MREs in WW2 - the 5 Main Rations of a soldier

[billmcfadden]

We used the C rations in cadets in the 70s. The instant vanilla pudding was the hit of the whole thing.

[BrahmaDBA]

And the S-Ration, that's when you have to scrounge up food from the local area because your rations dried up and there is no way to replenish the stock.

[Watergiant]

B ration just casually pouring out of the guys pocket after he put the can down…love it

[alexblack]

your dental injuries are not service related

[trevorphillips]

I remember my grand gransfather telling my father that he would bash the chocolate with the stock until its kinda powder. Than he put it in water and he had a kinda delicious drink lol

[sialmeckerjr]

normal people : abcd
the US Military : abKdC

[junkbug]

During combat in Germany in WWII, my Dad told me that K-Rations were by far the most commonly issued food. Other than that, they sometimes (but not often) received hot food prepared in a field kitchen. Also, they were always looking for eggs or small livestock they could “loot”.

[StormyPeak]

Back in the early 1970's in my Rocky Mountain area of Idaho. We would get forest fires and teams would come in to fight them, From what I recall, C rations were dropped into the camps....but when the firefighters left...all those supplies were just left up there too.

Word would get out in our itty bitty town and there was soon a convoy of pick up trucks heading to the various firefighter camps. I remember my mom coming back from 1 foray, with 6 boxes of C rations.
She went with some friends and they all got at least that much.

We were dirt poor...and those C rations saved my dad and mom quite a bit on the grocery budget that month. My mom also doctored up a few of the items by adding fresh veggies to them.

[shrekchrist]

Milton Hershey wasn’t too wholesome when making those bars💀

[bigbadbamboo]

I'm so darn old old I remember trading Cs for smokes or whiskey. Thing were packed with fat for high energy.

[PoesRaven]

Ate many a C-rat back in the late 70s/early 80s. While deployed, the mobility officer would take a case of them, turn the box upside down and open the bottom. Then you’d step up and blindly grab an individual box sight-unseen so all they GOOD meals weren’t scarfed up by the ones who got there first.

[DD-ufuo]

I had a great uncle (1915-2003) that served in WWll who wouldn't eat, Pork and Beans or Spam.

I asked him why and he said: "I ate enough of that while in service to last me the rest of my life".

Also, he told me he had never had his filling of "Ice Cream". He had eaten ice cream but only small amounts at a time. So when he got his First military pay he purchased a pint of vanilla ice cream. After finishing that, he bought a second pint and ate that. He said that was the first time he got full of ice cream.
R.I.P.

.

[Jkimmer]

Don't forget the cigarettes that came with them

[kieranblaicher]

“Let’s get this out onto a tray” “Nice”

[mainid]

They also issued "In Flight" rations, for those long air flights. Loved the juice cans, with just a little tin taste to it.

[Klaaism]

"We're gonna have to blast em out. They found out we feed prisoners C rations" Bill Maudlin WW2 editorial cartoonist

[jesuschrist]

Louie Zamperini survived on a makeshift raft for 43 days surviving off a Chocolate bar and catching sharks with birds as bait.

[jturtle]

My father served in occupied West Germany, and while his platoon was accompanying a tank, he put a can of spaghetti on the tailpipe to heat, but neglected to punch a hole in it.
When it exploded, it sounded like a shell, and they were all in the bushes with guns ready before the meatballs fell.
He got in trouble for that.

[nikolaibuscho]

Although the k-ration was untended for short term use, there were points in the war, like the Battle of the Bulge, that saw longer than intended use.

[twwtjohns]

We were still being given c-rations in the field at Ft. Polk in 1984. Sometime that year we switched to the MRE.