cooked hot rations daily, which were then delivered to the front by various
means, such as horse, truck, or foot.|
German Rations at the Front: |
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Introduction
The purpose of this article is to examine what type of sustenance German
soldiers ate while on the front lines in WWII. Instead of giving a broad picture
of what combat rations soldiers were supposed to be issued, this article will
describe, in the words of Soldaten, what they actually ate to sustain
themselves. To assist in further in narrowing down this topic, this article will
focus on one unit during one campaign: the 352nd Volksgrenadier Division during
the German’s Ardennes Offensive, known in the United States as the Battle of the
Bulge.
Background
On December 16th, 1944, the Wehrmacht launched its great offensive, code-named
operation Wacht Am Rhein against the U.S. First Army arrayed along the north-
central German border. The focus of the campaign was the Ardennes Forest area
along the German-Belgian border. An often overlooked aspect of the campaign was
that of the offensive actions that took place in northern Luxembourg. To most
students of WWII history, this was the area known as the southern shoulder of
the Battle of the Bulge
One of the German divisions assigned to offensive operations in the southern
flank was a veteran unit, the 352nd Volks-Grenadier Division (VGD). The 352nd
VGD, formerly the 352nd Infantry Division, had been decimated during the
Normandy Campaign and was eventually sent back to Germany to be reformed and
rebuilt. In October 1944, the 352nd Infantry Division, per the new
Kriegsstärkenachweisung, or KstN (table of organization) set forth by the German
Army, was renamed the 352nd Volks-Grenadier Division. The division was rebuilt
with recruits from the Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, and ethnic German conscripts
from occupied lands, such as France, Poland, etc. The division’s main combat
elements were its Grenadier Regiments (GR), which consisted of GR’s 914, 915,
and 916. Interestingly enough, the 352nd VGD’s individual combat units were
upgraded and re-equipped to some extent with new state-of-the-art combat gear,
to include reversible two-piece camouflage winter suits and MP-44 assault
rifles, known as the Sturmgewehr.
One aspect of the division, and the German Army in general, that had not been
improved upon or modernized was that of its ration, or food supply system. For
the most part, the 352nd VGD supplied its regiments with combat rations and
meals using the same system the German Army had used since the war the began six
years earlier. The food supply system in December 1944 still consisted primarily
of a company or battalion field kitchen section that prepared and
cooked hot rations daily, which were then delivered to the front by various
means, such as horse, truck, or foot.
Once the rations arrived at the front, they were quickly doled out to Grenadiers
detailed to go to the rear to pick them up, with the food usually being
deposited into mess kits or canteens. Other items, such as chocolate, candy,
bread, onions, coffee etc. were placed onto blankets and then rolled up for
easier carrying. As one will read in this article, you will see that this system
generally failed to deliver the required amount of food to the Landers on the
front lines during the Battle of the Bulge, with the result that many of the men
went hungry for days at a time. Another factor that determined when or how late
combat troops drew their rations was distance – the farther ahead a unit moved
as it attacked, the farther away it got from its supply section, including the
field kitchen, making the trip for the ration party carrying the food to the
front all that much longer. These ration parties often arrived late, if they
could find their units, and when they did, the food was often cold.
The Germans also attempted to develop individual combat rations similar to those
used by the U.S. Army, such as “C” and “K” rations, but they never reached the
level of perfection of the American’s packaged rations (For additional
information on these rations, refer to the article: "German
Iron Rations" by Doug Nash or "The
German Army K-Ration"by Eric Tobey published on this website). This
method of delivering individual rations was unsuccessful, due either to failures
of the supply system to get these rations to the front, or that there simply
were not enough on hand to issue to the troops on a regular basis when the
normal method of issuing hot rations failed. Either way, the German food supply
system was totally inadequate to properly sustain the fighting energy that the
troops needed for this offensive campaign.
