US Provisions during WW1

[DesertFox]

I am reading a book about the US Civil War and about problems with provisions

Curious about provisioning for the US troops during WW1?

[Richard Lindquist]

Provisioning was great. Getting the rations from the depots to the froint lines was where it fell apart.

 

Spansih American War was the real debacle for the Commisary General of Subsistence.

[Colin Williams]

The AEF set a goal of maintaining a level of 90 days supply during operations. They never achieved this, although IIRC they were at about 45 days in the last couple of months of the war. In part this was due to shipping limitations and in part with acquisition of supplies in the US, but as Richard noted, much also had to do with problems with the Services of Supply shipping both personnel and supplies from the ports to the front. Pershing appointed his former CoS Harbord to head the SOS in July of 1918 (after Harbord killed quite a few Marines at Belleau Wood), and Harbord is generally credited with fixing most of the fixable problems. In theory American soldiers were supplied with American food, but as first link below indicates, doughboys also received French food. This wasn't always a bad thing, as some French influence survived in diner cooking in the New York City area after the war. Don't forget the follow the links to various recipes (food only Geoff could love!) and the quartermaster website!

 

Filth, Food and Fornication in the AEF

 

Services of Supply - Doughboy Center

[Bob B]

Here is an interesting site that deals with foreign rations in WW1:

 

 

http://17thdivision.tripod.com/rationsofth...empire/id5.html

[Paul in Qatar]

I am no expert in the novel "To the Last Man" the front-line troops were getting meramites of coffee, corn mush and salmon. Sometime for breakfast.

[Jim Martin]

I'm told my great-grandfather used to speak of eating whole coffee beans on the march, when they didn't have time to grind and brew their ration.

 

A History Channel program about the history of coffee spoke of the first instant coffee made in the US, invented for military use. It was made by merely boiling down coffee until all the water was out of it, then powdering it. Not very tasty, apparently...

[ShotMagnet]

As a self-described caffeine addict, taste has nothing to do with it.

 

Good coffee is nothing less than God smiling on you; but if you need a jolt you need a jolt and (speaking strictly for myself) you don't care how you get it or what it tastes like.

 

 

Shot