Another interesting thing is that when in Romania the rations included wine. On 10th of May romanian soldiers received 1/4 litre of wine each (and my grandfather remembered that the NCO's in charge of distributing the wine were usually drunk
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| WorldWar2.ro Forum > Romanian Army > Daily Ration |
| Posted by: tjk August 20, 2003 11:42 am |
| Was there an official prescribed ration (ie so many grams of bread, etc.) set out for the troops ? In order to achieve this theoretical norm how many cattle,sheep or other animals would a division need per day ? Thank you for your help. |
| Posted by: dragos August 29, 2003 07:49 am |
| I don't know the official quantities, but the iron ration consisted of a piece of raw bacon, a red onion, bread crumbs and a bottle of water. |
| Posted by: Dr_V August 31, 2003 10:06 pm |
| What I'm going to tell you I know from a war veteran, who was an infantry trooper (soldat fruntas) throughout the war.
When the rations were delivered in the first line, a solider's meal consisted in: - Bread : one quarter of a fresh bred (about 150-200g at that time) OR 5-6 pieces of dry bread ("Pesmeti" - a kind of biskits, I can't translate in English) - Meat : a piece of raw bacon OR dry smoked meat ("pastrama" - unable to translate better). As for the quantity, my old friend told me that it was a piece about half the size of a man's hand - One onion - some water (it was delivered in a large bottle and shared between the soliders) - 3 cigarettes a day There should have been 3 meals a day, but at most times they received only 2, or even one in very "hot" areas. Behind the first line, the meal differed from time to time, depending of the unit's provisions and the enemy activity in that area (bombardments) - A cup of hot soup - when the mobile citchen could be installed - A quarter of a fresh bred OR some pieces of dry bred OR some fresh corn bread ("mamaliga") - Meat as bacon or stake (from "captured" animals) - Vegetables: onion or whatever they could find in the area - some cheese or milk (when available, not often) - a candy ("caramea" - later in the war and not every day) - water - cigarettes (3/day) Of course, the men did whatever they could to improve theyr dayly menu. In Basarabia and even in Russia in some places, the peasants from the conquered land traded egs, cickens or other things like that for ciggarettes or captured weapons and tools. In harsh times, the men were eating recently dead horses, captured crows or other birds and even raw cereals from the fields they were marching through. A victory on the battlefield sometimes was accompanied by capturing the enemy's stocks or cavalry horses and the troops were much better fead. Strong motivation to fight.... Well, that's about it. When i'm gonna meet again with Nea Manole (my old friend who told me theese tings) I'll ask him if he knows the official figures for the troops rations. |
| Posted by: tempesta September 01, 2003 07:20 am |
| My grandfather told me that when in Soviet Union (east of Bug river, not in Romania or Transnistria) romanian rations were theoretically identical with german rations("subzistenta germana"). Sometimes cold rations included chocolate and rom (just like german iron rations), but only "as available". In practice they eat what was available, just how Dr_V explained.
Another interesting thing is that when in Romania the rations included wine. On 10th of May romanian soldiers received 1/4 litre of wine each (and my grandfather remembered that the NCO's in charge of distributing the wine were usually drunk ). |
| Posted by: C-2 September 01, 2003 11:03 am |
| Dr V ,good reaserch work!
Tempesta,I heard from ARR pilots that they also reacived their supplies from the Luftwaffe. |
| Posted by: tjk September 01, 2003 01:40 pm |
| Thank you for this information. I found it very interesting. A lot of times I think the logistics are forgotten about in military history books. As Napoleon said " An army travels on its stomach ". |
| Posted by: Chetnik September 03, 2003 11:41 am |
| This information about food rationing is a very interesting and important fact of the history of the soldat. I reenact the a German soldier here in the US and for our next event we are having horse meat just like the real troops back then.
What is the Romanian candy made of? |
| Posted by: Dr_V September 05, 2003 09:34 pm |
| for "Chetnik":
I don't know the exact English translation for that type of candy. "Caramea" means aproximately a candy that's melting slowly when you chow it. I think it's made of melted sugar, maybe with some cofee. And it's very small, maybe 5 or 10 grams. for "tempesta": Of what I know, the wine was distributed as a prize, for celebrating brave actions, served when a unit was retreated from the 1st line. In Russia they were ocasionaly supplied with vodka or "tuica" (another strong alcoholic juice), for keeping warm in winter, but that was't official. for "tjk" One thing that kept the romanians fighting when supplies were short was that many soliders were peasants (before the war) and they were very handy and used to prepearing something to eat from whatever they found throughout the land they were traveling. for "C-2": Thanks mate, but I didn't thaught it like a research when I was talking with "Nea Manole". He's just a nice and lonely old man, who sometimes talks about the war, but his eyes are wet when he does. Maybe I'll try someday to write his story on this site. It's sad how a man who faught for his country, was enjuried 2 times and survived the Russian winters is now so poor and forgotten in a village. I came to respect this man for his honesty and good heart long before I learned he was a veteran. |
| Posted by: C-2 September 05, 2003 10:28 pm |
| Unfortumatly in our country most veterans are almost starving.
