How Soldiers Ate During The War

Nia Rouseberg Author: Nia Rouseberg Time for reading: ~12 minutes Last Updated: December 01, 2022
How Soldiers Ate During The War

The disaster that began on June 22, 1941 required the reorganization of the entire rear support of the Red Army and the Navy in general, and food supply in particular. It must be said that changes in the food supply service were carried out constantly during the Great Patriotic War. During the war, about 100 orders of the National Defense Commission were issued on food and

The disaster that began on June 22, 1941 required the reorganization of the entire rear support of the Red Army and the Navy in general, and food supply in particular. It must be said that changes in the food supply service were carried out constantly during the Great Patriotic War . Over the years of the war , about 100 orders of the National Defense Commission on food and fodder supply were issued, almost half of them (42 orders) came in 1942, when the system of supplying the front with food was almost finally formed.

Military science at the service of nutrition

The orders were different: both transitory and really "overturning" the activities of the services of material, food and fodder supply to the troops . And such orders were often based on scientific research works.

 

It is worth noting that during all the years of the war, research work on the food supply of troops in combat conditions was carried out, where the experience of the rear and supply services in individual operations was summarized, recommendations were given to improve this work, guidelines and instructions were drawn up. In the years 1942-45, there were 60-70 topics in the plans of research works at the Academy of Home Affairs and Supply. However, in reality, the plan was implemented only by 50-60%. But, nevertheless, the very names of the works performed in the most difficult years for the country (" Food supply of the Red Army in wartime", "Work of the rear of the division in conditions of encirclement" - 1941, "Organization of food and cooking in field conditions", " Food supplyrifle battalion and regiment", "Use of local resources based on the experience of the Great Patriotic War " - 1942), speak about their relevance.

But if the works of the first 2 years of the war covered mainly the issues of the organization of the military rear, the research topics of the following years were more related to the operational rear.

 

Orders and instructions

The first orders of the People's Commissariat of Defense concerning food supply , which were issued in July-August 1941 and were entitled "Introduction of food supply norms in military units", were frankly "raw" and sometimes contradicted each other. At the same time, an order was issued specifying the norms for the supply of prisoners of war.

According to the instructions of the GKO, 4 categories of food rations were established for the land army: for Red Army soldiers and the commanding staff of combat units of the active army, for Red Army men and the commanding staff of the rear of the active army, for Red Army soldiers of combat and reserve units that are not part of the active army, for Red Army guards units and Red Army soldiers of rear organizations. 4 food categorieswere also determined for the aviation and technical assets of the Air Force: for combat calculations of aircraft crews of the active army; for the technical staff of the Air Force of the active army; for combat calculations of crews that are not part of the active army; for the technical staff of the Air Force, which is not part of the active army. Cadet, hospital, sanitary and dry rations were approved. And also the ration of NZ, which could be used only in case of an emergency landing of the plane.

A Red Army soldier on the front line had to receive 900 g of bread a day from October to March and 800 g from April to September, 150 g of meat and 100 g of fish, 140 g of cereals, half a kilogram of potatoes, 170 g of cabbage, etc., including 35 g of sugar , 30 g of salt and 20 g of shag. In winter, they gave a little extra lard.

The established food standards throughout the war were mostly not revised and definitely not reduced. Only for the flight and technical staff of aviation in August 1942, they were changed.

Also, it is worth mentioning the following two orders. Order No. 244 dated August 12, 1942 was to issue chocolate or candies to non-smoking women in exchange for "tobacco pleasure." And then they realized that they forgot about men who don't smoke either, so from November 13, by order #354, sugar, candies, or chocolate were issued to all non-smokers. After all, the front-line soldiers remember that there were few people who exchanged tobacco for sweets.

Malnutrition Tribunal

Were the standards of nutrition met in the conditions of the front? Certainly not always. And it was also not possible to blame someone for this in all cases. After all, the troops also found themselves surrounded, and the food convoys did not always catch up with the units that unexpectedly advanced quickly . Of course, there were also cases of negligence, and the supply of troops of the Leningrad Front could not reach the required level due to the blockade. Depending on the state of the food supply in the besieged hero city, the fighters in the trenches received 70 to 75 percent of the established ration, and those who were a little further from the front line sometimes had half of the "rear" food ration. After all, from the middle of February 1942, the supply of soldiers came close to the standard, and from spring-summer, according to the mentions of front-line soldiers, it became more organized.

In somewhat better conditions than the blockade, poor food supply was often punished, sometimes quite brutally. It is a well-known story when the Military Council of the Bryansk Front under the command of Lieutenant General F.I. Golikov in the spring of 1942 sent the chief of food supply of the 61st Rifle Division, Captain Likhachyov, to the tribunal for the fact that 72 soldiers of the division ended up in the hospital due to exhaustion. And only the detailed analysis of the newly arrived representative of the Main Directorate of Food Supply saved the captain: the fighters, as it turned out, were exhausted during the march to the front.

But another head of the rear did not manage to avoid the tribunal. In the spring of 1943, a difficult food situation developed on a number of fronts . In particular, in one division of the Voronezh Front, 500 g of bread was issued for 4 days, but hot food and other products were not received by the soldiers. The situation was even worse on the Kaliningrad front: there for a long time only a half ration was issued, and even then with such substitutions that there was no question of a more or less complete issue. For example, 100% meat was replaced with egg powder. In order to feed the horses, straw was removed from the houses abandoned by the peasants.

The main thing in the orders prescribing punishment for violation of food supply was not punitive measures, but the fact that there were specifically named those members of the military fronts who were responsible for the organization of the rear and logistical support of the troops . The need for careful training of military food personnel and army cooks was noted. In such orders, for the first time, the principle of supplying troops "from oneself" was defined and formed .

