Gunboards Forums banner

Canadian War Crimes WWI

9K views 111 replies 42 participants last post by  Sapper740 
#1 · (Edited)
I read this today

"Perhaps one of the most shocking instances of Canadian cruelty was when they were socializing with German soldiers. They were throwing cans of corned beef across the trenches, and when the Germans started yelling for more, the Canadians responded by throwing an armload of grenades at them instead. "

Throwing bully beef at the Germans has got to be a major example of a bio chem warfare crime . The stuff is hazmat and had more of it been thrown, WWI would have ended far sooner.
 
#4 ·
Maybe 'we' should have thrown them some can openers as well !
 
#8 ·
Well, at least you youngsters didn't get stuck with C-ration ham and lima beans, or ham and eggs, chopped - and the C-rats didn't even have Tabasco, though they did have cigarettes, which were usually so dry they burned like flash paper. And then, there were the freeze-dried LRRP's...

PRD1 - mhb - MIke
I can't argue with that. Most of the MRE's and sides are actually pretty good, especially the pound cake. I used to eat the instant coffee right out of the packet. It offered a little jolt to keep from falling asleep when you are supposed to be awake.
 
#13 ·
Reportedly Germans in the Africa when made POW's were given K-Rations, and supposedly refused to believe Americans actually feed those meals to their soldiers. Later in the war they were happy to get them. One other incident, a German said he realized the war was lost when he found out that the US actually issued toilet paper with their rations. Any country rich enough to do that, and Russia too on the East front, there was no way Germany could win the war. John
 
#14 ·
Never had an MRE "Meals Rejected by Ethiopians"
I only had a few LRRPS we scrounged occasionally. I think the Chili and maybe beef stew or hash were OK. They needed water, but could be eaten dry, I think, if you were hungry. C's were "food" as mentioned. Some we simply disgusting. Heavy to carry.
Out in the camps,we were not issued chow and got separate ration pay to buy it off the local economy-assuming there was one,which there wasn't. We scrounged or traded "genuine" VC flags and actual genuine Montagnard crossbows to aircrews on supply planes for chow.
We were authorised to send a guy a month to the gigantic supply center at Long Bien and buy a plane load of various stuff that usually got us through. He would get an impromptu couple days R&R at our C team in Bien Hoa.
We had "Project Indigenous Rations" a concoction thought up by somebody in group to issue our irregular strikers.
Consisted of a bag of rice you poured water into and carried around a few hours and it "cooked"
tasted awful to me-chemicals. There was a packet of herbs and spices, maybe some dried sausages or a can of some kind of fish "bits."
Some guys liked that stuff- I never really did.
A Camp life was complicated, but a great adventure for a kid off the farm-"Peace Corps with guns."
I managed to stay 16 months in the same camp by request and insistence. It was as far from the flagpole as you could be, which was a good thing.

Plant Cloud Vehicle Aircraft Sky
Vehicle Sky Cloud Truck Aircraft
Food Ingredient Cuisine Dish Food storage
Rectangle Art Font Pattern Metal
Land lot Car Urban design Thoroughfare Landscape
Vehicle Aircraft Airplane Aviation Aerospace manufacturer
 
#105 ·
During WWII the Soviet soldiers despised some of the aid from the US and liked other things. They hated the Sherman tanks for instance, but they loved the radios and the Thompsons in them. They loved Spam, but you have to take that in context for soldiers who also loved lard on bread.

I grew up poor, and we ate fried Spam often because it was cheap. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole today. After Hurricane Michael, they were giving away MREs by the armful, I got a case of them and found them to be quite edible.

I love the trooper's boots in the last photo. (soldier on far right)
 
#17 ·
Having never been sent to any sort of hostile fire zone, my Army anecdotes pale next to those of the combat veterans. But I will add that if you could tolerate eating the MRE cold, right out of the packet, the water activated food heater in a bag could be repurposed into a pocket warmer in cold weather.

"They say that in the Army, the chow is mighty fine."
"A chicken jumped on the table, and started marking time."
 
