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

by Lizzie Collingham

  protectionism 21, 22, 27, 28, 58, 141, 143, 489

  prisoners of war 7, 133, 163, 164, 245, 294, 296, 324, 415, 441, 444, 470, 514n, 566n

  as agricultural workers 79–80, 84, 95, 133, 156, 160, 170, 231

  as food 298, 300

  death rates 193

  food allocations for 79–80, 194, 245, 299, 373–4, 393

  of Japanese 7, 297–8, 299, 314, 462

  starvation of Soviet 5, 26, 191, 193–4, 199, 264, 324, 462

  Rabaul 285, 286, 290, 291, 292, 293

  ration packs

  C 174, 440, 442, 443, 451

  composite 404, 405, 414, 440

  emergency 281, 410, 413, 441, 461

  operational 410, 411, 413, 441, 443

  10-in-1 441

  rationing 7, 10, 11, 14, 73, 108, 109, 115, 118, 123, 144, 150, 156, 166, 178, 195, 210, 220, 221, 225, 269, 279, 328, 367, 374, 418–19, 496, 498, 501

  as an instrument of welfare 10, 108, 395–9, 429

  cuts 7, 106, 136, 139, 157, 164, 181, 183, 194, 203, 210, 21, 245, 289–90, 310, 312, 362, 369, 371, 380–81, 383

  inadequate 11, 161, 166, 171, 193, 206, 312, 331, 370–71, 481

  see also under individual countries

  Red Sea 106, 126, 127, 403

  Reich Food Corporation (Reichsnährstand) 28, 29, 30, 77, 156, 160, 169, 374

  Rhodesias, the 1201, 121, 132–5, 138

  Ribbentrop, Joachim von 183, 377

  rice 4, 12, 14, 53, 61, 63, 70, 85, 115, 131, 149, 165, 173, 232, 239, 240, 254, 256, 266, 272, 294, 299, 300, 301, 305, 307–8, 365, 415, 451, 467, 497

  as relief aid 148, 150, 152, 481

  black market in 122, 131, 136, 143, 147, 237, 243, 252

  Burmese 67, 124, 129, 239, 497

  cultivation52, 53, 61, 79, 129, 132, 150, 229, 231, 235, 237–8, 243, 250–51, 285, 286

  exports to Japan 52, 228, 230, 234–5, 239, 240–43, 244, 245, 278, 286, 287

  industry/trade 148, 150, 230, 234, 235, 237, 243, 469

  price of 52–3, 58, 143, 146–7, 150, 233–4, 237, 241, 243, 247, 252–3, 278–9

  rationing 249, 287, 310

  riots 52

  shortages 145, 146, 147, 234, 240, 245, 246, 278, 281, 287, 290, 308, 420, 496–7

  switch to eating 3, 454, 456, 457, 460

  yield 234, 243, 252, 476

  Romania 34, 42, 69, 202, 342

  Rommel, Erwin

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. 68, 72, 112, 114, 152, 245, 426, 432, 478, 481

  and lend-lease 76, 108

  and the four freedoms 433, 476, 482

  food policy 77, 422

  Theodore Roosevelt 82

  Rosenberg, Alfred 36, 38, 187

  Russia see Soviet Union

  rye 21, 22, 28, 29, 195, 213, 351, 370, 379, 404, 437, 450, 540n

  Sakharov, Andrei 219, 225, 327, 330, 334, 346

  Samoa 453, 455–7, 459

  Sauckel, Fritz 210, 214, 215, 370

  Schacht, Hjalmar 29

  school dinners/lunch programme 396–7, 427–9

  Seabrook Farms 82–4, 445, 493

  second front 110, 111, 340

  Senoh, Kappa 280, 287

  Shanghai 246, 253, 260, 288

  shipbuilding industry 103, 105, 108, 116–17, 229, 242, 286, 349, 423

  shipping

  diversion from Indian Ocean 125, 136, 145

  losses 24, 103, 104, 110, 112, 113, 115, 117, 243, 244, 273, 286, 287, 315

  shortage 66, 68, 91, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103–11, 124–7, 29, 130, 138, 140, 145, 151, 152, 229 230, 239, 240, 295, 298, 361, 366, 389

