Daily Ration

[tjk]

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.

[dragos]

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.

[Dr_V]

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.

[tempesta]

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 ).

[C-2]

Dr V ,good reaserch work!
Tempesta,I heard from ARR pilots that they also reacived their supplies from the Luftwaffe.

[tjk]

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 ".

[Chetnik]

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?

[Dr_V]

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.

[C-2]

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...

[Chetnik]

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.

[Dénes]

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

[tempesta]

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?

[Dan Po]

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:

[Dan Po]

Sory for mistake ... "Marsuinul" was the third (cronologicaly) romanian submarine but the tactical code was S-2, not S-3.

[dragos]

Mountain troops having meal