. A fixed number of vessels meant, therefore, that the monthly shipments from the zone of interior were dependent on the promptness of discharge and return of the
ships from the ETO. Allowing a six week turnaround for fast vessels, and seven weeks for slow, NYPE could deliver 22,500 reefer tons per month. This calculation was based on a maximum of twelve days for discharge—a very optimistic estimate. For a variety of reasons quite apart from the reefer-for-storage concept, cargoes were seldom discharged in less than twenty days.55
Since the reefers could not be held for storage purposes and storage facilities ashore were not available, the OCQM decided on 31 August that the only alternative was to request NYPE to curtail the delivery of perishables to Britain for a ten-day period and to reduce deliveries to the Continent by 25 percent. This reduction was followed a week later by a formal request to reduce the October and November shipments of perishables by fifteen thousand and ten thousand tons, respectively.56 In view of the amount of heat generated by the reefer issue, NYPE was surprisingly cool to this suggestion. Among other considerations, the effect would be to undermine the position of the port in its representations to the Chief of Transportation in Washington and the War Shipping Administration for greater allocations of reefer ships. Col. Ira K. Evans warned Littlejohn that a cutback at this time would be reinstated later only with great difficulty. In particular,
the British needed to rebuild civilian reserves sacrificed to support NEPTUNE.57
To conserve reefer space, Littlejohn suggested to General Gregory that larger shipments of such processed meats as smoked ham, cervelat, bologna, and salami might be made. Experts at NYPE agreed that this was feasible and might save 33 percent of reefer space. Packed in well-ventilated dry storage, these meats were delivered to the ETO through the winter months with relatively little spoilage. Fresh eggs were also shipped successfully by this method. Serious losses—estimated at 25 percent—were noted among oranges, but investigators found that the selection of thick-skinned varieties overcame this problem.58
As with balanced rations, many of the difficulties in the forward shipment of perishables can be traced to deficiencies in handling and transportation. Unloading practices were consistently poor from August through November. The War Department, in fact, claimed that this was the chief reason for the shipping crisis.59 At Le Havre, which had been opened early in November, the irregular rate of unloading resulted in a decline of 50 percent in the amounts of perishables discharged. The fundamental causes were poor coordination between the port quartermaster and the base section quartermaster and the lowly status of the QM Section within the port organization.
One day unloading activities at Le Havre came to a complete halt with the explanation that no rail cars were available, although at the same time a local cold storage plant contained 1,600 tons of unoccupied cold storage space. The real explanation, of course, was that the dock-to-rail-car transfer was entirely a Transportation Corps operation while the cold storage space was controlled by the QMC. What was required was a QM liaison officer on the job at all times to provide the support of his service as required.
The discharge process was actually a complicated one, requiring careful coordination all along the line for efficient performance. The OCQM had to receive advance notice of the arrival of reefers in European waters, select a port, and arrange a berthing priority with G-4. Usually low priority deck cargo had to be cleared off and dispatched to a depot before the hatches could be opened. Then unloading could begin —very often into DUKWs, since alongside berths were always scarce. Meanwhile the Military Railway Service had to assemble reefer rail cars at the designated port. They had to arrive in time so that the local QM representative could have them cleaned, iced (with salt added), cooled to a safe temperature, and inspected by a veterinarian. This was a critical operation, for cars not utilized on schedule had to be re-iced and reinspected. Moreover, cars not ready on schedule could not be used in making up the daily train allotted by
G-4, and cars of nonperishable rations were often substituted. While this practice was economical of scarce tonnage, it meant that trains allotted for perishables frequently included other types of cargo, and thus the position of the OCQM in its efforts to obtain higher priorities for reefer trains was weakened. There was the additional hazard that a few reefer cars attached to a miscellaneous train might suffer spoilage while delayed en route, and a very low probability that the cars would be speedily emptied and returned to the correct port for another load. Such haphazard practices still further reduced the speed with which reefer ships could be returned to NYPE and reduced deliveries to the troops. Early in December, the OCQM was forced to recommend a decrease in the number of fresh meat meals in the COMZ from twelve to seven per week, and to hold the allowance of the armies to ten fresh meat meals per week.60
One reason for this decrease was undoubtedly the decision to provide a turkey dinner to the troops for Thanksgiving. It was estimated that a holiday-size portion (one and a half pounds) equaled three normal meat meals, and that the greater bulkiness of poultry, when compared to beef or pork, required refrigerated storage space equal to four and a half normal meat meals. Nevertheless, a commitment to provide turkey to all the troops on the Continent had been made in September, before the difficulties of an extended line of communications were fully understood. The general opinion was that, irrespective of the morale value of a holiday meal, failure to meet a widely publicized commitment would have a very unfavorable effect. By 18 November apples, oranges, fresh eggs, onions, cabbage, and 1,604 tons of turkey brought in on the Great Republic had been distributed by the OCQM, principally in refrigerated vans held at the port awaiting this shipment. The trucks of the mobile bakery companies were also very helpful in this emergency. Some of the combat troops did not receive the special ration until one or two days after Thanksgiving, and a few missed the turkey dinner altogether for tactical reasons, but the OCQM was generally credited with a notable feat of distribution under great difficulties.61
Overland movement of perishables has already been mentioned as a limiting factor on clearance of port warehouses, and thus a source of difficulty in unloading ships. Inland deliveries were at first made entirely by the mobile refrigeration companies, since the railroads were not operating. Two QM companies and two Transportation Corps companies were available in July. Three more QM companies arrived from Britain by the end of August, and an additional three during September, although these last were originally scheduled to arrive in November and
December. The change was a tribute to the value of these units under conditions actually experienced on the Continent. One company was attached to each army and the rest, including the two Transportation Corps companies, were operated as a long-distance truck line by the Quartermaster Corps. This was not their original purpose, but experiment had demonstrated that ordinary open trucks could haul frozen foods for distances up to 100 miles even in summer, if cargoes were covered with tarpaulins and handled promptly on departure and arrival. The mobile units were therefore available for long-distance hauling, and until reefer rail cars began to be available about D plus 90 they hauled all perishables on the Continent.
With its complement of 4 officers and 99 enlisted men, operating 30 ten-ton truck-trailer combinations, the QM refrigeration company (mobile) was an extremely efficient unit. Ten additional administrative vehicles made the company completely self-sufficient, and it was also capable of operating as three separate platoons. Five such companies and two Transportation Corps companies of identical organization were operated in the Communications Zone under the direct supervision of the OCQM. The reason was that their operations from ports to armies crossed several base section boundaries on each trip. For the entire European campaign, these units transported an average of 2,050 long tons per company per week.62 Five more companies were in the combat zone, each supporting an army, and these units were called on for even more service. For example, on 26 August the Third Army reported that the 485th QM Refrigeration Company had supplied all the army’s needs since 10 August by hauling directly from Cherbourg. The turnaround now involved 800 miles per trip, and Colonel Busch asked that an intermediate transfer point be set up. ADSEC and the OCQM arranged for tailboard delivery to Third Army trucks at Le Mans until a cold storage plant there could be put into operation. Meanwhile large cold storage facilities became available at Paris, and the first reefer convoy from Cherbourg reached the French capital on 31 August. Seven days later the first trainload of frozen meats pulled out of Cherbourg for Paris, and by October rail shipments were equal to motor shipments in volume.
Although SHAEF insisted that French and Belgian rail cars should not be requisitioned at a rate that would harm the economies of Allied countries, the Procurement Division instituted an intensive search for unlocated reefer cars, with the understanding that all German cars found, and half of the Allied cars, would be allocated to the U.S. forces. Thus a pool of U.S., German, French, Belgian, and even a few Italian reefer cars was gradually accumulated as follows:63
| U.S. cars | Foreign cars | Total | |
| 6 September 1944 | 37 | 56 | 93 |
| 23 September 1944 | 37 | 228 | 265 |
| 30 November 1944 | 150 | 320 | 470 |
| 31 December 1944 | 181 | 328 | 509 |
| 8 May 1945 | 181 | 613 | 794 |
Table 15: Issue of Fresh Meats and Dairy Products on the Continent
| Month | Long tons off-loaded | Long tons on hand end of month | Long tons issued | Gross pounds issued a | Average U.S. military strength | Gross pounds per man per day* |
| July 1944 | 823 | 0 | 966 | 2,163,840 | 706,269 | .0988 |
| August | 4,949 | 0 | 4,949 | 11,085,760 | 968,952 | .3691 |
| September | 13,317 | 0 | 13,317 | 29,830,080 | 1,215,641 | .8180 |
| October | 18,576 | 4,089 | 14,487 | 32,450,880 | 1,464,258 | .7149 |
| November | 17,232 | 12,077 | 9,244 | 20,706,560 | 1,579,801 | .4369 |
| December | 19,070 | 7,229 | 23,918 | 53,576,320 | 1,627,138 | 1.0622 |
| January 1945 | 26,707 | 12,240 | 21,766 | 48,755,840 | 1,740,412 | .9037 |
| February | 6,343 | 6,764 | 11,819 | 26,474,560 | 1,975,120 | .4622 |
| March | 34,629 | 17,019 | 24,374 | 54,597,760 | 2,039,872 | .8634 |
| April† | 40,841 | 28,686 | 29,174 | 65,349,760 | 2,585,894 | .8424 |
| May† | 28,394 | 27,681 | 29,399 | 65,853,760 | 2,636,250 | .8058 |
* Net pounds are 85 percent of gross pounds.
† Includes Southern Line of Communications.
Source: Passing in Review, Ch. 33, Exhibit 4.
The number of these rail cars was quite insufficient for the projected program of refrigerated shipments. On 14 September a daily 400-ton train of perishables to Paris was inaugurated, but initial performance—a 15-day turnaround—indicated that daily service could not be maintained. A study on 23 September estimated that with 29 cars per train and a 15-day cycle the requirement would be 435 reefer cars, whereas only 265 were on hand. On the same basis, a daily train with alternating destinations at Homécourt and Namur on a 20-day turnaround would require 580 more cars. Nevertheless, General Lee directed that steps to attain this objective—800 tons moved forward each day—should at least be attempted, and the problem was attacked from all sides at once: more French cars, more U.S. cars, better facilities at both ends to decrease turnaround time, and intensified use of mobile refrigerated vans to support the whole program. Ice was even brought from Paris in trailers to ice rail cars at Cherbourg. The first reefer train left Cherbourg on 22 October for Namur, where, it will be recalled, First Army had captured intact a refrigerated warehouse on 13 September. Largely because of insufficient reefer cars, accomplishments were considerably short of the objective in October and November; tonnages moved forward by rail were 9,700 and 11,000 long tons, respectively, and actual consumption in November was only 9,244 long tons. (Table 15)64
The increased program of reefer rail shipments was accompanied by renewed controversy between the QMC and the Transportation Corps over their respective responsibilities in this field. The Transportation Corps requested that the OCQM representative at Cherbourg (still the only discharge site in October) assign a specific unloading point for each
car, provide an even flow of reefer cars on loading tracks from storage tracks, maintain a reservoir of perishables at Cherbourg so that reefer trains could be loaded irrespective of unloading rate of reefer ships, and continue shipping from Cherbourg in QMC mobile reefer vans until more reefer cars were provided by the French. The OCQM retorted that cars had been consigned to specific destinations but the Military Railway Service frequently unloaded all the cars at one station, thus causing confusion and delay; that switching operations in a rail yard could not conceivably be considered a QMC function; and that a reserve of perishables would be built up at Cherbourg as soon as the rate of unloading of ships was increased. Rather than wait for more French rail cars, the Transportation Corps should ferry over U.S. reefer cars from Britain as repeatedly requested by the OCQM. Then four of the mobile refrigeration companies could be shifted to their proper function of supporting the armies from Paris, instead of supplying Paris from Cherbourg. This interchange took place as the Communications Zone was under extremely heavy strain to supply the armies recently halted in extended positions along the German frontier. COMZ had just abandoned the concept of a major base in Brittany in favor of Antwerp, and in the interim impossible demands were made upon all agencies at Cherbourg until Antwerp became available.