  Siam 4, 230, 235, 236, 239, 283, 285

  Siberia 12, 92, 205, 288, 326, 334

  Singapore 236, 237, 245, 246, 283

  rationing in 240

  Solomon Islands 290, 291, 240, 454

  Somalia 31, 126, 130, 497

  Somervell, General B. B. 111, 113, 116, 439, 449

  South Africa 67, 107, 120, 128, 132, 133, 404, 413, 473

  south-east Asia see specific countries

  Soviet armed forces 130, 131

  behaviour in defeated Germany 342–3

  casualties 317, 319

  collection of food for 223–4, 323, 342

  corruption 321

  defeat of German armed forces 112, 177, 270, 303, 331–2, 342, 369

  disarray in early years 198, 318–19, 321–2

  food rations 319–20, 324, 340–41, 342, 437

  foraging for food 323–4

  growing food 341

  hunger in 318, 320, 321, 323, 341

  lack of preparation 318

  lend-lease aid for 77, 112, 114, 262, 336, 340, 341

  length of service tail 271

  motivation for fighting 462

  recovery 336

  see also eastern front

  Soviet Union 68, 112, 249–50, 467, 476, 480, 483, 485

  agriculture 38, 187, 188, 215, 219–27, 470–71, 489–90

  agricultural crisis 9, 226, 269

  attitude of citizens to government 10, 215, 462, 463, 499

  and China 249, 261

  and United States 177

  barter economy 339

  breakdown of economy 9, 325–8, 344, 464

  casualties 11, 317, 344–5, 471, 555n

  collective farm markets 226, 338–9

  collectivization 37, 220–21, 223, 226, 262, 325

  conscription 222

  corruption/privilege 333–4, 335, 343

  fear of punishment 223, 225, 332, 346, 464

  fertilizer industry 92

  food crisis 317–18, 319

  food policy 11, 224, 263, 319, 328, 336–7, 345

  food shortages 11, 12, 13, 214, 222, 224–5, 269–70, 327, 329, 331, 333, 335, 339, 343, 464, 490

  German invasion 37, 39, 63, 66, 187, 190, 320, 326

  government attitude to its citizens 10, 344–5

  government collection of food 223, 262

  industrial recovery 332, 335–6

  industrial workers in 306, 329–30, 333, 335, 340, 422, 423, 431

  lend-lease aid 339, 340, 341, 419

  loss of agricultural land 73, 219, 222, 226, 319

  malnutrition 343–4

  people’s ability to survive 214, 216, 217, 225

  post-war destruction 470–71

  preparation for war 184, 220, 319

  pre-war food economy 220–21, 226, 324, 325, 345

  private plots 225

  rationing in 77, 220, 221, 225, 327, 329–31, 334–5, 338, 339, 343, 471

  reasons for fighting 270, 324, 330, 332, 345–6, 416, 464

  starvation in 317–18

  trade with Germany 34, 35, 69

  victory gardens 334, 335, 337, 340–41

  see also aerial bombardment; black market; blockade; calorie consumption

  soya 54, 61, 69, 228, 232, 240, 246, 259, 277, 281, 286, 287, 290, 291, 305, 308, 310, 329, 393, 470

  as fodder 3, 19, 67

  increased production 85–7, 493

  impact on human health 87

  increasing occurrence in western diet 87, 493

  Spain 23, 67, 96, 232

  Speer, Albert 370, 371, 372

  Stalin, Joseph 32, 110, 112, 184, 186, 195, 220, 265, 329, 333, 336, 340, 344, 346, 464, 471, 485, 489

  Stalingrad 39, 321–3, 381

  Stephens, Ian 1, 142, 149

  sub-Saharan Africa 3, 489, 500

  substitute foods 287, 304–5, 308, 310, 327, 330–31, 337–8, 379, 420

  sugar 4, 18, 19, 20, 21, 29, 52, 53, 60, 67, 68, 69, 90, 109, 113, 115, 118, 122, 128, 174, 175, 195, 211, 217, 228–9, 239, 281, 286, 288, 330, 333, 334, 335, 339, 341, 351, 364, 377, 391, 392, 404, 422, 431, 451, 457, 470

  consumption 20, 21, 495

  rations 361, 362, 367, 407, 412, 419, 424, 439, 440, 442, 447, 451

  shortages 13, 170, 202, 225, 246, 287, 321, 327, 328, 382, 386, 389

  Switzerland 219

  Szczebrzeszyn 43, 44, 206, 208, 209, 211, 212

/>   Taiwan see Formosa

  taste 14, 284, 292, 360, 428, 441, 454, 460

  acquisition of new 3, 404, 418, 495, 496, 497

  attempts to improve ration 401, 410

  difference between American and Australian 446, 450

  lack of 13, 85, 101, 392, 440

  importance of fat for 13, 22, 157

  pleasant 237, 343, 374, 396, 475

  sugary 174

  standardization of 277, 428, 438, 495

  unpleasant 100, 197, 245, 297, 305, 307, 327, 392, 396

  tea 18, 19, 20, 31, 52, 67, 69, 115, 128, 131, 133, 177, 281, 283, 302, 310, 322, 325, 333, 334, 339, 351, 361, 364, 365, 369, 374, 377, 388, 400, 403, 404, 407, 410, 412, 414, 436, 447, 470, 496

