German WW2 Iron Ration - The MRE that Fueled Blitzkrieg

When the Wehrmacht made a breakthrough, or found themselves isolated; and no hot chow could be had... the German WW2 Iron Ration was the German MRE that carried them through.
Designed as a 24 hour emergency ration, this German "MRE" was the fuel for the fire that was blitzkrieg. Providing soldiers with basic sustenance during gaps in hot chow.
No frills in nature, and with a history that long pre-dates Nazi Germany and the Wehrmacht, the Iron Ration carried the army of darkness across Poland, the green fields of France and the Russian Steppe... until it didn't any longer.
Hitler stole the Iron Ration from the Kaiser.
#WW2 #NaziGermany #MRE
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Timestamps:
Intro 0:00 - 0:40
Why The Iron Ration 0:40-2:11
Unboxing 2:11-3:30
Making Coffee (Ersatz) 3:30-3:54
Mystery Meat 3:54-4:45
Knackerbrot 4:45-5:28
Tasting 5:28-6:53
Soup and Coffee 6:53-9:02
Wehrmacht Shaving Kit 9:02-11:51
Conclusion 11:51-12:30

[davidtucker]

My one Granduncle was in the German Army during WW 2....The very few times that he talked about it was how much the American K-Ration was very highly desired by German troops as it had EVERYTHING that you would want... American smokes, wunderbar!

[EIABEAAA]

Cook the meat togehter with the soup in your feldgeschirr and as a german soldier you got very often a couple of potatos in your breadbag wich you can add to the soup. And stick your bread into the soup so its getting warm an soft. So you got a meal wich is nice warm and pretty ok.
Greetings from austria.

[Swindle]

Germany had other ration items, but the iron ration was meant to be held onto for emergencies while the other items were intended to be consumed whenever. They had an energy bar primarily issued to the Luffwaffe made from coconut (which is why many old Luftwaffe pouches smell faintly of macaroons), erbswurst (a feature of German army rations since 1876), which was pea soup with bacon in tablet form, just take out a tablet from the foil tube, crush it into powder in your canteen cup, and pour in hot water to make instant soup, and Scho-Ka-Kola, a dark chocolate with coffee and kola nut intended to provide energy. Scho-Ka-Kola was considered a luxury item and issued to boost morale, but many German soldiers caught on to the fact that they were given such morale boosters right before going into heavy combat and took it as a bad sign. During the Battle of the Bulge, American POW's were given Scho-Ka-Kola and the Wehrmacht troops nearly revolted when they found out their luxury rations had gone to prisoners instead of them.

But generally speaking, German rations were very simple and no frills, they were intended solely to keep you alive in an emergency when no other food was available. The Germans were very dedicated to the idea of serving the troops hot meals from the field kitchen, to the point they even had special backpacks with insulated containers for the purpose of having soldiers run hot food from the kitchen to the troops in the field. German mess kits were probably the best design of the war, and they're still widely copied and produced to this day.

[ferdonandebull]

My family were farmers during the 2ww.. grandpa made teas and never drank coffee, they also raised sugar beets and sourgum and reduced them for sugar and molasses.

So they sold the ration stamps to neighbors..

[markflacy]

"Ersatz" means "replacement". The earlier iron rations that the Prussian/WWI troops carried contained "erbswurst", which was dehydrated pea soup base.

[bladder]

I was born in Canada, but my parents came here after the war. My dad told me that in the last part of the war every man, woman and child would carry a knife with them, pocket knife, or whatever. After an allied air raid there would be dead horses in the street. Horses were still used in those days for many things, even in big industrialized cities. If you came across a dead horse, you would butcher it for some salvageable meat. They would jokingly call cats "Dachhasse" -- or "roof rabbits". Also fair game. Modern people have no idea how desperate life can be in a war, especially for civilians.