By early December the situation was much improved and interservice relationships were more cordial. On 22 December Willkie reported to Little john that the experimental shipments of cured, nonfrozen meats were entirely successful, and that 7,500 long tons of such products were on the way. This should relieve the pressure on railroad reefers as well as reefer ships. Also in transit were 26,000 tons of frozen meat on a regular monthly allotment and 3,000 additional tons gained by shifting shuttle reefers to the transatlantic run. Thus 36,500 tons per month were assured against a requirement of 40,000 for the entire theater. Some 25,000 tons of cold storage space was available in continental locations where it could actually be used. This represented only twenty days of supply, but was about double the food reserves actually on hand. Willkie expected that the current fluid tactical situation (he was referring to the German Ardennes counteroffensive) would reduce demands for fresh meat as the troops shifted to operational rations. These were favorable aspects of the situation. On the other hand the turnaround time for reefers had still not measurably improved, although Brig. Gen. Louis E. Cotulla at NYPE had promised not to deck load reefers thereafter. This should save about two days per vessel. The least favorable circumstance of all was that such reserves as existed had been built up through underconsumption of fresh food by the troops, rather than by efficient transportation.65
Despite the unpromising beginning already described, Le Havre developed into a major cold storage port with nearly 5,000 long tons of space. During January 1945 Antwerp, with subsidiary facilities at Brussels, became an even
more important installation, but Cherbourg decreased in importance. With the dissolution of SOLOC in February, Marseille also became an ETO responsibility. At that time the main flow of perishables was as follows:
Antwerp to Namur to First and Ninth Armies
Le Havre to Homécourt to Third Army
Cherbourg to Paris to Fifteenth Army
Marseille to Dijon to Seventh Army
In addition, Paris was the inland distribution center for COMZ, receiving supplies from Le Havre as well as Cherbourg, and also serving Homécourt to a certain extent. As the armies moved forward into Germany they captured and utilized cold storage installations in many places, but only one—at Mannheim—was turned over to a COMZ agency. Depot Q--190 was activated at that location in April to support Seventh Army.66 The posthostilities pattern of cold storage on the Continent centered on the redeployment ports of Le Havre and Marseille, the new U.S. port at Bremen, and support for the occupation forces in the American Zone of Germany. In September 1945 the following cold storage space in Germany was available: 67
| Location | Capacity (long tons) | Area Served |
| Berlin | 2,500 | Berlin District |
| Bremerhaven | 3,000 | All U.S. Zone |
| Bremen | 2,000 | All U.S. Zone |
| Frankfurt | 1,500 | Western Military District |
| Mannheim | 3,380 | Western Military District |
| Stuttgart | 1,360 | Western Military District |
| Nuremberg | 2,500 | Eastern Military District |
| Munich | 1,700 | Eastern Military District |
The QM Refrigeration Company (Fixed)
Almost all cold storage space on the Continent was of prewar origin, and, as anticipated, most of it had to be rehabilitated before it was serviceable. The ten QM refrigeration companies (fixed) available in the ETO maintained and operated these installations, although they had not been organized for that purpose. The unit was originally organized with a headquarters platoon (24 enlisted men), a cold storage platoon (62 enlisted men), and a butchery platoon (45 enlisted men). In the ETO the butchery platoon was not activated, resulting in a unit with a top-heavy organization. Actual operations were conducted at small installations by improvised small detachments, with all the administrative disadvantages that always plague non-T/O units. In the aggregate, the accomplishments of these detachments were more than equal to the theoretical capacity of the T/O unit, which was rated as capable of storing 30 days of perishable supply for 120,000 men. In some instances the detachments supervised civilian or POW labor, and their capacity was then equal to support for 560,000 men per company. A postwar evaluation was that a company with 4 officers, a headquarters of about 15 men, and three 32-man operating platoons would have been ideal for the ETO.68
Local Procurement of Subsistence
Fresh fruits and vegetables were the first French supplies obtained by the U.S. forces after their landing in Normandy. Arriving in this rich agricultural area late in the spring, American quartermasters found not only the fresh fruits and vegetables they had expected, but considerable quantities of eggs, butter, cheese, and fresh meat. Although France as a whole was very short of these products, Allied bombing of railroads to isolate the beachhead had prevented normal movement to urban markets. The original directives had prohibited purchase of such supplies, but it was logical to prevent wasteful spoilage of surpluses and to meet the needs of the troops by procuring these products as quickly as possible. Before the beachhead was a month old, therefore, quartermasters, the general purchasing agent, and civil affairs and local officials made arrangements which permitted the U.S. forces to purchase at official prices, or to requisition through the French Government, whatever food was declared surplus by French regional officials. Meat and dairy products were only included among these surpluses for a very short time.
Agreement on what constituted a just price was not always easily obtained. Farmers, wholesalers, and agents for cooperatives usually cited figures somewhat higher than those listed by the local government, but generally a compromise was reached in the direction of the lowest price. Suppliers were then provided with jute sacks and the military units were given lists of suppliers and pickup points.69 By the middle of July
ADSEC was receiving such fresh produce as potatoes, carrots, turnips, and cabbages; in the next six weeks, $23,000 worth of fruits and vegetables had been purchased in Normandy and Brittany by that headquarters on a cash basis. Another important development of this period was the arrival of the first boatload of potatoes from Great Britain—a food item that overshadowed continental purchases until V-E Day and even thereafter. Meanwhile, procurement in France developed from an improvised activity to one where supervision and determination of surpluses improved directly with the reorganization of the local governments.70
The clearest picture of fruit and vegetable procurement emerges from the history of the 63rd QM Base Depot, which served American troops in the Paris-Chartres area and handled an average of 175 long tons of fresh foods weekly. Transport, as everywhere, was the primary probiem. With only two trucks per day to pick up these items, the depot encouraged French suppliers to make direct delivery to Class I distributing points. Poor telephone communications in Paris further handicapped the procurement branch in its efforts to coordinate schedules, prepare reports, and make food containers and gasoline available to the farmers. For lack of scales, the depot finally resorted to a railway scale on which deliveries could be measured by weighing delivery trucks both with and without their loads.71
Notwithstanding such inconveniences, by the end of 1944 the base sections were receiving a weekly average of 1,700 tons of French fruits and vegetables. A rough breakdown of receipts for the week ending 23 December reveals the gross quantities delivered within each of the major COMZ sections and an estimate of the most important constituents:72
| Base section receipts (in tons) | Items received (in tons) | |||
| Total | 1,704 | Potatoes | 919 | |
| Normandy | 84 | Apples | 201 | |
| Brittany | 970 | Cabbages | 157 | |
| ADSEC | 401 | Onions | 143 | |
| Seine | 205 | Carrots | 123 | |
| Channel | 34 | Turnips | 105 | |
| Oise | 10 | Miscellaneous | 56 | |
Through the early months of 1945 fresh fruits and vegetables continued to be the major category of Quartermaster supplies procured on the Continent. The amounts obtained rose from 4,850 tons in January to 30,600 tons in April. Table and rock salt, 1,100 and 2,000 tons, respectively, were supplied from the mines at Nancy. The requirement for rock salt, used in icing refrigerator cars, was far greater than this amount, and another 5,000 tons were promised from Marseille. The French also made available a number of food processing plants for coffee roasting and grinding in Paris, Le Havre, and Rouen, converted imported semolina flour into macaroni at Marseille, and made jam at Dijon. The OCQM had to provide coal from its allocation for all these activities, and imported sugar to make jam.73
While these subsistence supplies and services were timely and appreciated, the procurement officials were not always confident that they would continue. Stored root vegetables were ruined by unusually cold winter weather. Also, as transportation improved, it gradually became possible to deliver more perishables to civilians in the distressed urban areas. The availability of surpluses for military use had always been at least partly a result of transportation shortages, and decreased in May and June. Britain and France both feared that they would have to default on some of their potato commitments, and Belgian officials notified Allied procurement authorities that in April and May the delivery of perishables would be limited to hospitalized American and British troops. To cooperate fully with the Belgians, 12th Army Group ordered the suspension of all perishable procurement in that country from February to May. Further reflecting the scarcity of these supplies in Belgium, ADSEC, which was vigorously engaged in local procurement at this time, obtained 10 percent less perishables in the entire six-month period from October to April than in the six-week period from 8 September to 25 October 1944. Eager to make use of whatever was procurable, the OCQM accepted from Brittany 30,000 metric tons of potatoes which had been damaged by the cold, and then sped them through the depots before spoilage took its toll.74
The combined effects of an unusually cold winter and a severe potato blight had an even more serious effect upon the United Kingdom than upon France. The British Government had been committed to supply 192,000 long tons per month to the U.S. forces during the first half of 1945. Late in January it became apparent that this program would have to be materially reduced. Nevertheless, the British delivered 95,393 long tons of potatoes, and also 8,191 tons of root vegetables to the U.S. forces on the Continent during the first five months of 1945. In addition, they furnished the French with 30,000 tons of seed potatoes. During the same period, 73,450 tons of fruits and vegetables were procured from the French, all of which required jute sacks supplied by the Procurement Division, and transportation by U.S. agencies.75
Anticipating the possible disappearance of procurable perishables in northwestern Europe, Littlejohn began to survey the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables on the Iberian Peninsula. In January negotiations were opened to import 1,000 metric tons of tomatoes from the Canary Islands every ten days for ten weeks. Broadening his plans to include oranges, lemons, onions, potatoes, and pineapples, the Chief Quartermaster received $10,000,000 worth of General Purchasing Board credits for such purchases. By the end of March Spanish and Portuguese items selected for purchase approached 35,000 tons and included, in addition to the above, olives, dried figs, rice, cocoa beans, and coffee.76
Although considerable effort had gone into planning the procurement of Iberian perishables, receipts from this source before V-E Day were meager. Roughly four thousand tons of citrus fruits and vegetables left Spanish ports for both Marseille and Rouen in April, but the requirements that Spanish vessels bound for Allied ports obtain British Admiralty clearance led to delays which threatened spoilage. The small receipts of oranges, grapefruits, lemons, and tomatoes were almost exclusively delivered to hospitalized American troops.77
In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, miscellaneous foodstuffs such as spices, vinegar, and yeast were procured in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Yeast, in particular, was such an essential part of the military bread baking program that negotiations for its continental procurement were begun as early as August 1944. At first the French refused to approve this project, pointing out that they were normally a bread-eating nation, and that their requirements would increase since relief supplies were mainly unmilled wheat. But yeast was essentially a manufactured product, and objections to this program were overcome when the OCQM furnished the producers in Paris and Lille with sugar, coal, and packing materials, and promised also that they would be reimbursed in kind for the use of oils
and chemicals if local shortages resulted. Belgian production on similar terms began in March 1945, and soon outstripped receipts from France. Yeast from both sources averaged 3.2 tons per day during the first half of 1945, a quantity which contributed notably to the success of baking operations.78
Although it does not appear that the French public was seriously antagonized by American food procurement, rumors circulated on the streets of Paris that this program was responsible for civilian food shortages, which were severe in the spring of 1945. Occasional editorials, even some adding that the Allied forces were trying to enter the meat and butter market, gave these stories wider currency and a ring of authenticity. On 30 March 1945 the newspaper Temps Present printed an inaccurate and extremely unfriendly editorial, including alleged statements by an official of the French Ministry of Supply, and the general purchasing agent demanded a retraction. As usual in French politics, the incident was more complicated than it first appeared. The French had received about 280,000 tons of relief supplies compared to less than 70,000 tons of food procured by the U.S. forces in France, and, moreover, the general purchasing agent had agreed to offset 37,000 tons of potatoes received with 30,000 tons of British seed potatoes for spring planting. These facts were well known in France but were not mentioned in the offending editorial. The COMZ public relations officer believed that the Supply Ministry statement had been a “feeler” to provoke further official discussion of increased food supplies for French civilians. Far greater tonnages of relief food had been promised than could be delivered, due to overriding military priorities for transatlantic shipping. If the public relations officer’s theory was correct, the maneuver was ill-timed; the current tactical situation did not permit any relaxation of military priorities on shipping.
