Airmen Cannibals in Germany

Posted by Christopher Eger Mar 30, 2008

Cannibalism in military environment has been seen often throughout history. Tribal headhunters have for eons resorted to cannibalism of both their own and captured peoples. During the First Crusade the knights of Europe practiced cannibalism when they ate the bodies of their vanquished foes during the terrible Siege of Maarrat-al Numan. Aztec warriors ate human flesh as part of ritual. In 1945 on the island of Chichijima starving Japanese officers and men ate five US airmen who had been shot down on the island. During the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror in Cambodia cannibalism was commonplace. In modern times African peacekeepers and United Nations personnel alike were killed and eaten on the battlefield of Liberia by Charles Taylor's militiamen.

Not to be outdone, a pair of Sergeants in the peacetime German Air force has been making sausages using their own blood as an ingredient. The recipe they used quoted from the article above read: “Make sure the blood is fresh and the bacon cubes diced finely with a nice proportion of fat to lean. Do not use too many breadcrumbs but if the blood starts to curdle stir in a teaspoon of wine vinegar.”

This type of sausage, called black pudding in Great Britain, boudin noir in French cultures and blutwurst in Germany has been popular for years but is usually made from pork blood. It is only recently that the phenomenon was introduced of using human blood. In a performance in 2003, performers of the group monochrom prepared blood pudding out of their own blood and ate it.