So, as the campaign began, the German food supply system, including that of the
352nd VGD, was already unable to keep its Grenadiers adequately fed. As the
Battle of the Bulge dragged on into January, the lack of proper nutrition, made
worse by having to live out in the open during an uncharacteristically cold
winter, took its physical and mental toll on the average Grenadier. Tired,
hungry, cold, and forced to forage for his food, only a superman could have
continued fighting with the same enthusiasm and effectiveness that the German
forces displayed at the beginning of the offensive.
The following is an outline, augmented by eyewitness accounts, of what the
German soldiers ate during this campaign:
Issued Rations
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Grenadiers Ulrich Jonath and Horst Hennig, 2nd Battalion, GR 914,
352nd VGD, summarized the overall situation of the German Army‘s
attempts to feed its men during this campaign, including how they
were able to survive the campaign, “Our food supplies were
unsatisfactory. Other than captured American chocolate and some
preserves taken from civilian houses, there was nothing.” Jonath and
Henning also commented on their inability to cook field rations
themselves while on the line, “Cooking could be done only in rare
cases because of the alert of American Artillery…” This more than
likely referred to the German attempts to simply build a fire in a
stove or fire to heat their rations. It is assumed that their Esbit
Stoves were less noticeable than open fires, providing some measure
of relief from Artillery fire. |
|
Hebert Brach, 6th company, 2nd BN, GR916, had this to say after finally
receiving his first German rations in days, “When we had reached the foot of the
hill, there stood a soldier with a loaf of bread in his hand, cutting off slice
after slice, which our men practically tore out of his hand, for we had waited
six days for rations, since the supply train could not be brought closer because
of enemy fire. And this slice of bread was welcome to us; we were practically
starving, and this bread tasted wonderful.”
Friedrich Schmaschke, 3rd Company, 1st BN, GR 916, commented on what he was
issued as cold rations, “The food service rolled in the next day, and we finally
got warm food again, a welcome change, for in the last few days we had been
given nothing but cold food, consisting of army bread, rancid butter or
margarine, plus artificial honey and jam.” It appears Schmaschke fit the mold of
a typical soldier, for he made several key observations concerning rations
during the Battle of the Bulge. For example, Schmaschke also commented on being
re-supplied, with not only rations, but also some sundry items, “The goods he
(company Spiess) brought along were then distributed to the company. They were
cigarettes, cigars, alcoholic beverages, soap, combs, razor blades, and
chocolate.” At one point during the campaign, Schmaschke also managed to
scrounge through the bread bags of German dead and wounded, as he recounted
here, “So I went back to Longsdorf to try to find myself something to eat. A
soldier who talked to me gave me some advice, go up the road to the farmhouse;
all the equipment of the wounded and dead men is in the stable there. When I
came out of the stable after finding a few pieces of bread, three iron rations,
plus two packages of Schoka-Kola in the packs of the dead and wounded, one of
the tank men who was looking out his turret hatch, asked, say, boy, are you
hungry? And I said, “Yes, and how! He threw me a loaf of army bread.”
Captured Rations
The one food item in greatest demand by German soldiers during the Battle of the
Bulge was captured American Rations. Prior to the Bulge, the Germans were amazed
and awed by the quantity of American rations, and were equally satisfied by
their quality when they opened them, finding a virtual treasure chest of
nourishment. Hebert Brach, 6th company, 2nd BN, GR 916, was very well pleased
upon finding US Rations, “In the village (Bettendorf) itself, we appropriated an
American food and clothing storehouse in a convent. Now for a pleasant change we
had enough to eat. Everybody feasted on the tasty U.S. field rations, and nobody
asked where our field kitchen was.” Brach continued with another account of US
rations, “In Bettendorf the grenadiers had stuffed their pockets, food bags and
assault packs again with food from an undestroyed US ration dump. In fact, some
of them had even rounded up old baby carriages and milk carts and filled them
with food…That evening, after several days, the field kitchen finally came to
Diekirch to supply us with hot food, but nobody was hungry, thanks to the tasty
delicacies from much sought after-American rations. The supply chief himself
came on the scene and was annoyed to have to take the watery stew away again.