#26 · (Edited)
NimrodMRA4. Not sure how much TP was issued in WWI, but the little packet that came with C-Rations was adequate. I liked PIR's and in 1986 got to meet the late Conrad "Ben" Baker who invented them. The original indigenous ration was condemned by some Army health command. Baker who worked for the CISO (Counter Insurgency Support Office) asked. Natick Labs how long and how much to produce a indigenous ration? Five years and several millions of dollars. Baker was on Okinawa, went to the local market, spent $200 out of his own pocket, and in 2 weeks came up with the PIR rations, of which millions were made, coming from Japan. On my last tour Jan71-Jan 72 at an old SF Border Campo in II Corps (Plei Djereng) the ration for the field was two, 5 ounce cans of C-ration meat, 2 bags of pre-cooked rice, and a 10 ounce can of C-ration fruit. All the rice was either Uncle Ben's or Rivena, so US rice growers made a lot of money. In 1972 went to Germany for the first time. We jumped in from a C-119 on 1 Oct 1972, and linked up with 22 German paratroopers, from their recruit company who were our Guerrillas. The Germans had 3 kinds of meals in cans. Something like a Pea Soup, a Goulash, and some big noodles with some ham. Honey and brown bread and some other stuff. We ended up having to supply them with C-rations, and they declared them "Wunderbar!" as there were 12 different types of meals. In April 1982 back in the Black Forest. We went in first, supposed to have the new high speed "MRE's" but they did not show up before we infiltrated. This time the B Team went in first and we had LRRP rations and C's. Later the A-Teams jumped in and they had the MRE's. Linking up one man said he would trade me a MRE for a LRRP. I hesitated as the Sergeant Major I did not want to take advantage of a junior Staff Sergeant, by taking his new high speed "MRE". When I hesitated the Staff Sergeant said "Ok I will trade you 2 MRE's for 1 LRRP". We only had 2 rations a day for the 30 day exercise and when someone wants to trade you 2 for 1, there is something wrong. The first MRE's were not that good, and certainly did not fill you up. John
 
#27 ·
Was with a Tactical Fighter Squadron (430 TFS/F111A's) . Still have some survival items including 1969 dated survival rations. Tried some and wern't bad. Oddly there was 2 Lomotil tablets in each kit. As many may know Moses parted the sea with a small handful of these.
 
#29 ·
The 'best'(?) first issue MRE was the dehydrated beef patty. Many will say no, but if you had or was able to heat a canteen cup of water, tou could make a fantastic soup.

Crumble up the patty in your canteen cup, then add 2/3 cup hot water, or heat over fire. When hot add the beef bullion pack from the rat and the coffee creamer. stir and cook until well mixed and patty bits were well hydrated. Add pepper from accessory pack.
 
#33 ·
During the Korean War my dad says his crash rescue boats backup food supply was rice crispies. One mission they ran out of food on the way home and had to eat rice crispies plus some liver they were given by a passing British ship. They were told not to get anymore stuff from the British as there was no way to pay them for it.
 
#34 · (Edited)
No one remembers the pound cake cans, we would pound those into the mud. And the ham & eggs were the worst. I never did smoke so the cigs were a trade item.
Household hardware Material property Currency Metal Circle



  • FSN
  • 8970-577-4513
  • Specification
  • MIL-M-35048
First procured in 1961, the Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) weighed just under 2 pounds and was produced in 12 different menus. Each menu contained approximately 1200 calories and consisted of:
  • One canned meat course
  • One canned fruit or cake
  • One B unit can that contained crackers and either a cocoa beverage or candy
  • One canned spread (peanut butter, jam or cheese spread)
  • Accessory Packet containing:
    • instant coffee
    • cream substitute
    • sugar
    • salt
    • chewing gum
    • matches
    • toilet paper
    • cigarettes
source C-Rations
I still have a box I sent home as a joke. And still carry a P38 on my key ring.
 
#37 ·
And still carry a P38 on my key ring.
You must have a pretty big 'ring'...............................