The final decision was that the known anti-American attitude of the editor of Temps Present was the important aspect of the matter, and that contrary to usual U.S. policy, corrective action should be requested through the French liaison mission at COMZ headquarters. The incident was considered closed after a special press release was issued by the Ministry of Supply, and printed in Temps Present on April 6th.79
Baking and Coffee Roasting Operations
General Littlejohn had recognized the superiority of British-designed baking equipment as early as, July 1942. At that time he requested equipment for fifteen companies, but by the end of the year only four sets had been delivered and two of these had been transferred to North Africa. Materials used in manufacturing this equipment were critical, and the OCQM was not completely convinced that it would be wise to convert the bakery organization and equipment of an entire theater in the midst
Diesel electric dough mixer used in British-type mobile field bakery adopted by the ETD Quartermaster, January 1943.
of hostilities. In May 1943 there were still only four sets of bakery equipment on hand, and only two companies actually operating in the United Kingdom.80
Meanwhile Maj. John (“Jack”) Mac-Manus, a commercial bakery executive of Scottish origin who had recently entered the U.S. Army by direct commission, arrived from the United States in late November 1942. He had been specially selected by The Quartermaster General’s Office for the position of bakery officer in the Subsistence Division of the OCQM, but in 1942 that headquarters, after several disillusionments, was not very enthusiastic regarding experts with limited military experience. MacManus was convinced that adoption of the British equipment and development of an entirely new company organization to handle it were the correct procedures, and that action should begin immediately. His forthright manner of self-expression, and possibly also his strong Scottish accent, irritated some of his seniors, and his recommendations were sidetracked for several months. He himself was given other major duties, in addition to continuing as a one-man Bakery Section within the Subsistence Division.81
By August 194$ a great deal of progress had been made, largely based on MacManus’ convictions of what action was required and on his persuasiveness in obtaining concurrence from the responsible authorities. The British Ministry of War Transport had granted a priority, and Baker Perkins, Ltd., had made a commitment to provide sixty-seven more sets of mobile bakery equipment, including essential spare parts. The Bakery Branch had formulated an entirely new Table of Organization and Equipment for mobile bakery units. They were to be not only completely mobile, but logistically self-sufficient—that is, they were to be able to haul supplies of baking ingredients from army depots, and deliver bread at forward truckheads. The Bakery Branch (still only two officers and one enlisted man) had also organized the 268th Bakery Company to operate as a combined staging area and training center, and had
set up an equipment park and a spare parts depot. Meanwhile the OCQM had taken the plunge in July and informed the War Department that no more U.S.-type bakery equipment was desired in the ETO. Bakery units were to be sent to the theater without equipment.82
This decision was not made solely on the recommendations of Major Mac-Manus. Difficulties with U.S.-type equipment used in North Africa, and the superiority of British equipment tested there, had been reported by a succession of OQMG observers, beginning with Captain Pounder. While minor changes in design could increase the reliability of U.S. equipment, the British type was preferable because of other very material advantages for the type of warfare anticipated on the Continent, as indicated by the following tabulation:
| British | U.S. M1942 | |
| Factor | (T/O&E 10-147S) | (T/O&E 10-147) |
| Personnel requirement | 2 Officers | 5 Officers |
| 82 Enlisted men | 155 Enlisted men | |
| Equipment | All trailer-mounted: | All portable: |
| 3 ovens, diesel | 32 ovens, gasoline | |
| 1 mixer, electric | 16 mixers, gasoline | |
| 1 divider and rounder, electric. | ||
| 2 generators, diesel. | ||
| Daily capacity: | ||
| — Normal | 25,000 lbs. | 24,000 lbs. |
| — Maximum | 35,000 lbs. | 32,000 lbs. |
| Fuel consumption: | ||
| — Gasoline | None | 15 gals. per 1,000 lbs. |
| — Diesel | 6 gals. per 1,000 lbs. | None |
| Flexibility | 4 platoons | |
| No divisibility | ||
| Trucks required (to move equipment only) | 9 (including 4 heavy) | 40 (2½-ton) |
The economy of the British-type equipment in personnel, transportation, and fuel consumption is very evident. In the revised organization, five additional organic vehicles were provided along with tentage to make the unit independent of permanent housing.83
As bakery companies arrived from the United States, they were met at the dock by training center personnel with trucks from the pool of bakery equipment. At Boughton Park near Kettering, each U.S.-type company was split into 2 ETO-type companies, completely fitted out with British equipment, and intensively trained in new procedures. Within 30 days each new unit had moved out to a site where it actually baked bread for American troops. In one instance 8 companies were equipped in 11 days.
This feat is the more remarkable when compared with the difficulties of other QMC units which either had to wait interminably to locate and receive “force-marked” equipment, or else received very incomplete or delayed initial equipment in the theater. By the end of the year 22 companies had been activated, and on 7 January 1944 Littlejohn directed that the Bakery Branch be “moved from a back alley to Main Street and set up as a going concern.” MacManus was given a staff of 3 officers and 6 enlisted men, and provision was made for a special bakery inspection and training team in each base section to function under his technical direction. By D-day, the mobile bakeries were producing 55 percent of the bread received by U.S. troops, and 42 companies were available. Ultimately, 55 companies were trained at Boughton Park and saw service on the Continent.84
Because green coffee from British Empire sources was available in large quantities in the United Kingdom, coffee was among the commodities approved for reverse lend-lease late in 1942. As the British reserve was exhausted, green coffee was shipped direct from South America for U.S. troops in the British Isles. Initially coffee roasting was performed by British firms, but late in 1942 portable coffee roasting equipment began to arrive in the theater, and tentative plans were made in early 1943 for the activation of a coffee roasting company. But meanwhile the 6-man coffee roasting detachments were scattered at Class I installations throughout the United Kingdom, and it became clear that a roasting company was no solution to the accompanying problems of decentralized personnel administration and technical supervision.85 The coffee roaster and the grinder, both of American manufacture, weighed a total of 5,400 pounds. The roaster was fired by anthracite coal, and the grinder was driven by a gasoline engine. Normal capacity was about 1 ton of coffee roasted and ground per 8-hour shift, or 2 tons per day. At 8 pounds per 100 men, this was enough to support 50,000 men. In an emergency 70,000 coffee rations could be produced.86
Precisely when and where the suggestion to attach the coffee roasters to the bakery companies originated, is unknown. The idea had merit, since the daily capacities of the two types of equipment synchronized fairly well, but the coffee roasters were portable rather than mobile, and very unwieldy as well. If the whole concept of the deployment of bakery companies was not to be compromised, a mobile trailer mount had to be devised for the coffee roasters. A major difficulty was that the final decision was not made until November 1943, seven months before D-day. Nevertheless, largely through persistent prodding by MacManus, a satisfactory trailer was designed, components secured from the British, and fabrication and assembly
completed by the Ordnance Corps in time for operations on the Continent. Moreover, the coffee grinder was successfully redesigned to operate with a jeep engine instead of the nonstandard and unsatisfactory engine originally supplied. An important feature of the redesigned equipment was inclusion of tentage, so that coffee roasters could operate in the field with the bakeries; sixty-nine roasters were procured, one for each set of bakery equipment.87
Since bakery equipment was locally procured in Great Britain and spare parts would have to come from the same source, MacManus decided that his units would require an autonomous spare parts organization. This was to be in addition to a reserve of spare parts issued to each company before embarking, designed to cover six months of operations. Accordingly, special depot trailers were procured from the British and fitted with bins, drawers, and shelves. The need for a completely mobile depot may seem slight, since it moved only four times during the first three months of the European campaign and thereafter was stationary at the Isle St. Germain outside Paris. The important considerations were that spare vehicles in the mobile bakeries were available to move these trailers as needed, and that a unique and very large selection of spare parts was never mislaid in warehouses, but was available for issue even when in transit. With 10,147 different spare parts items involved, all nonstandard and only catalogued by the Bakery Branch itself, obviously great pains had to be taken to avoid confusion. The fourteen sets of bakery equipment not issued to units and a similar reserve of coffee roasting equipment were also concentrated in the depot on the Isle St. Germain. The installation performed all repairs on its equipment, including motor overhauls normally done by Ordnance. From the beginning this organization edited and filled all requisitions from bakery companies, and in turn placed requisitions upon eight British agencies in order to maintain its stock levels. The depot was operated by one officer and three enlisted men.88
These careful and elaborate preparations were vindicated on the Continent, where the bakery companies operated without difficulty from the beginning and usually had a surplus of men and transportation to help other organizations. The 3029th Bakery Company landed on Utah Beach on 30 June and was in operation within twenty-four hours. The 3028th landed a day later and by 2 July the two units were delivering 60,000 pounds of bread daily to First Army truckheads. Meanwhile a French bakery in the Cherbourg Arsenal was rehabilitated and began production on July 9th with twenty-seven French civilians directed by two U.S. enlisted men.