Nobody cares about them. For a while they don't have even free drugs.Some "guys" belive they don't need them enymore because they old and ill. Let's hope that those "guys" will get their share ,if not when the'll be old ,maybee in the next world... |
| Posted by: Chetnik September 06, 2003 12:39 am |
| This is a sick fact that I did not think about. Over here in the U.S. we veteran hospitals and I think we are lucky to have it. I really feel bad that
veterans over there in your homeland are not teated better. These men should deserve the very best of care, especially at their old age. It's bad enough that countries of the Axis like Romania,Hungry,Finland, and many others are not recognized enough in the hitsory of WWII. I am 24yrs. old and even though I respect my elders many others of my age don't. Maybe there should be a veterans association for the veterans of the Axis. I would be more than happy to send a donation myself. I pray for these veterans who must of suffered through conditions that we must never forget. |
| Posted by: Dénes September 06, 2003 01:43 am |
| According to an Army document, in early September 1944 - at the beginning of the anti-Axis campaign in Transylvania - this was the official list of daily rations, to be distributed by depots, for soldiers of the 1st and 4th Armies (in kg):
Butter: 0,100 Pasta: 0,030 Barley: 0,025 Beans: 0,200 Dried vegetable: 0,080 Flour (faina rantas - I don't know the English term): 0,010 Coffee emulsion (surogat de cafea): 0,025 Salt: 0,025 Cigarettes: 5 pcs. Note that bread, meat, water and other locally available subsistences were extra. Dénes |
| Posted by: tempesta September 08, 2003 02:39 pm |
| C-2, I'm afraid my last post was not very clear. I wanted to point that romanian soldiers were supposed to receive german-like rations, but these were provided by the Romanian Army, not by the Wernarcht. It was a mean of simplifying logistics (same rations for all allies), and obviously there were cases when romanians used german supplies or germans used romanian supplies.
Dr_V, the situation I mentioned was special. 10th of May was a national hollyday and the unit was in Bucharest. Is clear to me that wine was not part of the usual ration, but in some occasions wine was distributed to the troops. And, by the way, could somebody provide information about rations in Romanian Navy? |
| Posted by: Dan Po February 23, 2004 07:40 am |
| Years ago i read a diary of a romanian officer who serve at S-3 "Marsuinul" in 1944. That part of his diary (i don t remember his name) was about one of the last missions of romanian submarines in WW2 - a patrol mission in SE of Black See. He said that the rations was imported from Germany and was absolutelly similar with those from U boots. :cheers: |
| Posted by: Dan Po February 23, 2004 08:31 am |
| Sory for mistake ... "Marsuinul" was the third (cronologicaly) romanian submarine but the tactical code was S-2, not S-3. |
| Posted by: dragos August 24, 2004 06:51 pm |
Mountain troops having meal |
| Posted by: Dani September 20, 2004 07:55 am |
| What about the pilots? I suppose that they had an improved daily ration. |
| Posted by: teraman May 04, 2005 11:55 am |
| RO: Pentru ratiile tanchistilor romani pe frontul de vest (R 2 CL) informatii interesante se gasesc in cartea "TANCURI IN FLACARI" - Ion S. Dumitru. Interesante deoarece R2 CL a fost in subzistenta Armatei Rosii pana la 9 mai 1945 (cu ratii "de ocupatie": paine, carne, vin sampanizat, oua, praf de oua, pilaf) iar din 9 mai 1945 in subzistenta Armatei Romane, cadrele si ostasii "beneficiind" de hrana mai proasta dupa 9 mai decat inainte. ENG: Interesting informations about daily rations of the Romanian tankers after 23 August 1944 (Regimentul 2 Care de Lupta) could be found in the book “TANCURI IN FLACARI” – Ion S. Dumitru. Daily food rations (and entire logistic) of the Romanian tankers of the R2CL where provided by the Red Army until 9 May 1945 and food was very good: plenty of bread, meat, wine, eggs, rice, etc. After the end of the war R2CL’s logistic was provided by the Romanian Army and the food was much worst then before. According to Ion S. Dumitru, Red Army acted as an occupation army, even in Cehia and Slovakia, so the Russians just “took” everything they need: cows, pigs, sheeps, grain-flour stocks from “liberated” mills, wine stocks, etc. ups, sorry, Dragos... |
| Posted by: dragos May 04, 2005 08:31 pm |
| teraman, please edit your message and write in English before it will be deleted. Pay attention to the the http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/index.php?act=boardrules. |