Vehicle Aircraft Airplane Sky Aerospace manufacturer




The P51 (both plane and can-opener) were better than the P38
 
  • Like
Reactions: GunHobby
#35 ·
Leon:

My comment about the dessert was intended as a follow-on to Bobby R's mention of the poundcake. Your further expansion on the topic of 'C-rats' does provide insight to other aspects of the rations' contents and qualities...

Nimrod:

Not much. If you saved the TP from all the 'Cs' you got, and only needed some once a day, it might have been enough. But often (and not unlike the German Luftwaffe guy Leon cited), the guys in the boonies also suffered from the 'Ho Chi Minh two-step'.

Slightly diverging from the original discussion, I might mention that the only time in 24 years I ever got food poisoning was in stateside messhalls - twice.
And on another, somewhat related topic, I can report that my experience with German military-issue TP helped me understand one of the reasons for the German soldier's fierce reputation: he probably suffered from hemorrhoids, and so just had 'a case of the ass' all the time. A friend who worked farther East advises that the Russian TP (where available) was even worse...

PRD1 - mhb - MIke
 
#36 ·
... Slightly diverging from the original discussion, I might mention that the only time in 24 years I ever got food poisoning was in stateside messhalls - twice...
This does not surprise me. As a young lieutenant in Germany I was sent to the USAREUR school in Oberammergau to be trained as a mess hall officer, i.e. to inspect army mess halls.

Skip ahead many years. Assigned to Fort Bragg, I had to pull duty as OD - officer of the day - and one of the many inspection areas was the consolidated dining facility, or fancy talk for a big mess hall. I had weekend duty and when I checked into the mess hall I found frozen chicken thawing in the wash sinks. Now this is a huge No-No. Per US Army regulation frozen foods are to be thawed for 24 hours prior to use in a refrigerator. Thawing meat and poultry in the open air is dangerous. So, I wrote it up.

You'd think maybe I would have been commended for my attentive fulfilling of my duty? Hell no! I found out that my name became S--t at the higher headquarters. The chicken had to be written off and a report of survey done to determine who had to pay for the loss. Reprimands and/or Article 15 proceedings against the mess hall personnel had to be done. Lots of paper work and careers jeopardized. So in the end it was all my fault for finding fault!

To this day I do not eat out at restaurants or fast-food joints. I know what can and does go on in the kitchen. If I can't inspect the food preparation area I am not eating there.
 
#39 ·
Eating at CON 4 Mess Hall at Ft Devens, MA in 1961, the Mess Sergeant comes out and yells "If you still have some mash potatoes, don't eat them, if you have already eaten them, do not worry about it" WTF? We got out of class an hour after the radio operators as you can only take so many dit dahs a day (Morse Code). For a week our evening meal was a ladle of spaghetti noodles, one hot dog and water, milk was gone. Breakfast was one egg, 2 pieces of bacon, one glass of milk, but plenty of bread or oatmeal. We complained to our commander, 1LT "Black Jack" Chagnon (RIP). He had been a POW in the Korean War, one of the last men returned as the Communists said he was a reactionary. He told us "The food might not be good, it might not fill you up, but it will get you to the next meal." In the mean time he was investigating the Mess Hall men and ended up putting a lot of them in the stockade as they were selling the good stuff to someone in the local town of Ayer, MA. Later in 1972, I get back to Ft Devens, and spent some time sitting in my car, watching them tear down CON 4 Mess Hall, and no good memories of eating there, unlike a lot of other Mess Halls that did a good job. John
 
#43 ·
... milk was gone...
Good heavens; this brings back another repressed memory. I was in Germany in 1974 when some overpaid flunky DAC (Dept. of The Army Civilian employee) forgot to renew local purchase contracts for eggs and dairy. The commissary shelves were soon bare of milk, butter, cheese, eggs, etc. These empty spaces were replaced by GI No 10 cans of condensed milk and powdered eggs. I had been taught the Zen of powdered egg cookery in the USAREUR mess officer's course at Oberammergau so I could make very passable omelets with powdered eggs. I started to use Bailey's Irish Cream for my coffee, and to this day still use cream liqueur, but not Bailey's since it got too expensive. There are cheaper competitors.