By 20 July, 18 bakeries had arrived. The first 5 of these were formally assigned to First Army, but by informal agreement among quartermasters of First and Third Armies and ADSEC, Mac-Manus supervised and coordinated all bakery operations, designating the
depots where ingredients should be drawn and the truckheads to which bread should be delivered. Fresh bread was issued to practically all troops on the Continent during July, irrespective of whether they were eating operational or B rations. At the end of the month First Army reported that its 7 assigned or attached bakeries had produced 2,882,655 pounds of bread since the beginning of operations, with an average daily yield of about 25,700 pounds per unit. Even during September, as the armies advanced at top speed across France, production per company was more than 20,000 pounds per day, and some 55,000,000 bread rations were issued. On 10 October, 38 mobile bakeries were on the Continent including 6 each with First and Third Armies. The others were evenly distributed throughout the rear areas, including 7 companies in Normandy Base Section. The OCQM considered 6 companies per army a normal troop basis, to be slightly modified according to the situation. At the end of hostilities 29 companies were assigned to the 5 field armies in the ETO.
As for COMZ installations, the Delta Base Section was supplied principally by standard U.S.-type bakeries from the Mediterranean theater. The other base sections were adequately supported by mobile-type bakeries. MacManus considered this arrangement of major importance, since U.S.-type units normally requisitioned and utilized civilian bakeries, whereas the mobile type was completely self-sufficient. In a newly liberated area whose civilian population subsisted on bread to a very large degree, it was important to keep civilian bakeries available for civilian relief operations. Thus mobile bakeries in the rear areas performed a function of almost equal importance to that of units in the combat zone.89
In actual operations, coffee roasting was considerably less successful than baking. For this there were two main reasons. First, the plan of operations was not decided upon until late in the buildup period for OVERLORD, and did not leave sufficient time to design and procure equipment and test the proposed procedures. And second, the demand for coffee was far greater than anticipated. Since roasting equipment was not brought to the Continent with the first bakery units, at first the demand for additional coffee was met by issuing the soluble type. Part of this demand resulted from a universal rejection of synthetic lemonade, which was included as a beverage in early versions of the combat rations. Additional factors were serious shortages of tea and cocoa, which were to be supplied by local procurement in Great Britain and therefore were not included in the balanced commodity-loaded ships. The difficulties involved in obtaining special tonnage priorities, transporting supplies across the Channel, and insuring that they were not lost or stolen in the process applied especially to these items, which were shipped in small lots.
At the forward Class I truckheads, these shortages of other beverages resulted in a demand for 50 percent more coffee than anticipated. By 20 July the coffee supply on the Continent was
down to a three-day level. This supply was either canned or soluble coffee, since the roasting and grinding operation was not scheduled to begin until 5 August. As an emergency measure, 100,000 pounds of green coffee were flown in from the United Kingdom, roasted and ground, and issued to the troops by 25 July. The Bakery and Coffee Roasting Branch also discovered 200,000 pounds of roasted unground coffee earmarked for the British Civil Affairs Section, which had been brought into U.S. dumps through some error. This was duly receipted for future replacement and utilized in the emergency. The coffee situation remained critical through August because of low discharge priorities, and the Bakery and Coffee Roasting Branch resorted to various expedients to get coffee ashore, thereupon distributing it in the organic vehicles of the bakery companies. On at least one occasion, when unloading at OMAHA Beach was supposedly impossible because of rough water, the crews of DUKWs were induced to discharge coffee by a bribe of cinnamon buns.90
An even more serious coffee shortage arose beginning in December, when troops had to remain out of doors in freezing weather for extended periods during the German Ardennes counteroffensive. The coffee roasting equipment had already filled a demand for 50 percent more coffee than originally estimated, but now requisitions suddenly jumped to more than twice the normal amount. The fourteen coffee roasters maintained as a reserve on the Isle St. Germain were put to work, civilian coffee roasting establishments in Paris were also utilized, and enough coffee to fill all demands was shipped forward to the truckheads. Nevertheless, the significant fact was that requirements increased to an unexpected degree when troops engaged in active operations during cold weather. A good example is provided by Third Army, which consumed 212,000 pounds of coffee in November 1944, and 1,075,000 pounds in January 1945. The lesson appears to be that a very large reserve, either of canned coffee or of coffee roasting equipment and green beans, must be maintained for operational emergencies.91
Acceptability of Rations Troop Views on Rations
In view of the readiness of the American combat soldier at every echelon to be outspokenly critical of the troops and services identified with the rear echelons, it was a high compliment to the quality of the rations that field observers did not encounter more frequent criticism. The packaged rations, which might have borne the brunt of such censure, evi dently were very successful in providing a palatable and nourishing diet so long as they were not consumed over too long a period.92 According to an OQMG observer, unit S-4’s found that
requisitioning C and K rations was the easiest way to feed combat troops and tended to continue this practice after the tactical situation no longer justified it. The Third Army quartermaster found it necessary to use his authority to “persuade” troop commanders to discontinue 10-in-1 rations in favor of B rations when tactical conditions permitted. Operational rations were acceptable to the troops largely because they were supplemented by fresh bread, butter, and meat whenever possible. Refrigeration service fluctuated, but fresh bread issues were habitual in the combat zone in the ETO.93
Field surveys demonstrated that different categories of troops preferred different rations for different reasons. Undoubtedly the most satisfactory operational ration was the 10-in-1, the development of which had been largely inspired by North African experience. Containing a combination of canned meats, vegetables, spreads, and evaporated milk, a K ration for the noon meal, packages of sugar, soluble coffee, cereal, cigarettes, and candy, it was virtually a portable type B unit which could best be used when the 13 itself could not be satisfactorily distributed.94 Because of its size, the 10-in-1 was the particular favorite of artillery, armored, tank-destroyer, and comparable units operating in small groups or crews, and having organic motor transportation in which they could carry a package of food weighing forty-five pounds, and a small stove for cooking.95 There were occasional objections to the English type of stew, and many motorized units found the noon K rations included in the 10-in-1 unnecessary, since they were able to cook all their meals. Frequent and outspoken criticism was aimed at the dump personnel, who were accused of retaining the popular II and IV menus for themselves, leaving the other three less popular menus for the combat troops. Late in 1944, a revised 10-in-1 ration began to arrive in the theater which overcame most of the technical disadvantages of the older type. The K ration meal was replaced by a wide variety of meat and vegetable combinations, and the amounts of coffee, cocoa, milk, and sugar were increased. The new pack also included soap, paper towels, halazone tablets, a can opener, and cigarettes.96
The popularity of the two most important individually packaged rations—type C and type K—varied from one campaign to another, and also from one type of unit to another. As in the Mediterranean theater, soldiers expressed a dislike for malt-dextrose tablets, but otherwise the K ration, in its three “Cracker-Jack” cardboard boxes, was preferred by the infantryman, especially during periods of activity, because it was more easily carried on his person—
either in boxes or by distributing the packaged contents through the pockets —than the six round metal cans making up the C ration. On the other hand, when the foot soldier was in a stationary position and forced by circumstances to subsist on operational rations, he favored the C ration because it had more meat than the K, was more filling, and could be heated directly in the can. Thus it is understandable that the motorized combat soldier who did not have to stuff cans into pockets or a pack preferred the C ration to the K, and sought to obtain this whenever the 10-in-1 was unavailable. The C ration became even more popular after several new menus, especially beef with noodles and spaghetti with meat balls, arrived late in 1944, though not in sufficient quantities for wide distribution. Rumors of these new menus were widespread long before they became available, and the OCQM got many official inquiries from various tactical headquarters. By the spring of 1945, ten different meat units and six bread and beverage units were available, overcoming practically every objection to earlier versions of this ration.97
Because the availability of perishables was unpredictable, dehydrated foods were shipped overseas in quantity. Although shipping these processed foods was easier than handling perishables, their final preparation presented a challenge to the ingenuity of mess personnel throughout the theater. The OQMG had noted the unfavorable reaction of Mediterranean troops to these articles and placed detailed directions on containers in the hope of improving their acceptability. Nevertheless, dehydrated tomato juice, cabbage flakes, and eggs rarely reached the average ETO soldier in an appetizing form, and he was not impressed by praise of their nutritional value.98
Vigorously prosecuted conservation drives occasionally reduced the amounts of dehydrated items found in the garbage but added little to their popularity. Coming from a country where availability alone is not a compelling argument, the American soldier was prepared to reject foods that did not suit his taste. For example, in 1943 all operational rations as well as the B ration included lemon crystals to prepare a noontime beverage. They were readily available, cheap, and provided the vitamins otherwise missing from canned rations in a convenient form which did not readily deteriorate in storage. But lemon crystals were characterized by a biting acidity which could only be counteracted by vast amounts of sugar. Cooks were taught a dozen tricks to disguise them or persuade the troops to consume them, but all in vain. The troops detested the synthetic lemonade and all its variants and offspring. Every observer report from the Mediterranean and European theater alike included complaints on this score, and a good many constructive suggestions were made by the troops. Unfortunately, supplies of vitamin tablets and vitamin-fortified chocolate were very limited, and they had to remain in the critical category controlled by the Medical Corps.
On investigation, none of the other suggestions for a nonperishable source
of vitamins proved practical. Orange and grape crystals were slightly less acid and less unpopular than lemon crystals, but these products also encountered a good deal of criticism. Since vitamins were considered to be essential and fruit crystals were the only readily available source, they were included in the revised versions of the C, K, and 10-in-1 rations. As a concession to troop preferences, the proportion of orange and grape to lemon crystals was increased, but subsistence specialists in the ETO seriously doubted that these products were effective. The resulting vitamin deficiency was partially counteracted by the vigorous campaign of the OCQM to increase the supply of perishables.99
Mess Teams
It became quickly apparent that even the good cooks arriving in the theater were unfamiliar with the preparation of dehydrated foods, while a wider survey concluded that “there were many more messes than there were good cooks, mess sergeants, and mess officers. Unit commanders were too engrossed in the vital problems of training and running their organizations to give their messes as much time as they would have liked.”100 Simply improving the ration would accomplish little if measures were not taken to encourage proper preparation and attractive serving of food, and a number of steps were taken in that direction.
