The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food

by Lizzie Collingham

  59 Young, Japan’s Total Empire, pp. 336–9.

  60 Ibid., pp. 309, 351; Shin’ichi, Manchuria, pp. 268–9.

  61 Young, Japan’s Total Empire, pp. 401–2.

  62 Shin’ichi, Manchuria, p. 203.

  63 Ibid.

  64 Young, Japan’s Total Empire, pp. 342–6.

  65 Ibid., pp. 404–5; Shin’ichi, Manchuria, pp. 268–9.

  66 Young, Japan’s Total Empire, pp. 330–1.

  67 Ibid., pp. 392–5, 429.

  68 Shin’ichi, Manchuria, pp. 273–5.

  69 Kuramoto, Manchurian Legacy, p. 39.

  70 Ibid., p. 92.

  71 Young, Japan’s Total Empire, p. 411; slightly higher figures are given in Shin’ichi, Manchuria, pp. 282–3.

  72 Kershaw, Fateful Choices, p. 333.

  73 Barnhart, Japan Prepares, pp. 101–2.

  74 Kershaw, Fateful Choices, p. 99.

  75 Duus, ‘Introduction. Japan’s wartime empire’, p. xvii.

  76 Peattie, ‘Nanshin’, pp. 210–15; Hatano and Asada, ‘The Japanese decision to move south’, pp. 387, 390.

  77 Ibid., pp. 399–402.

  78 Iriye, Origins of the Second World War in Asia, p. 171; Kershaw, Fateful Choices, p. 127.

  79 Young, Japan’s Total Empire, p. 351.

  PART II THE BATTLE FOR FOOD

  1 Adams, Farm Problems, p. 12; Vat, The Atlantic Campaign, p. 8; Russell, Sea Shepherds, p. 177; Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 230.

  2 Tinley, Wartime Transportation, p. 15.

  3 Doreen Laven, notes on wartime memories.

  4 Jackson, The British Empire, p. 133.

  5 Bosworth, ‘Eating for the nation’, pp. 228–9; Crawford et al., Wartime Agriculture in Australia, pp. 131, 155; Milward, War, Economy and Society, p. 247.

  6 Bannister, I Lived Under Hitler, p. 104.

  7 Wickizer, Coffee, Tea and Cocoa, pp. 90–105.

  8 Roll, The Combined Food Board, p. 47.

  9 Milward, War, Economy and Society, p. 278.

  10 Corni, Hitler and the Peasants, pp. 210–11.

  11 Moskoff, The Bread of Affliction, p. 13.

  12 Peattie, ‘Japanese attitudes towards colonialism’, p. 126.

  13 Milward, War, Economy and Society, p. 247.

  14 Smith, A Time of Crisis, p. 72.

  15 Blythe, Akenfield, p. 202.

  16 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 199.

  17 Ibid., pp. 201–3.

  18 Patterson, Grand Expectations, p. 10; Wilcox, The Farmer, p. 19.

  19 Huegel, Kriegsernährungswirtschaft Deutschlands, p. 281; Stephenson, Hitler’s Home Front, p. 7.

  20 Hall, Land Girl, p. 59; Stephenson, Hitler’s Home Front, p. 14.

  21 Hall, Land Girl, p. 59.

  22 Martin, ‘The structural transformation’, pp. 17–18.

  23 Dore, Shinohata, p. 44.

  24 Cherrington, On the Smell of an Oily Rag, p. 126.

  25 Huegel, Kriegsernährungswirtschaft Deutschlands, p. 281.

  26 Amrith, ‘The United Nations’, pp. 35–6.

  27 White and Jacoby, Thunder out of China, pp. 30–31.

  28 Becker, Hungry Ghosts, p. 16.

  29 Hurt, Problems of Plenty, p. 83.

  30 Brassley, ‘British farming’, p. 199.

  31 Lehman, ‘Agrarpolitik und Landwirtschaft’, pp. 39–40; Huegel, Kriegs-ernährungswirtschaft Deutschlands, p. 300.

  32 Foot, ‘The impact of the military’, p. 132; Martin, ‘Agriculture and food supply’, p. 191; Evans, The Third Reich in Power, p. 347.

  4. American Boom

  1 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 263.

  2 Ibid., pp. 161, 302–4.

  3 Ibid., pp. 309, 312.

  4 Hurt, Problems of Plenty, p. 99.

  5 Wilcox, The Farmer, p. 157.

  6 Kennedy, ‘Herbert Hoover’, p. 87.

  7 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, pp. 110–34.

  8 Wilcox, The Farmer, p. 63.

  9 Ibid., p. 159.

  10 Danbom, Born in the Country, p. 231.

  11 Jeffries, Wartime America, p. 61.

  12 Flynn, The Mess in Washington, p. 132.

  13 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 88.

