As in most other items of supply, armies that can afford it have the better rations and less provident armies have poorer rations. Many countries provide their troops with commercial food that is not specially prepared for stability and can easily go bad. Many field rations have been more directed at stability, with nutrition and taste coming in very distant seconds.
Historically, it's even worse than that. In Bill Mauldin's book 'Up Front', he relates an incident where German prisoners complained about the rations provided for them, as they were used to having fresh food provided through their supply system and they were being fed with C rations now that they were prisoners.. They could not believe that C rations were the standard fare for GIs and were convinced better food was being withheld from them.
Modern field rations are inestimably better than their predecessors, in spite of the continuing curses. MREs, the American version, provide all the needed nutrition a soldier needs, and does it in a package that requires no special storage, little or no preparation and includes a couple of dozen menus to prevent boredom.
During World War II, the United States fielded several different types of field rations to serve the troops in different situations. They were:
Ration, field A; was fresh foods prepared at a mess hall or field kitchen.
Ration, operational B; was similar but provided for the possibility of no refrigeration being available. Canned and dehydrated foods replaced the fresh items. Preparation was still in a kitchen of some sort.
Ration, individual, combat, C; was intended to be a complete, nutritionally balanced meal for use when issuing rations might be difficult, generally during the initial phases of an amphibious operation or other mobile type of combat. These rations were issued individually in easily opened cans and did not require any kind of kitchen for preparation. They were prepared in the individual's mess kit or eaten cold. Initially, there was only one menu. Poor planning often forced the soldiers to continue eating C rations long after A rations should have been available. Not surprisingly, this led to complaints about lack of variety and other shortcomings that gave the ration a bad name.
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