A Subsistence Laboratory had been part of the OCQM overhead organizations since late 1942. It was responsible for the technical guidance of subsistence activities, which included the preparation of issue menus, the publication of instructional bulletins, and the drafting of specifications for locally procured subsistence. To stimulate constructive thinking by mess personnel and to publicize the creative work performed by cooks in individual installations, the OCQM conducted theater-wide recipe contests. The laboratory was also instrumental in the establishment of the cooks’ and bakers’ school within the American School Center at Shrivenham, England. This school trained ever-increasing numbers of mess officers, mess sergeants, and cooks and bakers from 1942 through 1944. In April 1945 it was transferred to the QMC and reopened at Chartres, France. At the time of its final transfer to Darmstadt, Germany, in September 1945, it had trained a total of more than 6,000 students. It was a major factor in improving messing in the European theater.101
The system of model messes and mess advisers employed in the United Kingdom, already described, proved inadequate under field conditions on the Continent. More training was needed, especially for mess personnel who had arrived direct from the United States. Because distances were greater than in the United Kingdom and travel was very difficult, it was apparent that one
model mess in each base section would not be very effective in raising the general level of efficiency. What was needed was a team large enough to take over entire operation of a unit mess if necessary and demonstrate proper procedures on the spot.
Accordingly, in late October 1944 the OCQM set up six mess teams, each consisting of two officers and ten enlisted men. These teams were organized under the QM Service Organization as Composite Company Headquarters, type AC, with attached Mess Detachment, type AF (modified).102 Each team consisted of a mess officer and a dietitian, and two of each of the following: mess sergeants, first cooks, second cooks, pastry cooks, and meat cutters. The unit was completely mobile, with a jeep and trailer and a 2½-ton truck and trailer. The truck was set up exactly like the mobile kitchen of a combat unit. Littlejohn was insistent that the dietitian of the team should be a woman—either a WAC officer or a Medical Corps technician. He was convinced that a feminine presence would place the regular mess personnel of a unit on their mettle to perform efficiently, and would also make them more amenable to instruction and helpful criticism. With the same psychological factors in mind, one all-WAC and one all-Negro team were organized. All members of a team were not only qualified as mess officers, cooks, pastry cooks, or butchers, but were also skilled in repair of mess equipment, plumbing and lighting, and even in carpentry. Moreover, they knew what types of QM mess equipment were available in depots, and their recommendations usually meant that a unit’s requisition would be honored. These teams were organized under the supervision of Maj. Patrick H. Buckley, former mess adviser of the Western Base Section in England, and were attached to the 537th QM Group located on the Isle St. Germain, outside Paris.103
The mess teams received thirty days of special instructions at the American School Center in England, and ten more in France, and were ready to go into the field in late November. They were dispatched from the Office of the Chief Quartermaster only on the request of an army, section, or other major headquarters. Much of their popularity could be attributed to the general understanding that their visits were for instruction rather than inspection, and that they were there actually to perform and demonstrate techniques of improving the operations of kitchen personnel. Working closely with the mess officer and mess sergeant, they checked every phase of a unit’s mess activity from head count for strength through receipt of rations, serving of the food, and salvage of the waste. Because the teams could not possibly visit every mess in any given base section or army area, they concentrated on key installations whose visible improvement would most likely influence neighboring messes to raise their standards. Duty with these mess teams was extremely demanding. Experience demonstrated that the best results were
obtained when personnel were rotated between duty in the field and in the QM Subsistence Laboratory every thirty days. This also served to remind field commanders that the teams had been loaned and not assigned to them.
The teams sometimes found that supporting Class I depots were as much in need of instruction and guidance as messes. For example, on 20 December 1944 the theater Chief Surgeon, General Hawley, wrote to the Chief Quartermaster complaining that in Normandy Base Section hospital patients were receiving only C rations. He remarked that good food is the luxury that the battle casualty wants most—even more than good nursing. Littlejohn took prompt official action, but also pointed out to Hawley—a personal friend of long standing—that hospital quartermasters were not firm enough with the depots, and also did not appear to know what they were entitled to. He suggested some “education,” and offered to provide it through his mess teams. Thereafter, mess teams included hospitals in their tours and hospital mess officers in their instructional conferences, and there were no further complaints.104
The work of the first six teams was so well received that six more were organized in January 1945. In addition to their normal functions, these teams also undertook and successfully accomplished several special projects. They designed pilot models of kitchen cars and prepared, troop train menus for feeding reinforcements en route to the front by rail. They set up the first of the famous G.I. Joe diners along the routes of the Red Ball express. They did much of the pioneer work in planning and setting up the messes at Red Horse—the huge complex of staging areas opened around Le Havre early in 1945, and also in the temporary enclosures along the Rhine where almost a million German prisoners had to be fed with virtually no equipment whatsoever. U.S. troops had an unfortunate habit of seizing mess equipment as well as weapons from prisoners of war, who then had to be re-equipped by the QMC.105
Serving Hot Meals to Front-Line Troops
Techniques employed in serving meals to front-line troops varied with the type of unit, the tactical situation, and the initiative of mess and other personnel. No standard operating procedure was ever formulated. Littlejohn believed that the attitude of the battalion commander was the controlling factor. In most situations, he could modify tactical dispositions enough to make feasible one expedient or another for feeding hot food to his troops. The initiative and effectiveness of mess personnel in the subordinate companies reflected the interest of the battalion commander. It was observed that in aggressive units, mess personnel were also aggressive and provided more cooked meals in the front lines.106
Even in the most active situation, troops usually managed to heat a drink from the K or C ration. This was normally done in a canteen cup over a heat unit. The meat component of the C ration could be heated in the can directly over a flame and was superior in this respect to the K ration. Two-burner stoves were normally kept in vehicles, but were sometimes brought forward into foxholes as the situation stabilized. Cooking containers were for the most part large cans obtained from company kitchens. The troops usually heated C rations in boiling water in these cans. Early in 1945, one-burner stoves issued with a nesting pot and frying pan combination became available, and these were more suitable for front-line use. But normally no stoves or pots were carried in an initial advance. They were brought up by supporting or relief troops.107
If stoves were not available, improvised heating methods appeared in the front lines as the position stabilized. Gasoline poured over dirt in an empty C ration can provide an adequate but sooty source of heat. It could not be used in positions open to direct enemy observation. The same criticism applied to the expendable heat units issued with the C and 10-in-1 rations; both types were inferior to captured German heat tablets.108 The 10-in-1 ration was seldom prepared by the infantry in the front lines.
In all but the most exposed positions it was usually possible to provide an A ration, cooked by company mess personnel, to front-line troops. The normal procedure was for all company kitchens to bivouac in the battalion service area. From there, hot food was taken forward in Marmite cans (insulated containers, round). Hot drinks were also transported in such containers if available, but a 5-gallon water can wrapped in blankets was a satisfactory substitute. Food and hot drink containers were transported forward as far as possible by ¼-ton trucks and trailers, which also carried necessary individual mess gear, usually only the cover of the meat can. Front-line troops normally kept their canteen cups and spoons with them at all times, and usually had a knife of some kind. The mess knife and fork and the meat can were not considered essential.
When the troops were advancing, the battalion staff carefully selected routes that could be used for the delivery of food, and it was normal for the battalion 5-4 himself to guide the party transporting the first hot meal to a new position. Ideally, the jeep convoy visited each platoon headquarters, but if .the tactical situation made such contact impossible, details of runners were waiting at prearranged rendezvous to carry the cans to each unit. Empty cans and meat can covers were retrieved later by the same method. With this arrangement, proximity of the kitchens to the front lines was of secondary importance compared to efficient mess operations uninterrupted by enemy action. If necessary the service area could be as much as five miles to the rear, and meals would still arrive hot in the front lines. On the other hand, company cooks or
other mess personnel were sent forward with the meals as often as possible. Their presence insured efficient and equitable serving of food, and also tended to improve the quality of the ration. By mingling with the men in the line, cooks came to feel that they were an integral part of the fighting team, and duty-bound to deliver attractive, palatable, and nourishing meals. Although this procedure led to casualties among mess personnel, who were not easily replaced, tactical commanders considered it worthwhile.109
Special Menus for Allied and Enemy Nationals
ETO quartermasters gained a certain amount of experience in feeding non-U.S. personnel during 1943, when German prisoners were evacuated through England to the United States. As in most other matters involving direct contact with the enemy, the ETO followed procedures established in the Mediterranean. The arrival of the 2nd French Armored Division in Great Britain from North Africa in the early months of 1944 provided the OCQM with a real introduction to Allied feeding problems. Here was a unit including Moslems, whose religion forbade them either pork or wine, and Frenchmen who demanded both. Wine was practically unobtainable in the British Isles, but the problem of fresh meat for Moslems was readily solved by trading American pork for British mutton. Providing operational rations for the landing in Normandy was much less simple since all three meals of the K ration contained pork, and of the old type of C rations only meat and vegetable stew was without pork. Under pressure of time, cased assorted C rations had to be issued to the division with the understanding that meat and beans and vegetable hash units would go to Frenchmen, while meat and vegetable stew would be reserved exclusively for Moslem troops.110
As the armies advanced into France, and later into Belgium and the Netherlands, natives of these countries were attached to the U.S. forces in various capacities, and the OCQM became responsible for supporting such people to varying degrees. Among civilians, mobile labor units, which received all their meals, were far outnumbered by static labor, which received a midday meal only. Allied military units were engaged in combat, employed as service troops, or given security duties. To establish a workable system for supplying these groups, they were divided into classes of military and paramilitary forces. Type A units, such as elements of General de Lattre’s 1st French Army, were regularly constituted forces operating under American field commanders, and drew all their supplies through American supply channels. Italian and Slav service units were also included in this category. Type B units included elements from liberated countries, such as French and Dutch light infantry battalions and Belgian fusiliers and pioneer groups, who received American rations only when operating outside their own countries. Type C and D forces—paramilitary groups which
were not part of the regular military forces of liberated countries, such as the French Forces of the Interior, the Gendarmerie, and the Garde Mobile—were supplied from COMZ or army dumps only when under U.S. command. Since U.S. responsibility for these units was constantly fluctuating, obtaining the proper classification and strength figures proved difficult throughout hostilities and, notwithstanding its importance for the replacement of stocks, such information always had to be approximated crudely. Actual issues were almost invariably at odds with even short-term forecasts—a statement admirably illustrated by comparing Table 16 with Table 11.111