  14 Jeffries, Wartime America, p. 71.

  15 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 88.

  16 Flynn, The Mess in Washington, pp. 136, 142.

  17 Carpenter, On the Farm Front, p. 27.

  18 Ibid., pp. 28, 122.

  19 Ibid., p. 105.

  20 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 91.

  21 Ibid., p. 229.

  22 Ibid., p. 230.

  23 Ibid., p. 233.

  24 Ibid., p. 230.

  25 Flynn, The Mess in Washington, p. 144; Carpenter, On the Farm Front, p. 113; Hurt, American Agriculture, p. 308.

  26 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 214.

  27 Ibid., p. 219.

  28 Danbom, Born in the Country, p. 236.

  29 Hurt, Problems of Plenty, p. 115.

  30 Pollard, The Development of the British Economy, p. 167; Lamer, The World Fertilizer Economy, pp. 198–201, 214–16; Wilcox, The Farmer, pp. 53–7; Lonsdale, ‘The Depression’, p. 121.

  31 Hurt, American Agriculture, p. 32; Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 351.

  32 Offer, The First World War, p. 151.

  33 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 83; Jeffries, Wartime America, p. 45.

  34 Hurt, Problems of Plenty, p. 74.

  35 Jeffries, Wartime America, pp. 21, 52–3.

  36 Hurt, Problems of Plenty, p. 90.

  37 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 70.

  38 Jeffries, Wartime America, p. 77.

  39 Harrison, Growing a Global Village, pp. 3–4, 20.

  40 Ibid., pp. 29, 32.

  41 Cramp, ‘Food – the first munition of war’, p. 76.

  42 Harrison, Growing a Global Village, pp. 6–7, 42–4.

  43 Wilcox, The Farmer, pp. 51, 76.

  44 Harrison, Growing a Global Village, pp. 47–8, 50.

  45 Ibid., pp. 56–8, 71.

  46 Ibid., p. 13.

  47 Seabrook Farms, New Jersey, http://www.usgennet.org/usa/nj/state/seabrook_farms_nj.htm.

  48 Danbom, Born in the Country, p. 234.

  49 Hurt, Problems of Plenty, pp. 124–5; Hurt, American Agriculture, p. 306.

  50 Hodgson, Few Eggs, p. 380.

  51 Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Armies, p. 368.

  52 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 107; Lawrence, Eat Your Heart Out, p. 255.

  53 Wilcox, The Farmer, p. 198.

  54 Gratzer, Terrors of the Table, pp. 105–6.

  55 Lovin, ‘Agricultural reorganization’, p. 460; Wehler, Deutsche Gesellschafts-geschichte, p. 705; Von der Decken, ‘Die Ernährung in England und Deutschland’, p. 179.

  56 Watters, Illinois in the Second World War, p. 348.

  57 Campbell, Women at War, p. 181.

  58 Watters, Illinois in the Second World War, pp. 348–9.

  59 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, pp. 107–8.

  60 Lawrence, Eat Your Heart Out, p. 255.

  61 Rankine, Soya, p. 1.

  62 Pollan, In Defence of Food, p. 117.

  63 Rankine, Soya, p. 9; Lawrence, Eat Your Heart Out, pp. 286–8.

  64 Wilcox, The Farmer, p. 198.

  65 Rankine, Soya, p. 3.

  66 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 109.

  67 Ibid., p. 301.

  5. Feeding Britain

  1 Cherrington, On the Smell of an Oily Rag, p. 161.

  2 Calder, The People’s War, p. 418; Murray, Agriculture, p. 340.

  3 Wilt, Food for War, p. 225.

  4 Ibid., p. 187.

  5 Brassley, ‘Wartime productivity�
��, pp. 37, 48, 54.

  6 Wilt, Food for War, p. 224.

  7 Vat, The Atlantic Campaign, p. 223; Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 49.

  8 Ibid., p. 230.

  9 Adams, Farm Problems, p. 12.

  10 Pollard, British Economy, p. 67.

  11 Hurd, A Farmer in Whitehall, p. 22.

  12 Wilt, Food for War, p. 189.

  13 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 35.

  14 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, pp. 45–6.

  15 56,200 in 1939 to 203,000 tractors by 1946. Wilt, Food for War, pp. 16, 226.

  16 Hurd, A Farmer in Whitehall, pp. 22–3.

  17 Dewey, ‘The supply of tractors’, pp. 99–100.

  18 Wilt, Food for War, p. 189.

  19 Brassley, ‘Wartime productivity’, p. 53.

  20 Lamer, The World Fertilizer Economy, pp. 214–15.

  21 Ibid., p. 216.

  22 Ibid., p. 211.

  23 Ibid., pp. 209–10, 231.

  24 Pollard, British Economy, p. 167.

  25 Harman, Seventy Summers, p. 177.

  26 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 89.