The ever-hungry Friedrich Schmaschke, 3rd Company, 1st BN, GR 916 also had
something to say about US Rations, “I discovered olive green packs, similar to
naval packs, and I search them curiously. Out came small brown cartons that I
had a hard time opening for they were coated with wax. They contained peanut
butter, cookies, chocolate, tea, coffee in powdered form, chewing gum, soft
drink powder, fruit bars, cigarettes, and other such things. “
Water
For the men of the 352nd VGD and most likely for all German soldiers in the
Ardennes Campaign, obtaining water and quenching thirst was not only necessary
to survive, but could also be just as hard to obtain as food. Unteroffizer
Wilhelm Stetter, 3rd Company, 1st BN, GR 915 spoke of simply obtaining water,
“My thirst had become much greater; I imagined I heard a brook babbling….I
climbed out of my hole and went in the direction where I thought I heard the
sound. It was true; I came to a ravine at the bottom of which was a brook (the
Suessebaach) flowed. I drank two mess kits full of the cold water. “
Friedrich Schmaschke, 3rd Company, 1st BN, GR 916, recalled that, at times,
simply having water brought up was a dangerous mission. “The food bearers came
every evening with hot food in thermos containers; our drinking water had to be
fetched from a cistern up on the plateau. It had been shot up, and the water had
sprayed out of it, gurgling. Since one had to run 150 meters across an open
field to reach it, we could only fetch water at night.”
There were other ways to quench a thirst. Gunter Bach, 15th Company GR 916,
attempted, through other means, to satisfy his need for water, however this lead
to dire consequences for a soldier on the move, “I was constantly bothered by
thirst. So I quickly picked up a couple of apples that were lying all over the
place under the trees. Although they were covered with frost and partly frozen,
I ate two or three of them quickly to quench my thirst. The result was that I
had bad attacks of diarrhea shortly afterward.”
Locally Obtained Rations
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During the Ardennes campaign, again particularly in Luxembourg, many
civilians fled their homes to avoid another round of fighting in
their area. These abandoned residences became the target of many a
hungry Landser looking for something to eat. Ulrich Jonath and Horst
Hennig, 2nd Battalion, GR 914, 352nd VGD, reports of searching
abandoned houses for food, “The only food supplies that we still
received came from the houses that the civilians had left, where we
obtained food that included everything from preserves to potatoes
and apples to dried and smoked meat. There was no bread and we got
water by melting ice…” |
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Conclusion
One of the myths of the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge was that they
were a well-equipped war machine with multitudes of King Tiger tanks, ME-262 Jet
Fighters, and legions of well equipped Waffen-SS and Panzergrenadiers out for
blood. As this short article has proven, the real story is that the German Army
could not even keep its own front line combat troops adequately fed during the
campaign.
If doing a study or recreation of this campaign, based on a snapshot of the
352nd VGD, one can summarize the following of what a German soldier had to eat
during the Battle of the Bulge:
|
Issued Rations: |
Bread, soup, margarine/butter, Schoko-Kola, 1 or 2 cans of Iron
Ration meat (at the most). |
|
Captured Rations: |
Any type of US Rations that were issued in Northwest Europe in 1944,
primarily “C” or “K” rations, plus cigarettes, coffee and hot
chocolate mix. |
|
Local Rations: |
Bread, potatoes, dried meat, dried apples (This source of rations
appears to be the rarity rather than the norm). |
One can only question about the overall outcome of this campaign, in which not
only did improved weather conditions and reinforcements of US Armored and
Infantry Divisions lead to an Allied victory, but could a lack of food for the
average Lander assist in the defeat of this last great German offensive of WWII.
Sources:
- The
Battle of the Bulge in Luxembourg, Volume I: The Germans by Roland Gaul,
Schiffer Publishing Company, 1995