Toward the end of hostilities reported issues from COMZ depots (Table 16) ceased to reflect the number of persons actually being fed with any degree of reliability. During the interval between submission of a daily telegram and receipt of the requested supplies, the numbers needing food often increased tremendously. Class I distributing operations were so far-flung that when it became necessary to add a new category of persons receiving rations—for example, Allied POW’s in German hospitals—six weeks were required to revise and distribute new requisition forms and to consolidate statistics on a new basis. The chief of the Subsistence Division, OCQM, therefore believed that the totals for April and May 1945 were too low by several hundred thousand.112
The situation was further complicated by a provision in the Yalta agreement of February 1945, giving special status to Soviet nationals liberated in western Europe, and entitling them to the maintenance allowances of recovered Allied military personnel. In effect, this category of personnel was transferred from Civil Affairs jurisdiction and became a direct military responsibility. Not only did this upset existing supply plans—for no such development had been anticipated and the number of liberated Russians rose to about 1,500,000 by V-E Day—but it aroused the resentment of French, Dutch, Belgian, and Luxembourg displaced persons in Germany who were obliged to accept lower allowances.113
No one had foreseen that subsistence requirements for these sundry groups would approach the enormous dimensions and qualitative complexity ultimately reached. At first it did not appear possible, or even desirable, to make a single menu, since dietary preferences and even religious proscriptions had to be honored, and obviously these varied with each nationality. Neither was it possible to follow consistently the menu made out for each group. Colonel Fitzpatrick, a member of General Littlejohn’s subsistence staff, who was probably as familiar with ration problems as any officer in the theater, brought out clearly the problems actually involved in the physical distribution of supplies:
Every supply point had the Type A ration and the Type A hospital supplement
Table 16: Average of daily ration issues October 1944–September 1945
| Week Ending | Type A Ration Categories | Allied Troops | Allied Labor | Enemy POW’s | Total |
| 14 October 1944 | 2,433,220 | 8,997 | 8,551 | 161,289 | 2,612,057 |
| 31 October 1944 | 2,364,899 | 22,726 | 8,084 | 178,993 | 2,574,702 |
| 15 November 1944 | 2,640,919 | 37,135 | 8,634 | 187,918 | 2,874,606 |
| 30 November 1944 | 2,620,888 | 29,954 | 6,071 | 190,026 | 2,846,939 |
| 16 December 1944 | 2,756,037 | 34,181 | 8,248 | 207,796 | 3,006,262 |
| 30 December 1944 | 2,810,344 | 37,217 | 7,432 | 217,751 | 3,072,744 |
| 13 January 1945 | 2,822,921 | 48,077 | 19,970 | 247,668 | 3,138,636 |
| 27 January 1945 | 2,787,363 | 54,720 | 22,565 | 260,306 | 3,124,994 |
| 10 February 1945 | 2,840,045 | 57,659 | 30,428 | 254,700 | 3,182,832 |
| 24 February 1945 | 3,017,146 | 57,663 | 31,685 | 250,064 | 3,356,558 |
| 10 March 1945 | 3,366,334 | 130,823 | 54,807 | 314,685 | 3,866,649 |
| 24 March 1945 | 3,679,340 | 393,526 | 77,206 | 404,781 | 4,554,853 |
| 7 April 1945 | 3,974,591 | 387,382 | 71,558 | 622,392 | 5,055,923 |
| 21 April 1945 | 4,101,077 | 393,099 | 91,228 | 843,131 | 5,428,535 |
| 5 May 1945 | 3,634,660 | 381,534 | 91,181 | 1,751,513 | 5,858,888 |
| 19 May 1945 | 3,605,066 | 634,662 | 110,325 | 2,425,532 | 6,775,585 |
| 2 June 1945 | 3,441,171 | 603,326 | 103,077 | 2,402,940 | 6,550,514 |
| 16 June 1945 | 3,979,639 | 336,914 | 114,088 | 2,061,167 | 6,491,808 |
| 30 June 1945 | 3,226,056 | 314,941 | 98,147 | 1,412,099 | 5,051,743 |
Source: Littlejohn, ed., Passing in Review, ch. 33 vol. I, Exhibit 7.
to issue. If it had in its neighborhood all of the five Allied categories ... it would have to issue on six additional scales (two for civilian labor) ... If it had POW concentrations to supply as well, three additional scales-for working, non-working, and hospitalized prisoners-would figure in its mission. Issuing on eleven different ration scales is a more complicated process than the average supply point can handle. It is quite certain that many of them took short cuts of one kind or another; many issued to all Allied nationals in accordance with the menu authorized for the largest category.114
Recognizing the practicality of this field expedient, in March 1945 the OCQM proposed a standard 3,000-calorie continental Allied menu applicable to every category except U.S. and British personnel, invalids, and prisoners of war. National food preferences were recognized by offering food options. With its many substitutions and varying allowances of the same items, this was still a complicated scheme, but considerably less so than five separate menus.115 All these groups received more grain products, dried peas and beans, and potatoes than did American troops. (Table 17) Within the continental category French and Moslem units received the most fresh meat and leafy green and
yellow vegetables, but less dairy and sugar products than others. Italian service units were given a higher amount of alimentary pastes and other starchy foods such as macaroni and spaghetti, and oils, while liberated Russian displaced persons received more fresh (especially dark) bread and potatoes and were provided with the buckwheat, cabbage, and sauerkraut necessary for such native foods as kasha and borscht. The menu provided 3,000 calories for sedentary personnel, and 3,400 for those engaged in hard labor. It offered the light breakfasts and heavy dinners generally preferred by Europeans, and it was flexible enough to utilize whatever ingredients were actually available at any given time.116
Like the separate rations for various nationalities which it superseded, the continental Allied ration was on the borderline of nutritional adequacy, and it was very important that the whole ration be consumed by all to whom it was issued. The preparation of acceptable menus was extremely difficult, since the ingredients available consisted of surplus U.S. Army items, presumably not very popular with the troops; locally procured produce; and a very restricted list of items such as dried eggs that were surplus in the United States despite a severe food shortage in the zone of interior. Moreover, since unbalanced items of the military ration were the primary sources of supply, the foods actually available for issue fluctuated constantly, and included many American ingredients unfamiliar to Europeans. Under the circumstances Capt. Cathryn R. VerMurlen, the chief of the Menu Branch of the Subsistence Division, found that preparing menus for Allied and enemy nationals was by far the most difficult aspect of her assignment. Catering for forces with unfamiliar and widely varying food habits was complicated by the fact that menus were subjected to constant modifications and substitutions, often at very short notice. The Menu Branch found it necessary to institute its own liaison system with the depots, to provide quick notification of changes in availability, and particularly to exploit local sources of fresh foods promptly. Unusual food combinations were frequently necessary, but could only be issued after approval by the Chief Surgeon. Untried menus required extensive checking in the field to assure that they could actually be fed as issued. These activities could only be entrusted to specialists, but the number of qualified dietitians in the theater was very limited. Nevertheless, the officers of the Menu Branch were able to provide a nutritionally adequate and acceptable diet for the various types of personnel for whom the U.S. forces were responsible.117
Menus for Prisoners of War
The problem of feeding POW’s proved to be not only larger in scope but also more complex than that of feeding Allied nationals. Plans before D-day had anticipated that some 60,000 prisoners
would be captured by D plus 90, and that all of them would be evacuated to England as soon as possible. No provision for their support had been made beyond three and a half C rations per prisoner—a suitable type and allowance for men in transit to the United Kingdom. Actually, more than 170,000 men had been captured by early September, and since it was decided to hold most of them on the Continent as laborers, the burden of feeding them fell on COMZ. The policy of feeding C rations to POW’s had to be changed as soon as the armies broke out of the beachhead in late July, since C rations were required for the combat troops.
Inevitably, with the improvement of the tactical situation and the increasing influx of prisoners, a shortage of POW rations developed. By the end of November, almost 200,000 POW’s had to be fed; by the beginning of March 1945, over 300,000; by the end of March, almost 600,000; a month later, more than 1,500,000; and almost another million surrendered in the next three weeks.118 (See Table 16.)
With such numbers involved, it became impossible to evacuate them to the rear as fast as they surrendered, and large numbers became responsibilities of ADSEC in the area immediately west of the Rhine. In April that headquarters established large depots solely for POW supplies at Rheinberg (near Duisburg), Sinzig, and Bingen, under control of the 56th QM Base Depot. Sixteen POW camps in those areas had to be supplied largely by collecting captured supplies from the armies and by local procurement, since few U.S. supplies for prisoners arrived during the speedy occupation of Germany. Military bakeries were not available, and local bakers contracted to provide nearly 400,000 pounds of bread per day for 782,000 prisoners in mid-May. At the same time Normandy Base Section was guarding 406,000 prisoners and Oise Section 262,000. The total number in U.S. custody on 20 May was 2,884,762, or about 460,000 more than were receiving U.S. rations. During the months that followed the French and Belgian Governments agreed to accept about 1,600,000 prisoners.
The U.S. forces had begun releasing miners, farmers, and transportation workers as early as March 1945 for labor in occupied areas of Germany. After V-E Day all POW’s over fifty years of age were released and in certain areas, especially Austria, enemy soldiers who laid down their arms were not taken into custody unless they were members of the SS or officials of the Nazi party. Supply officers hoped that such persons, classified as Disarmed Enemy Forces, could be fed by the German regional governments responsible for their security. This hope was only partially realized, and in mid-August 732,000 POW’s and 588,000 disarmed Germans were still dependent upon the Quartermaster Service. Both received the POW ration.119
The terms of the Geneva Convention provided that prisoners would be fed a type A ration equal in quantity and quality to that of custodial troops in base camps, but it soon became apparent that this allowance could not be provided. When reports were received that
Table 17: Comparison of Continental and POW Rations with U.S. Ration
| Food group | Continental civilian employee menu25 April 1945 | Russian repatriates menu25 April 45 | I.S.U. menu 25 April 1945 | Other liberated manpower menu 25 April menu 25 April 1945 | POW menu #2 nonworking 16 April 45 | POW menu working 16 April 45 | Revised POW hospital supplement Oct 45 | ETOUSA Cir. 96 12 Sep 1944 | U.S. type May 1945 |
| lbs/1000 rations | lbs/1000 rations | lbs/1000 rations | lbs/1000 rations | lbs/1000 rations | lbs/1000 rations | lbs/1000 rations | lbs/1000 rations | lbs/1000 rations | |
| Meat (as boneless) | 215.63 | 263.05 | 246.80 | 285.50 | 124.99 | 124.99 | 172.00 | 759.38 | 738 |
| Eggs (dhy) | 60 | 18 | 39 | 22 | 15 | 35 | 30 | 37.50 | 36 |
| Milk (as dried). | 59.15 | 20.38 | 59.89 | 30.19 | 39 | 39 | 81.51 | 132.81 | 145 |
| Cheese | 16 | 49 | 5 | 12 | 13 | 17 | 10 | (d) | (d) |
| Total | 350.78 | 350.43 | 350.69 | 349.69 | 191.99 | 215.99 | 293.51 | 929.69 | 921 |
| Butter, canned-oleomargarine | 8 | 12 | 30 | e 72.50 | e 65 | ||||
| Other fats | 35 | 15 | 71 | 24 | 19.50 | 40.50 | 31.50 | 46.88 | 44 |
| Grain products | 1,089 | 1,480 | 1,085 | 1,477 | 933 | 1,107 | 60 | 718.75 | 714 |
| Sugars & syrups | 221 | 94 | 202 | 221 | 105 | 202 | 147 | 331.25 | 352 |
| Dried legumes | 116 | 139 | 142 | 71 | 142 | 142 | 88.13 | 80 | |
| Potatoes (as fresh) | 780 | 795 | 415 | 452 | 500 | 750 | 687.50 | 567 | |
| Tomato & tomato products | 115.29 | 101.92 | 121.22 | 103.81 | 64.33 | 64.33 | 57.33 | 234.30 | 215 |
| Lemon crystals | 2.76 | 4.14 | 14.49 | 6.21 | 13.80 | 13_80 | f 156.25 | /139 | |
| Vegetables, leafy, green, and yellow, canned | 102.49 | 113.86 | 114.93 | 95.07 | 73.56 | 73.56 | 19.68 | 406.25 | 184 |
| Vegetables, leafy, green, and yellow, dhy | 10.50 | 14 | 14 | ||||||
| Other vegetables, canned | 57.57 | 24.76 | 75.57 | 56.64 | 55.71 | 55.71 | 250 | 159 | |
| Other vegetables, dhy | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10.50 | 10.50 | ||||
| Other fruits, canned | 96.75 | 78.75 | 101.25 | 20.25 | 312.5 | 344 | |||
| Fruits, dried | 50 | 48 | 43 | 48 | 30 | 68 | 18 | 43.75 | 32 |
| Beverages | 66 | 42 | 38 | 67 | 51.50 | 51.50 | 10 | 105 | 98 |
| Miscellaneous (condiments) | 33.35 | 34.60 | 40.70 | 39.85 | 21.88 | 21.88 | 10 | 143.75 | 61 |
| Calories | 3,000 | 3,370 | 3,100 | 3,185 | 2,250 | 2,900 | 1,112 | 4,050 | 4,114 |
a For civilian laborers dicing exceptionally hard work, an increase was authorized of 16 lbs. macaroni, 100 lbs. bread and 24 lbs. marmalade per 1,000 rations This augmentation increased the calories to 3,200.