  27 Martin, ‘The structural transformation of British agriculture’, p. 34.

  28 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 83.

  29 Ibid., pp. 85–6.

  30 Martin, ‘The structural transformation of British agriculture’, p. 34.

  31 Brassley, ‘Wartime productivity’, p. 54.

  32 Martin, ‘The structural transformation of British agriculture’, p. 34.

  33 This was the peak number of land girls, reached in June 1944.

  34 Mant, All Muck, p. 37.

  35 Tyrer, They Fought in the Fields, p. 108.

  36 Joseph, If Their Mothers Only Knew, p. 117.

  37 Hall, Land Girl, p. 61.

  38 Tyrer, They Fought in the Fields, p. 115.

  39 Ibid., pp. 120–1.

  40 Graham, Oxfordshire at War, p. 117.

  41 Martin, ‘The structural transformation of British agriculture’, p. 27.

  42 Ibid., pp. 31–2; Short, ‘The dispossession of farmers’, pp. 159–60.

  43 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 231.

  44 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 327.

  45 Longmate, How We Lived Then, p. 142.

  46 Chamberlin, Economic Development of Iceland, p. 85.

  47 Arnason, The Icelandic Fisheries, p. 34.

  48 Garfield, Private Battles, p. 51.

  49 Arnason, The Icelandic Fisheries, pp. 78–9; Tomasson, Iceland, pp. 37–8.

  50 Crawford et al., Wartime Agriculture in Australia, p. 151.

  51 Britnell and Voake, Canadian Agriculture, pp. 248, 268.

  52 Ibid., pp. 407–9.

  53 Baker, The New Zealand People, p. 199.

  54 Ibid., p. 201.

  55 Ibid., p. 204.

  56 Ibid., pp. 204–5.

  57 Milward, War, Economy and Society, pp. 277–8.

  58 Jackson, The British Empire, p. 94.

  59 Baker, The New Zealand People, p. 187.

  60 Wilcox, The Farmer, p. 157.

  61 Longmate, How We Lived Then, p. 147.

  62 Driver, The British at Table, p. 29.

  63 Jill Beattie, notes on wartime memories.

  64 Garfield, Private Battles, p. 145.

  65 Doreen Laven, notes on wartime memories.

  66 Holland, ‘Mobilization’, p. 169.

  6. The Battle of the Atlantic

  1 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, pp. 187–8.

  2 Garfield, We Are at War, p. 142.

  3 Costello and Hughes, The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 209.

  4 Overy, Why the Allies Won, p. 31.

  5 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, pp. 177–8.

  6 Behrens, Merchant Shipping, p. 43.

  7 Costello and Hughes, The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 95.

  8 Ibid., p. 109.

  9 Ibid., p. 121.

  10 Ibid., p. 40; Rahn, ‘The war at sea’, p. 301.

  11 Doughty, Merchant Shipping and War, pp. 157–9.

  12 Behrens, Merchant Shipping, p. 128.

  13 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, pp. 27–9.

  14 Vat, The Atlantic Campaign, p. 81.

  15 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 49; Behrens, Merchant Shipping, p. 145.

  16 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 49.

  17 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 41.

  18 Woolton, Memoirs, p. 207.

  19 Gardiner, The 1940s House, p. 125.

  20 Garfield, Private Battles, p. 56.

  21 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, pp. 155–6.

  22 Ibid., p. 64.

  23 Ibid., p. 53.

  24 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 42.

  25 Costello and Hughes, The Battle of the Atlantic, pp. 124, 167.

  26 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, pp. 231–2.

  27 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 231.

  28 Ibid., p. 86.

  29 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 44.

  30 Bentley, Eating for Victory, pp. 92–3.

  31 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 45.

  32 Ibid., pp. 45–7.

  33 Ibid., pp. 42, 47.

  34 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 158.

  35 Costello and Hughes, The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 222.

  36 Reynolds, Rich Relations, p. 86.

  37 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 43.

  38 Rahn, ‘The war at sea’, p. 337. Italics in original.

  39 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, pp. 76–7.

  40 Jenkins, Churchill, pp. 691–2.

  41 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, pp. 79–80, 155.

  42 The Papers of Miss E. Blaikley, Department of Documents, IWM, 86/46/1, p. 18.

  43 Roll, The Combined Food Board, p. 130.

  44 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 185.

  45 Ibid., p. 71.

  46 Bentley, Eating for Victory, p. 91.

  47 Litoff and Smith, Since You Went Away, pp. 84–5.

  48 Bentley, Eating for Victory, pp. 74, 91–2; Roll, The Combined Food Board, p. 132.

  49 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 187.

