

(Remembering the Australian 24 hour Ration pack,
the US ‘C’ Rations and cooking
utensils/accessories)
© Roger Lambert
Platoon Commander
9 Platoon, C Company,
2nd Tour |
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The image of the menu for the Combat Ration (One
Man) aka 24 hour ration pack published on the 5
RAR website got me reminiscing about the tucker
we sustained ourselves with in training and in
the J:
http://www.5rar.asn.au/reference/24-hour-ration-packs.htm
One quickly found out during training in
Australia that there was a very good reason for
including Curry Powder in the A, B and C menus
of the one man packs. Either that or Tabasco
sauce were the only things to make the Ham &
Egg, Pork & Beans and Luncheon Meat halfway
edible. The Beef & Egg in the E menu also needed
a supplementary ‘kicker’ together with the
Corned Beef and Corned Beef hash. I was also
known to carry a supply of onions in my pack to
add variety to the meals.
As for the Cereal Block and Chocolate, I reckon
one could have used these, given enough
supplies, as body armour or over-head
protection. I cannot recall anyone actually
using the Cereal Block although the Chocolate,
complete with its white coating of
who-knows-what, was at least consumed in lieu of
anything better. The Soup Powder (Beef or
Chicken) and the Fruit Drink Powder defy
description to this day.
Two
things were the saving grace of the 24 hour pack
and accessories. One of course was the tube of
Sweetened Condensed Milk. This was considered
pure gold both in Australia and in country, even
if it caramelized in the tube. The condensed
milk, together with the sugar packets, at least
gave one half a chance at a decent brew. The
other was the Can Opener apparently known as
FRED (Field Ration Eating Device) or as some
wags would have it “Freaking Ridiculous Eating
Device”:
FRED was a combination can opener, bottle opener
and spoon all in one. I always carried mine
attached to the cord of my ‘dog tags’. It was
such a useful utensil I made sure than I didn’t
lose it.
At least FRED was a darn side more user-friendly
than its American counterpart, the ridiculously
small P-38 opener:
At least with FRED, one could open a can in no
time flat whereas the US counterpart took ages
to get a can open. Some say that the “38” in the
designation P-38 actually referred to the number
of times around a C Ration can to actually open
the thing!
Ration
pack wise, things didn’t change all that much in
country except we were introduced to the
gastronomic delights of the American ‘C’ Rations
(three boxes constituted a day’s rations), a
welcome dietary supplement to the Aussie 24 hour
pack:
However, it seemed that even the
Yanks had a predilection for beef, ham & eggs
and pork. There were however a couple of
stand-outs in the menu line-up including (to my
taste) Beans W/Frankfurter Chunks in Tomato
Sauce, Chicken Boned and Spaghetti W/Ground Beef
although the latter still need a good splash of
Tabasco to create a palatable meal. It was
inevitably the Beans W/Frankfurter Chunks in
Tomato sauce that became a valuable trading
commodity:
Like the Australian 24 hour ration pack, there
were a couple of other redeeming inclusions in
the ‘C’ Ration. One was the Pound Cake (closely
followed by the Pecan Roll). The other, which
would be absolutely frowned upon today, was the
inclusion of a packet of four cigarettes of
various brands in each box:
Then of course there were the American
Supplementary Ration Packs designed to cater for
100 personnel. Besides a whole range of
‘goodies’, these came with whole cartons of
cigarettes.
Now,
when I was in charge of putting the Battalion
through Week One at the Jungle Training Centre
at Canungra, I switched from “Marlboro” to
“Kool” menthol cigarettes, kidding myself that
these were better for me than the full-strength
smokes. Of course, when we got into country, my
diggers were well aware of my menthol habit and
so any Salem cigarettes that were received in
their ‘C’ rations were donated to the ‘skipper’.
And it goes without saying that the cartons of
Salem also ended up with me. There’s a footnote
to these menthol ‘donations’ which I’ll come
back to later.
One
thing that we didn’t have to re-invent was the
Australian Field Stove. Couple this handy device
with the blocks of Hexamine tablets we were
issued and, given the opportunity, one could
cook up a storm. The Hexamine blocks contained
in a wax-coated cardboard cover actually fitted
inside the stove enabling a compact unit to be
carried in a Basic Pouch or pack:
Interestingly, when we first went on operations,
and in order to save weight for ammunition and
water, a lot of the tinned rations were
discarded. As our tour of operations progressed,
and we became even fitter than we previously
were, there wasn’t all that much that was
discarded as we needed as much sustenance as we
could possibly get our hands on. Of course,
whenever practical, our hard rations were
supplemented in the field with hot box meals and
in Charlie Company, SGT Paddy Cahill’s famous
hamburgers (although we were never quite sure
what constituted the ‘meat patty’ and some of
the vegetables!)
Some interesting techniques were devised for
cooking the rations. While some meals sometimes
had to eaten cold because of the tactical
situation, when the opportunity arose, a hot
meal was the order of the day (usually the
lunch-time or evening meal).
“Pressure cooking” was developed into a real
culinary art form. To cook say one’s Beans
W/Frankfurter Chunks in Tomato Sauce, you simply
dented one side of the can and then the other by
knocking it against the heel of your boot. The
dented can was then placed directly on the
Hexamine stove with a portion of Hexamine and
when the can started to pop, it was cooked. Mind
you, there were also some explosions where too
much Hexamine was used! One learnt to judge the
amount of ‘fuel’ required for each size can.
Making a brew was simplicity itself. Using one’s
Cups Canteen, Aluminium, Troops for the Use Of,
water was poured in and the ‘mug’ placed
directly on the Hexamine stove to boil. Add
coffee, sugar and Sweetened Condensed Milk to
taste and there you had it:
The
Cups Canteen was also used to boil water for
shaving and one quickly learnt to carry two, one
for brews and one for shaving – it’s a taste
thing! Note the shape of the canteen ― the
standard issue water bottle fitted neatly inside
and was able to be carried in the issue water
bottle webbing pouch.
The handle on the Cups Canteen could become very
hot when water was boiled and that’s where the
ubiquitous “Giggle Hat” came into play:
The “Giggle Hat” could be used as an ‘oven mitt’
to take the hot brew off the stove. It could
also be used as means of surreptitious smoking
at night. With a suitable size hole in the
crown, a cigarette could be lit and smoked using
the hat to ‘camouflage’ the glow as well as
dissipating the cigarette smoke. This practice
was not condoned but we were aware that it
sometimes occurred in tactical harbours (as the
late LCPL Reg Smith would attest to) as opposed
to ambush positions which were conducted in
deadly earnest.
That brings me back to the subject of Salem
cigarettes. These things were in such plentiful
supply there was simply no way an individual
could get through them all. What was the
solution?
I’m sure that the statute of limitations has now
long passed after 40 odd years so …
The solid cardboard cylinders that 105 Field
Battery’s 105mm howitzer ammunition came in were
in plentiful supply as well and they made very
useful mailing tubes to ship articles back home
to Oz. Now a number of cartons of cigarettes
could be stowed inside these cylinders and to
keep the Custom’s Declaration ‘reasonably
accurate’, articles of unwanted clothing could
be used to pack around the cigarettes. The
Custom’s Declaration affixed to the ‘mailing
tube’ simply stated “Clothing no longer required
in country.”
Needless to say, I had pretty much a 6 month (or
more) supply of cigarettes waiting for me when
we finally came home to Australia in March 1970.
TALES FROM THE TIGER
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