b For Italian service units doing exceptionally hard work, an increase was authorized of 90 lbs. macaroni and 180 lbs. potatoes (fresh) per 1,000 rations. This augmentation increased the calories to 3,300.
c A 3,400 calorie diet could be provided by the addition of the following: 14 lbs. eggs, dhy., 150 lbs. bread, and 12 lbs. marmalade per 1,000 rations.
d Cheese included with milk products.
e Fresh butter with type "A" rations.
f Includes citrus fruits & juices.
Source: Passing in Review, Chapter 33, by Col. Edwin J. Fitzpatrick, "Subsistence Experience in the ETO," Pt I, App. 5-A
American prisoners in German camps were suffering from malnutrition and that the average ration in the German Army approximated 2,700 calories, the OCQM decided that there was no justification for providing the German soldier with a ration increase of 25 percent merely because he had achieved prisoner of war status. General Littlejohn contended, in fact, that it would be wasteful to feed an American ration of 3,700 to 4,000 calories to prisoners who were accustomed to less than American soldiers.120
The first continental prisoner of war menu, circulated in August 1944, modified the A ration to eliminate such items as fruit juices, chicken, turkey, ham, and pork loins, and to reduce the quantities of evaporated and powdered milk, fresh butter, condiments, salad oil, coffee, and lard. To offset these reductions, higher allowances were authorized for fresh bread, stewing meats, uncooked cereals, Vienna sausage, chili con came, and canned meats. These departures from the standard A ration lowered the caloric content of the POW ration and provoked considerable discussion on both sides of the Atlantic. When the issue reached General George C. Marshall, the Chief of Staff, he held that captured troops need not be fed ration components identical to those served American troops, so long as the nutritive value was matched. But it soon proved impossible to meet the latter requirement, in view of the simultaneous occurrence of the world food crisis and the rapid influx of prisoners. Just before V-E Day, in an effort to feed the thousands of prisoners collected in open enclosures beyond the Rhine, the official POW menu was cut to 2,000 calories for nonworking prisoners and to 2,900 calories for working prisoners. These were lower than the figures agreed upon by Generals Gregory and Littlejohn, but they were still within the recommendations of the National Research Council. General Littlejohn argued that this menu was not likely to lead to malnutrition: “Definitely I do not intend to go along on a ration which will cause prisoners to starve to death, or throw them into our hospitals. Neither do I intend to be a party to a ration which will make the Germans fat.121
Reports from field observers confirmed that 2,000 calories were sufficient to maintain the condition of a healthy prisoner whose routine was limited to self-care, but the surveys showed that a majority of prisoners were suffering from various dietary deficiencies when captured. In the months before the final surrender the German army ration was very low in riboflavin and nicotinic acid, and in the last weeks all food supplies had dwindled. It had proved impossible to make good these deficiencies in the temporary enclosures where ADSEC units attempted to feed hundreds of thousands of prisoners, mainly on captured supplies and using rudimentary kitchen equipment. The same surveys showed that in the processes of distribution, breakdown, and food preparation, losses reduced a 2,000 calorie menu to an actual diet of about 1,750 calories. All these factors had led to serious
undernourishment, and the official ration was immediately raised to 2,250 calories for nonworking prisoners and 2,900 for those who were working. Serious cases of malnutrition were hospitalized and placed on the menu for nonworking prisoners plus a 1,100 calorie hospital supplement. Less serious cases received the ration for workers for twenty days before actually being assigned to work details.
Unfortunately, it was not possible to extend these policies to cover the prisoners who had been transferred to other nations. Civil Affairs officials held, with apparent justice, that the rations of prisoners should not exceed those of civilian refugees. This argument ignored the fact that the ration of a captured soldier comprised all the food that he would receive, whereas the ration of a civilian usually meant his official allowance issued against his ration card. It did not include food obtained from relatives in the country, from the black market, or issued as a bonus by his employer. Objections caused by incomplete understanding of this important difference, among both foreign officials and U.S. staff officers, delayed efforts to raise the caloric value of rations for prisoners.122
From the first, basic supply doctrine had called for the issue of captured subsistence to prisoners before American foodstuffs were provided; indeed every POW menu bore a clear statement to this effect at the bottom of the page. But throughout hostilities there was a gap between policy and practice. Army and base section quartermasters failed to inventory and report such supplies, thereby making it difficult to transfer excesses from one area to another. As a result POW’s at enclosures in areas lacking captured subsistence continued to be fed C & K rations. Once established, that policy was hard to change, although it was much criticized in light of the need for operational rations among combat troops. In October, Colonel Franks, the Deputy Chief Quartermaster, seeking to alleviate this situation, appointed an officer from the OCQM Subsistence Division to tour the base sections and secure their cooperation. In November Littlejohn complained that he had received exactly one satisfactory inventory of captured enemy supplies to date.123
Failure to utilize captured subsistence was less serious than the accompanying misuse of U.S. supplies. Throughout the duration of hostilities violations of menus recurred and drew the attention of subsistence authorities. In fact, outside the QMC there was a tendency to regard menus as suggestions rather than as binding military directives. The excuses offered by the delinquent parties were varied. One unit serving B rations to prisoners contended that it was simpler to consolidate the food drawn for both American and captured troops into a common mess and serve a uniform meal. Even the plea of ignorance was raised to explain the failure to comply with a POW menu. Littlejohn informed the ETO Provost Marshal that officers could be held financially responsible for overissues to POW’s but apparently nothing came of this suggestion.
Ultimately, the OCQM notified the ADSEC quartermaster that every depot, every distribution point, every organization having custody over captured troops was to follow the special POW menu.124
Food for Refugees and Displaced Persons
Relief for civilians in the European theater was a Civil Affairs (G-5) responsibility, and the OCQM processed requisitions but did not compute requirements. Civil Affairs supplies were issued in bulk from Quartermaster depots for distribution through Civil Affairs channels. All planners were in agreement that Civil Affairs supplies were to supplement and not to replace local resources. Nevertheless, a minimum relief ration, for planning purposes and to be fed to those without other sources of nourishment, was a basic necessity. After prolonged negotiation in London and Washington, the following basic ration was agreed upon by the Combined Civil Affairs Committee (CCAC) in December 1943:125
| Item | Ounces | Calories |
| Cheese | 0.50 | 55 |
| Fats | .50 | 127 |
| Flour | 15.00 | 1,515 |
| Legumes, dry | 1.00 | 100 |
| Meat and vegetable stew | 2.25 | 65 |
| Salt | 50 | |
| Soup, dehydrated | 2.00 | 178 |
| Sugar | .50 | 50 |
| Total | 22.25 | 2,090 |
| Supplemental items: | ||
| Milk, evaporated a | 2.00 | 74 |
| Coffee (per week) b | 2.00 | 0 |
| Vitaminized chocolate a | 1.00 | c |
a Supplement for children and nursing mothers—estimate furnished to 25 percent of total fed.
b Furnished to 75 percent of total fed.
c Caloric value not given.
Since this allowance was less than the minimum POW ration, the decision received a considerable amount of unfavorable publicity, but Littlejohn pointed out that the official ration was a prisoner’s sole source of nourishment, whereas civilians were not without opportunities to supplement that diet, however unreliable or intermittent those opportunities might be.126
Total food requirements were likewise a subject of prolonged discussion. One early estimate, submitted to the International Aid Division, ASF, by the OQMG, was based on liberating 25 million people in western Europe in the first three months. These would require 450 million relief rations, or 20 percent of their total subsistence, amounting to 282,000 long tons.127 Later computations were considerably more conservative. For example, in March 1944 the Supply Subcommittee of the Combined Civil Affairs Committee approved 90-day requirements for the ANVIL operation based on 1,500 calories for 65 percent of a population of 7,600,000, or about 49,000 tons.128 But once established on
the Continent, Civil Affairs officials came to the conclusion that the larger figures had been more nearly correct. For the period April—September 1945, for example, the Combined Civil Affairs Committee computed that France alone would require about 500,000 tons of supplies per month, while on a per capita basis the needs of Belgium and the Netherlands were still greater. It was, of course, impossible to meet these requirements for a variety of reasons, including a world-wide food shortage, the rival claims of the Mediterranean theater, shipping shortages, and congestion at ports.
Tactical Civil Affairs planning within the assault forces was on an entirely different basis. SHAEF had allocated cross-Channel transportation for 49,636 long tons of Civil Affairs food in the first 90 days, all except 777 tons being of British origin. The detailed plan for the U.S. forces provided that 725 tons of food would be landed during the first 20 days, and then about 330 tons per day until D plus 90.129 This plan was followed until it became evident that there was no food shortage in Normandy. On UTAH Beach, the 54th QM Base Depot stored such items as flour, pinto beans, welfare biscuits, and soap, separately from those Quartermaster supplies destined for issue to troops. In the first six weeks of operations, 5,500 tons of Civil Affairs supplies were landed on the beaches, but only 114 tons were distributed, mostly through French civil agencies. When transportation was at a premium during the breakthrough period, these supplies were temporarily left behind with other low priority items with the result that captured enemy foodstuffs, primarily earmarked for POW’s, had to be issued to Allied military units, or released for the use of civilians in urban areas.