  Thailand see Siam

  Thomas, General Georg 36, 38

  Tonga 453, 459

  total war 8, 9, 50, 54, 70, 72, 249, 268, 270, 346, 352, 377

  Townsville (Australia) 14, 448

  Treaty of Non-Aggression 1939 34, 35, 42, 69

  Tripartite Pact 63

  Truman, President Harry 316, 478, 479, 480

  Turkey 26, 130

  Tydings Amendment 79

  U-boats 8, 26, 66, 68, 69, 101, 102, 104, 105, 107, 117, 126, 366

  Allied losses caused by 103, 110

  construction 104, 110

  Ukraine 5, 40, 190, 191, 212, 218, 222, 226, 259, 382, 471

  collectivization in 221

  as source of food for Germany 37, 178, 180, 182, 183, 184, 187, 188, 196, 210, 214, 216, 217, 263

  German occupation policy 159, 187, 191, 223

  unconditional surrender 311, 312, 314

  underdeveloped countries 71, 141, 233, 262, 489

  unemployment 29, 54, 56, 78, 98, 172, 349, 352, 353, 394, 416, 417, 477

  United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) 151, 477, 478, 479, 481, 484, 485

  United States 68, 69, 74, 92, 110, 126, 248, 262, 279, 326

  abundance of food in 75–6, 87, 88, 118, 272, 416, 460

  agriculture in 8, 11, 19, 22, 68, 72, 75–88, 95, 100, 112, 158, 220, 265, 266, 420, 427, 476, 479, 411, 493

  agricultural policy 76, 77, 480–84, 489

  and Africa 133, 141

  and Australia 121, 443, 444, 446–50, 488–9, 492–3, 496

  and Britain 24, 97, 101, 113–14, 139, 141, 167, 262, 396, 488

  and China 248

  and Germany 2, 16, 21, 24, 30, 34, 104, 164

  and Japan 2, 8, 49, 50, 62, 63–4, 141, 253, 273, 275, 280, 300, 314–16, 497

  and Latin America 68

  and Pacific Islands 121, 452–60

  and Soviet Union 334

  advance in food technologies 10, 92, 388, 492–3

  as an economic power 64, 75, 88, 117, 261, 415, 419, 461, 474–5

  autarky 31, 262

  blacks in 11, 424–6

  casualties 317

  conscription 417

  dissatisfaction with rationing 431–3, 478, 479

  fertilizer industry 81, 92, 232, 489

  food policy 10, 77, 118, 419–20, 428

  growth in prosperity 417, 429

  internment of Japanese-Americans 80, 84

  laissez-faire policy 11, 419–20, 428

  idea of consumption as a key to prosperity 270, 433

  importance of meat 112, 431–2

  industrial workers in 417, 422–4, 429

  influence of food industry in 421–2, 424

  malnutrition in 417, 427

  meat diversion scheme 98, 110, 111, 114, 116, 125, 449

  motivation for fighting 416, 429–31, 433–4, 463

  pre-war food economy 417, 426–7

  problem/fear of surpluses 27, 75, 76, 427, 477

  rationing in 11, 109, 114, 116, 118, 418–22, 424, 430–31, 432, 439, 478

  school lunch programme 427–8

  unemployment in 416, 417

  victory gardens 418

  wartime improvement in diet 417–18

  see also black market; calorie consumption

  United States armed forces 98, 407

  casualties 315

  bases in Pacific Islands 453

  best fed 118, 415, 434–5, 436, 437, 452, 460

  food rations 140, 281, 282, 415, 416, 434–7, 439–42, 446, 448, 449, 451, 462

  length of service tail 271

  motivation for fighting 460–61

  new attitude to nutrition 10, 435, 436–8, 442–3

  troop welfare policy 435–6, 438–9

  size 415

  United States Department of Agriculture 76, 78, 421, 431, 476, 477, 478, 479, 484