  50 Ibid., p. 156.

  51 Costello and Hughes, The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 230.

  52 Bengelsdorf, Die Landwirtschaft der Vereinigten Staaten, p. 333.

  53 Costello and Hughes, The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 213.

  54 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 152.

  55 Baer, One Hundred Years, p. 201; Behrens, Merchant Shipping, p. 263.

  56 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 152.

  57 Ibid., p. 188.

  58 Wilcox, The Farmer, p. 276.

  59 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, pp. 188, 205.

  60 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, pp. 186–7.

  61 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 188.

  62 Ibid., p. 190.

  63 Woolton, Memoirs, p. 207.

  64 Garfield, Private Battles, p. 316.

  65 Ibid., p. 201.

  66 Davis and Engerman, Naval Blockades, p. 286.

  67 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 177.

  68 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 187.

  69 Costello and Hughes, The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 215.

  70 French, Waging War, p. 51.

  71 Ibid., pp. 21–2.

  72 Ibid., p. 61.

  73 Ibid., p. 113.

  74 Ibid., p. 139.

  75 Costello and Hughes, The Battle of the Atlantic, p. 215.

  76 Ibid., p. 216.

  77 Rahn, ‘The war at sea’, p. 341.

  78 Hammond, Food and Agriculture, p. 185.

  79 Ibid., p. 187.

  80 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 177.

  81 Ibid., p. 154.

  7. Mobilizing the British Empire

  1 Stephens, Monsoon Morning, p. 180.

  2 Jackson, The British Empire, p. 22.

  3 Beaumont, ‘Australia’s war: Europe and the Middle East’, p. 9.

  4 Jackson, Botswana, pp. 36, 40.


  5 Beaumont, ‘Australia’s war: Asia and the Pacific’, p. 47.

  6 Jackson, Botswana, pp. 132–3.

  7 Kerslake, Time and the Hour, p. 163.

  8 Crowder, ‘The 1939–45 war’, pp. 596, 611.

  9 Pearce, ‘The colonial economy’, p. 276.

  10 Kamtekar, ‘A different war dance’, p. 195; Bayly and Harper, Forgotten Armies, p. 301.

  11 Kamtekar, ‘A different war dance’, p. 204.

  12 Ibid., pp. 206–7.

  13 Wright, The World and a Very Small Place in Africa, p. 196.

  14 Jackson, Botswana, pp. 138–41.

  15 Ibid., pp. 143–4.

  16 Sen, Poverty and Famines, pp. 155–6.

  17 Wright, The World and a Very Small Place in Africa, p. 195.

  18 Jackson, Botswana, p. 156.

  19 Killingray, ‘African civilians’, p. 141.

  20 28 per cent of land in Mauritius was turned over to food crops. The same thing happened in Barbados where 35 per cent of the land was reallocated for growing food. Jackson, The British Empire, pp. 49, 86.

  21 The Production of Food Crops, p. 6.

  22 Tunzelmann, Indian Summer, p. 138.

  23 Smith, Conflict over Convoys, p. 156.

  24 The Production of Food Crops, pp. 7, 8, 11.

  25 Wilmington, The Middle East Supply Centre, p. 50.

  26 Ibid., p. 16; Lloyd, Food and Inflation, p. 91.

  27 Chandos, The Memoirs, pp. 222–3.

  28 Ibid., p. 238.

  29 Wilmington, The Middle East Supply Centre, p. 83.

  30 Ibid., pp. 81, 83.

  31 Ibid., p. 45.

  32 Lloyd, Food and Inflation, p. 89.

  33 Cooper, Cairo, p. 162.

  34 Wilmington, The Middle East Supply Centre, p. 25.

  35 Lloyd, Food and Inflation, p. 129.

  36 Ibid., p. 88.

  37 Wilmington, The Middle East Supply Centre, p. 117.

  38 Jackson, The British Empire, pp. 120–1; Lloyd, Food and Inflation, p. 30.

  39 Jackson, The British Empire, pp. 166, 198.

  40 Lloyd, Food and Inflation, pp. 55, 58, 65.

  41 Milward, War, Economy and Society, p. 280.

  42 Wilmington, The Middle East Supply Centre, p. 81.

  43 Ibid., p. 121.

  44 Ibid., p. 124.

  45 Ibid., p. 106.

  46 Ibid., p. 112.

  47 Ibid., p. 84.

  48 50.8 million to 19.4 million net registered tons. Ibid., p. 127.

  49 Lloyd, Food and Inflation, pp. 66–7, 263, 283.

  50 Ibid., pp. 327–9; Milward, War, Economy and Society, p. 280.

  51 Wilmington, The Middle East Supply Centre, p. 158; Lloyd, Food and Inflation, p. 334.