Finally, this principle, which transferred responsibility for the delivery of material resources to the division to the head of the army rear, for delivery to the regiment to the head of the rear division, etc., was introduced in July 1943. After that, the principle of "from oneself" was in effect throughout the years of existence of the Soviet Army.

 

" ...on a small scale, on our front line"

"Narkomivski 100 g" were introduced even before the approval of the final food standards by secret order No. 0320 of August 25, 1941 "On the issuance of 100 g of vodka per day to front-line servicemen of the active army."

But "one hundred grams" were issued to everyone in a row on the front line only until May 1942. On May 12, the order "On the procedure for issuing vodka to servicemen of the active army" was issued. According to him, since May 15, 200 g was already poured, but not to everyone, but only to "servicemen of the front line units who have success in combat operations against the German conquerors." Others were allowed to receive vodka only 10 days a year: on public holidays and the day of formation of a unit where a soldier serves.

It seems that this order did not cause much satisfaction at the front. After all, not everyone was successful, and if not all, then the majority wanted to drink. Realizing that the alcohol restriction would have consequences, on November 13, 1942, they issued an order "On issuing vodka to military units of the active army from November 25, 1942." From that day on, 100 grams were returned to the front line, and 50 grams of vodka were assigned to servicemen in the regimental and divisional reserves, as well as, for example, to construction workers working under enemy fire. The same amount could be consumed by the wounded, according to the instructions of the doctors. On the Transcaucasian front, instead of 100 g of vodka, it was ordered to issue 200 g of fortified wine or 300 g of table wine.

But what happened less than six months later began to resemble the pouring of a "front-line cup" from empty to empty. From May 13, 1943, 100 grams began to be poured only in units that were conducting offensive actions. And then there was a battle on the Kursk arc, and the offensive became general. It turns out that the last order could not be canceled.

The procedure for issuing the heating pad continued to change until the very end of the war . If in the summer vodka was more often used "on holidays" or as "combat", then in the winter everyone was given a daily glass to warm up from the cold.

 

When and how were the soldiers fed

Let's be honest - in different ways. More precisely, as the conditions allowed. If the trenches were under almost constant fire from the enemy, then hot food was delivered in thermoses, most often, once and at night. A little further from the front line or during a lull in the fighting, they always tried to organize 2 or 3 hot meals. The satiety or, on the contrary, the poverty of the real diet largely depended on the conditions of the place. It is not necessary to judge now how the fight against looting among the civilian population was actually conducted, but the front-line soldiers note that when the battles were fought in "rich" countries, for example, Hungary or Austria, the official food supplies went better, and the cooks clearly had something were confiscated, as a result of which the soldiers ate more "calorie-rich" food.

They tried to eat, or rather to fill up, although relatively, not before the battle, but after. It was believed that there is a better chance of surviving an abdominal wound when it (the abdomen) is empty.

Peaceful military equipment

It is worth mentioning that during the war , not only new tanks and airplanes appeared, but also new field kitchens, including truck-mounted ones, and new field bakeries equipped with PAH ovens.

True, due to the fact that the country's industry mainly worked on armaments, very little material was allocated for food service equipment, and new food equipment began to arrive only at the end of the war . And these were new army mills, and new mobile meat processing plants, and new KPN conveyor ovens that "served" for a long time at mobile bread factories in the Soviet Army.

Rear vertical

During the years of the Great Patriotic War , the rear vertical of the country's Armed Forces was formed, which existed until the very end of the Soviet Union and its army and navy. It began to be formed by the instructions of the GKO from July 1, 1941, when the Main Rear Office of the Red Army and the rear office of the fronts and armies were created. And although the Main Directorate of the Rear was reduced in 1943, its functions were distributed to the Main Directorate of various types of supply, and they were subordinated to the Chief of the Rear of the Red Army (at the same time, the deputy of the People's Committee of Defense) and his headquarters, that is, the vertical remained. By the way, in 1944 , the Main Department of Food Supply was transformed into the Department of Food Supply of the Quartermaster Department.

During the war , the activities of the troops on food procurement operations were regulated , the rules for the existence of auxiliary farms attached to military units were established, and many other things were done that define the concept of " food supply " of the armed forces.

 

Containers and packaging of military food

It is worth mentioning a little about the container in which food was delivered to the front. Moreover, there is a lot of unclear and false information in this, it would seem, simple question. For example, more than 90% of vodka during the war was bottled in barrels, because almost the entire crockery fund was destroyed already in the first months of the war. And the surviving bottles were filled with "Molotov cocktail". The packaging lines of most of the remaining distilleries were occupied with these products. And in general, how to deliver vodka in a glass over long distances without getting hit? And there is nothing to say about the special plant - were there no other worries?

Vodka barrels were made of wood, and by the end of the war , metal ones also began to appear. And the vodka itself was not always vodka of the consistency we are used to: more often alcohol was brought to the front, and the foremen on the front line already adjusted it to the required percentage.

If you take a little interest in the food supply in the years of the Great Patriotic War , it is hard to believe the footage of the films, where the brave officers drink pure alcohol, snacking on it with stew from an open can. It was not very accessible to junior officers. According to the rules, commanders were given only 50 g of canned fish per day on top of the soldiers' rations. And "Lendlizov" stew was used as a substitute for meat and only in a common cauldron.

In general, the food received under "Lend-Lease" amounted to about 10% of the total needs of the Soviet Armed Forces. And the main packaging material for American and other imported products was tin. 

And for domestic food, the main container was a bag. It delivered almost everything and almost everywhere. They even managed to hang bags of food under the wings of airplanes when large landing groups dropped behind enemy lines.

 

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