Oh yeah: same deal with sugar. I adapted by substituting honey, which I still use.
 
#40 ·
Well, John, I didn't encounter CON4 until 1969. Barracks (Co. D) were just across the open field from there. It hadn't improved much. I first encountered LRRPs there, when they actually served them for regular chow. I can still remember slogging through about 18" of snow toward CON4 before dawn one morning, with my hands in my field jacket pockets, when the Voice of God (or so it seemed) came out of nowhere and said "Get your hands out of your pockets, troop!". It wasn't actually God, but the 1SG, who had seen me from his office window and fired-up the PA system for an on-the-spot correction. KP at CON4 was as miserable as the weather, but not nearly as cold... I, too, suffered through BMC before going on to 05D AIT. I'm pretty sure I'd have gone even more nuts had I been made an 05H...


PRD1 - mhb - MIke
 
#46 ·
I can still remember slogging through about 18" of snow toward CON4 before dawn one morning, with my hands in my field jacket pockets, when the Voice of God (or so it seemed) came out of nowhere and said "Get your hands out of your pockets, troop!"

That reminds me of somthing that happened a few years ago ..................

I decided to try 'ice-fishing', cut a hole in the ice and dropped a line in.

A voice calls down "Don't waste your time, there are no fish here" The voice was booming around everywhere.

I looked around but could see no one, then again ................
"Don't waste your time, there are no fish here"

Still no one to be seen, so I called out "how do you know ?"

The answer came back .....................


















Because "I am the Manager of the Ice-Rink"
 
#42 ·
For the old Brit squaddies amongst our following, biscuit fruit AB or dead fly biscuit, delicious, but stayed in the system for a long time.
Memories of serving in the arctic when all meals served in the mess tent were cold and well on the way to freezing by the time you sat down to eat them. Ever tried to get frozen ketchup out of a bottle?

Our arctic rations contained three chocolate bars and were highly sought after by our American cousins. Seem to remember a limited number of their packs had done kind of, much despised, Hershy stuff
 
#45 ·
Another repressed memory (sigh!) The Pershing 1A missile battery had three firing platoons, each with three launchers and ancillary vehicles and equipment - lots of them. Our alert deployment SOP had 2 launcher platoons colocated with the battery HQ and the mess section. The third platoon took up a remote firing location. My assignment was the remote firing platoon commander/launch control officer.

Assignment to the third - remote - platoon meant starvation. The mess section would fill Mermite cans with hot chow and send them to us. Problem was cooks are not good at map reading, so we seldom, if ever got any hot food on an alert or field exercise. After the first such alert, everyone in my platoon got himself an Esbit solid fuel cooker or Sterno and kept a laundry bag full of cans. Although I carried a pistol I was issued two M16 magazine pouches, and these were always filled with several cans of Portuguese skinless/boneless sardines, chocolate bars, and crackers.
 
#47 · (Edited)
Speaking of mess-hall eating got to try army (BT-AIT) Fort Polk La 75......not bad & survived ok,return to NG Nrth Calif the rat’s & chuck wagon bring outs where edible.The best military mess-halls I got to fill up on & did so with an a astonishing appetite was as a civilian 1966-72,when the US Navy ships docked in Sydney harbor Oz,supply support ships to Carrier’s,they open them up to the public for inspection tour’s in them day’s,the Navy bloke’s they definitely knew how to cook!!!
 
#48 ·
While in S. Korea ('83,"84) at Camp Casey,

we would get C-rations dated late 50's and early 60's. Oh, well...we ate them. Ha!

Flying around in Huey's, I would warm up my Ham & Eggs on the exhaust.

I was surprised by a high ranking passenger once, when he returned early for departure.

Accidentally left my C-Rat in the exhaust in a hurry to depart. When we got back to base,

I saw the mess (it exploded) all over the tailboom and exhaust.

Cleaned it all up with no incident, but every time we started that Huey....

you could smell the Ham & Eggs. :ROFLMAO:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top