[tankertom]

When I was growing up my Dad worked with a former Wehrmacht infantryman. I got to hear some of his stories and this made me think of one. He said that some of the meat that came in the field rations like this one by his description, were marked with the letter A.M. It was supposed to be the initials for the company that canned it. However, soldiers humor soon took aver and the A.M. became Alt Mann, or old man. 🤨

[larryspiller]

The US c rations, beef and potatoes were my favorites. C rations were great compared to the first generation of MRE's.

[stevelehmann]

My grandfather was in the Wehrmacht. He was in Poland, ussr, Italy .France & back to Germany. I have his “ butter dish” fat ration container. It’s bright orange Bakelite. Visible in snow when supplied by air. Great video. 🇨🇦

[stillcantbesilencedevennow]

I was a 19D. Fun stuff. I was based in Schweinfurt, deployed for OIF 2. Nice to see another scout enjoying the simple things. Wish my kids understood the succinct beauty of an MRE. When you're hungry, ANYTHING like these is a delicacy.

[bonorolo]

The meat in the tin is not sauage. Its in the tin boiled pigmeat. Normaly it tastes very good. What you see in the tin is pices of pig-meat, gelatine an fat, use a littele bit salt and pepper. You can compare it a little bit with the american corned beef. You can it use for cooking oder eat it colt on the knäckebrot ;-). The bread normaly used in Germany is a kind of brad also in an tin. Its called "Dosenbrot" this is the bread we call "Pumpernickel". A heavy wholecorn bread.

[SidneyBroadshead]

The meat ration's fat is kept in the can because it would have provided extra calories. It would be good mixed in with the vegetable soup.

[Divyanshu]

I read somewhere that WW-II German soldiers loved American coffee, chocolate and cigarettes that came with the G.I.’s rations !

[jonhansen]

I have had the light tan MRE's and the Old Dark Brown MRE's that were used during the first Gulf War, and I must say the older ones had the absolute best Cocoa. I have had a lot of Cocoa over the years and there so far has been none better. My Dad got me those old MRE's from when he was in the Air Force.

[MikeMiller-rtdv]

I was in operation desert storm in 1991 and we got our hot xmas dinner chow January 5th, this type of meal got us thru! Great vid!

[schnelletruppenreenacting]

Very cool, as a reenactor getting to eat these rations in the field under similar conditions is something truly special. It's cool to watch a documentary and see some ww2 soldiers eating some rations and saying, "I have had that before!" Great video man!

[mikerilling]

When I was growing up, my parents knew several former members of the Wehrmacht, who were in Hitler youth, and later in the Wehrmacht, and who basically said in a situation like this, you would cook the soup in a little tin can fire, or one of the little esbit stoves that the German soldier carried, and you dumped the mystery meat into the vegetable soup, and it tasted much better.

[MrSlitskirts]

Great subject and review. In addition to all the interesting things brought up, in particular the Safety Razor and the Shaving Stick were most interesting, as classic branded Shaving Sticks, Safety Razors and Double Edge (DE) Blades have regained popularity, including small travel Safety Razors. I'd swear you could probably sell the shown 'Travel Safety Razor' and 'Shaving Stick' on EBay and no one would know or guess it's from a a German WWII Iron Ration kit. Of course items were often sourced from the civilian market and wouldn't be modified unless absolutely needed. It's funny how now and then 'the wheel turns full circle'; we go away from certain things and then come back to them. All the best from Australia.

[thomasridley]

I still have my p38 from Vietnam. And need to use it on occasion. Still very effective.

[petriperta]

Knäckebröt, in Finnish näkkileipä is dried up rye bread. Fills you up nicely. In the army we used to throw some näkkileipä in the soup in pieces as there was a canned meat soup in our rations and the bread gets a fantastic taste from it and brings texture to the meat and potatosoup. You can also boil the bread into porridge and believe me, rye porridge is Good, especially if you find some lingonberries to throw in there;) Try it man, i promise you it's good. Otherwise, nice video as i'm new to the channel👍