German supplies were uncovered in huge quantities. Captured stocks sometimes contained luxury items rather than necessities; the enemy depot at Chartres, for example, turned out to have enormous stocks of chinaware, glassware, silverware, and furniture at a time when Quartermaster inventory teams were hoping to locate badly needed blankets, mess gear, and kitchen utensils.130
The discovery of potentially useful captured materials did not in itself assure their availability for either military units or Civil Affairs. Since the rules of land warfare relating to captured equipment did not apply to liberated territories, definitions had to be established for enemy materials uncovered in France which were of uncertain origin or manufacture. The matter came up in connection with supplies discovered in Paris, and was threshed out in protracted correspondence involving Generals Littlejohn, Lee, Lord, and Brig. Gen. Pleas B. Rogers, the commanding general of Seine Section. Littlejohn failed to establish title to the canned vegetables he particularly wanted, but he managed to acquire them on loan, to be replaced later. This was satisfactory in the currently tense tactical situation.
The final decision was that items that had been clearly under French ownership prior to acquisition and were not produced by order of the Germans were available to the Allied forces only by
Food arriving in Paris by airlift, August 1944.
requisition from the French Government. Supplies produced in France by order of the enemy, on the other hand, could be used by Allied forces when needed, but all doubts as to the circumstances of origin were to be resolved in favor of French ownership. Thus, the chief sources of captured food available to the Allied armies had to be those which had been manifestly imported from Germany. Amidst these various categories, confusion inevitably arose from the failure of the French to report captured supplies to the Allies, and failure of the armies to advise G-5 of available surpluses. Even the Germans sought to use their vanishing assets as a weapon to confound Allied unity. On the day before the fall of Paris, the German commander of the city, in a shrewd attempt to prevent local stocks of German food from falling into the hands of the American or French troops, transferred the titles of all such foodstuffs to the International Red Cross.131 This scheme was thwarted, but the amount of food involved was small in relation to the needs of Paris. By mid-August G-5 set aside 3,000,000 C rations to provide immediate relief, and requested 3,000,000 more as the city fell. The OCQM
considered operational rations unsuitable, as well as critically scarce at the time, and refused the request.
Third Army Civil Affairs shipments, largely canned milk, fats, chocolate, and soap, were the first to reach Paris, and by the end of August a daily allocation of 1,500 tons by 12th Army Group was arriving. Over 100,000 people had fled to rural areas, where they could be fed easily. To alleviate the situation in Paris they were not permitted to return for several weeks. Actually, the city’s situation was considerably less serious than anticipated, requiring a restoration of law and order rather more than relief operations. A particularly unfortunate aspect of the situation was that much food had found its way into black-market channels, and that only the wealthier part of the population could afford to purchase it. Black-marketing, regarded as a patriotic enterprise under the German occupation, tended to linger on after the liberation in many parts of France.132
Toward the end of September small amounts of Civil Affairs supplies from the beaches began to arrive in northeastern France. The Third Army depot at Verdun received one hundred truck and trailer loads of varied foodstuffs, and in the next two weeks the depot was calling for more food, winter clothing, blankets, and sanitary supplies. After the siege and fall of Metz, Third Army’s request
for 1,900 tons of Civil Affairs food was answered with a mere 36 tons, and a stringent situation was relieved only by the capture of 150 tons of frozen beef, 20 tons of frozen pork, and 650 tons of flour.133 Reliance on captured supplies continued longer than anticipated for a number of reasons. Contrary to expectation, Belgium was in a far more serious state than France, and northeastern France was also suffering and unable to provide aid. These were industrial areas which even in peacetime had a deficit of food. Also, low priorities for transport from the beaches hindered the adequate delivery of G-5 supplies during the first six months.134
As the armies moved eastward, and French local and national administrations became fully operative in the rear areas, the responsibility for meeting civilian needs was slowly assumed by French civil agencies, but this applied only to the French zone of the interior, which was extended very gradually. Belgium remained an area of severe shortages, primarily because it continued to be within the combat zone. In February, General Littlejohn was hopeful that the Army’s responsibility for all provisioning of French civilians would be speedily terminated, since too many Quartermaster units were involved in this mission at a time when they could have been advantageously used elsewhere. When he recognized that this responsibility was likely to prevail until May, he directed his deputy to employ as much civilian labor as possible for this purpose. “We cannot indefinitely
tie down military personnel for the handling of civil affairs supplies. Furthermore when a country has large unemployment, and we, in turn, tie up military personnel to feed people either on or off the dole, it does not make good sense to me.”135
The manpower problem became increasingly irksome as large amounts of Civil Affairs supplies were delivered to Quartermaster depots in broken, damaged, or weakened containers which had not withstood the rigors of handling. Because of insufficient materials and personnel to repack these items properly, Littlejohn suggested prompt local distribution to civilian agencies in the immediate areas where the broken packages were located.136 Wheat, bulk and bagged, was probably the largest single item of Civil Affairs supplies, reaching amounts which could not be handled in civilian mills or warehouses and which had to be stored under improvised conditions. Furthermore, since the theater lacked individuals qualified to supervise the handling, storage, and milling of bulk wheat, the OCQM was obliged to recruit such technicians from the United States.137
At Quartermaster depots, normal procedures were followed in handling Civil Affairs supplies. Extra copies of all receipts and tally-outs were prepared and forwarded to G-5, but otherwise documentation was identical. The initial shipments of Civil Affairs supplies were all British, and many of them were purely military items, not specially marked. This practice caused considerable confusion, since an attempt was made to keep separate records. All G-5 supplies imported from the United States were distinctively marked with six rows of small green dots on a white band. A difficulty of another kind arose because Civil Affairs officers wrongly assumed that Civil Affairs and military stocks were identical and interchangeable, and that they could readily draw on military stocks in forward depots, replacing them with Civil Affairs reserves in rear areas. The OCQM consented to such exchanges only in emergencies, since differences in weights and sizes of containers made for complicated and laborious computations—not just once at a major depot, but every time that Civil Affairs supplies were included in a ration breakdown for a tactical unit. Even more serious was the inferior packing of Civil Affairs supplies, which made it virtually impossible to store these commodities in the open, as was done with military items. This greatly reduced the value of Civil Affairs supplies for use by the troops.138
Food in the Final Phases
By the spring of 1945, subsistence for U.S. Forces was only half, and the less complicated half, of the ETO quartermaster’s Class I responsibility. On 26
April, Littlejohn calculated that he was issuing 6,236,000 rations per day, although his requisitions for the month had presumed a ration strength of only 4.7 million. A very heavy consumption of A rations had resulted from the authorized overissue to combat divisions, air combat crews, and troops engaged in hard labor. At the same time components of this high quality ration were being distributed to clubs, snack bars, and British and French military personnel. SHAEF had ordered that liberated manpower serving under the army groups and in COMZ were to be fed the same scale of ration as the Allied forces with which they were working. The unexpected numbers of enemy prisoners—reaching 1.4 million by 21 April, twice the figure for which POW rations had been requisitioned—constituted another drain.139 Supply officers had assumed that the enemy prisoners would be fed largely from stocks of captured German food, but these never proved sufficient and there was no alternative but to draw on American rations, usually the operational types. This unanticipated demand for operational rations came at a time when the rapidly advancing armies were drawing heavily on such rations for their own use, and the result was a precipitous drop in the theater reserves of packaged rations.140
As if these theater-wide problems were not sufficiently irksome, the War Department notified the various theaters that food reserves in the United States were
being depleted. Fresh and canned meat, canned fruits and vegetables, dehydrated potatoes, rice, dried yeast, and spices were the particularly critical items.141 While feeding the largest military establishment in its history and seeking to satisfy increasing domestic demands, the United States was obliged to send food supplies to the civilian populations of liberated countries. The theaters were advised that in lieu of solid canned meats and meat cuts they would receive egg products, spaghetti, macaroni, beans, and stews. The ETO managed to surmount these difficulties and the final A ration before V-E Day, although comprising reduced amounts of all the critical items, actually showed a slight increase in nutritional value over the ration authorized in September 1944.142
In addition to vigorously supporting General Lee’s “no waste” conservation drive, Littlejohn ordered a 10 percent reduction in rations for sedentary military personnel, limitations on guests in military messes, and a cut in the menus of nonworking or moderately working enemy prisoners.143 The War
Department even went so far as to urge a 50 percent reduction in the supplies of lard, evaporated milk, coffee, and sugar issued to the Red Cross for its doughnut and clubmobile program. Littlejohn defended the Red Cross as a major contributor to Army morale and the proposal was dropped.
The termination of hostilities on 8 May did not immediately solve the food shortages. Until the redeployment machinery got into gear, the number of troops in the theater was unchanged and problems of civil affairs and military government continued to increase. Conservation was emphasized and re-emphasized, and the troops for the most part were willing to cooperate. The specter of undernourished displaced persons, emaciated survivors of the concentration camps, and a devastated Europe made most American soldiers accept a reduction in their rations without complaint. Even with this reduction, it was evident that Littlejohn was fully justified in his statement that the ETO A ration was “the best ration that any army has ever had at any time.”144 This was a compliment to his able and hard-working subsistence officers, echoed by General Patton, and even conceded by the hypercritical editors of Yank.
The reference was, of course, to the ETO version of the A ration, an outstandingly fine diet for men in combat. This was a careful blend of imported and locally procured foods for which the ingenious dietitians of the Medical Corps deserve special recognition. It appears probable that the ETO A ration has contributed materially to improved civilian food habits in the United States since World War II. Millions of men returned to their homes after becoming accustomed to a diet containing more fresh meat, more milk products, and more fresh vegetables, fruits, and fruit juices than they had consumed before the war.
But to a subsistence specialist, there was nothing very difficult about formulating an excellent ration if the necessary ingredients, and also the trained cooks to prepare it, were available. Quartermasters in the European theater held that the real difficulties were not in writing the menu but in following it, under any and all conditions of battle, weather, and transportation rationing. They took pride in the fact that they had somehow managed to feed the A ration to 79 percent of all troops during the entire campaign on the Continent. Since the difficulty in distributing a ration was directly proportional to its quality and variety, this consistent success in providing the best possible ration, regardless of the tactical situation, was a major accomplishment. It was done by keeping the whole pipeline from NYPE to the army truckheads filled with balanced rations, a difficult and troublesome process requiring very careful control and painstaking administration. The results materialized as tens of millions of extra hot meals, served to troops who would otherwise have had to eat operational rations. And despite all the technical improvements made during World War II, operational rations were still no satisfactory substitute for kitchen-prepared meals. The subsistence officers of the OCQM and of the base sections, and the Class I officers of the depots and railheads, all being
imbued with the “subsistence philosophy” mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, felt that the results achieved had been worth the extra effort.