  US War Food Administration 77n, 88, 422, 477

  urbanization 3, 21, 235

  vegetable oils 3, 4, 87, 156, 217, 256, 493

  vegetables 69, 77, 133, 167, 169, 173, 175, 198, 209, 239, 276, 280, 286, 288, 321, 340, 359, 413, 419, 444, 486, 490, 493

  availability/shortages 106, 203, 226, 232, 245, 262, 280, 289, 290, 296, 334, 338, 339, 366, 367, 378, 379, 380–81, 382, 394, 448, 449, 461, 479, 480

  consumption 20, 61, 79, 149, 174, 176, 256, 269, 276, 281, 307, 342, 344, 347, 351, 355, 373, 390–91, 394–5, 404, 405, 407, 408, 410, 412, 413, 418, 423, 428, 436–8, 441, 474, 495, 497

  difference in American and Australian taste in 450–51

  growing 9, 79, 80, 83–4, 85, 93, 137–8, 161, 163, 284, 290, 306, 335, 341, 390–91, 405, 433, 444–6

  matter 298, 302

  preparation 402, 409

  preserving 407–8

  Versailles, Treaty of 16, 25, 26

  vitamins 195, 275, 369, 240, 402, 409, 422

  attempts to address deficiency 225, 245, 277, 337, 389, 394, 396, 408–9, 413, 418, 436

  deficiency 13, 172, 176, 240, 245, 275, 290, 292, 311, 327, 339, 344, 350, 351–2, 363, 385, 394, 404, 405, 407, 411, 412, 413, 442, 460, 492, 500

  discovery of 268–9

  education about importance of 391–2, 405, 421

  fortified food 389, 411, 421, 494

  in wheat 20, 388

  rich foods 14, 20, 156, 280, 323

  Volksgemeinschaft 31, 353, 354, 355, 376

  Wannsee Conference 205

  Warsaw ghetto 5, 206–7, 209, 212, 263, 264

  war industries 8, 9, 66, 76, 88, 109, 122, 155, 158, 231, 286, 306, 310, 325, 328, 363, 368, 417, 425–6

  weight 499

  gain 246, 397, 411, 412–13, 436

  loss 5, 9, 25, 182, 203, 245, 304, 311, 335, 344, 368, 407, 442, 468, 472

  West Africa 3, 67, 68, 39–41

  wheat 21, 24, 28, 53, 70, 76, 87, 109, 125, 128, 163, 182, 222, 225, 256, 276, 282, 297, 412, 491

  as fodder 479, 480–81

  as relief aid 129, 130 151, 152, 167, 478, 479–81, 485

  as substitute for rice 124, 145, 278, 287, 467, 496–7

  cultivation 19–20, 22, 89–96, 98, 132, 163, 172–3, 220–21, 251, 469

  exports to Germany 171, 173, 217

  exports to Japan 246

  glut 444

  milling process 20, 354, 379, 388–9

  nutritional value 232, 387, 408, 411

  prices 4, 122, 143, 484

  shortages 129, 170, 173, 174, 250, 252, 471, 476

  stocks 104, 105, 129, 477

  Wickard, Claude 76, 114

  Wiepking-Jürgensmann, Heinrich 41, 47, 48

  Women’s Land Army 79, 94, 156

  women in industrial workforce 8, 66, 117, 181, 231, 306, 326, 329–30, 367, 369, 371, 424, 425

  Woolton, Lord 108, 109, 111, 115, 139, 361, 362, 366, 384, 392, 395, 396, 398, 428

  1. Herbert Backe, German Minister for Food and Agriculture and architect of the Hunger Plan. A typical Schreibtischtäter (desk perpetrator).

  2. A dispossessed Polish family, some of the thousands who were evicted from their farms to make way for the settlement of ethnic Germans.

  3. One of Norman Rockwell’s extremely popular illustrations of Roosevelt’s four freedoms, which reinforced the notion that Americans were fight
ing to defend their way of life.

  4. The British Ministry of Agriculture promoted potatoes as a perfect energy food by using the cheerful cartoon character Potato Pete.

  5. The practice of bartering for food in the countryside was endearingly known in German as ‘hamstering’. Severe food shortages in the urban areas meant that hamstering eventually became a vital source of food.

  6. For occupying troops in France the Wehrmacht’s policy of living off the land translated into living off the fat of the land. These German soldiers are buying cakes from a street stall in Paris in 1940.

  7. The banner on the side of the train reads, ‘First foodstuffs – Ukraine/Berlin’. While food was confiscated from the east, the German blockade of Ukrainian cities and the extermination of Polish Jews was intensified in order to remove ‘useless eaters’ from the food chain.

  8. A Jewish man suffering mistreatment from a civilian in the Ukraine, June 1941.

  9. All over the Soviet Union hundreds of thousands of peasants and workers were reduced to living in primitive circumstances. This woman is cooking on a makeshift oven in a suburb of Stalingrad.

  10. Two Malayan natives at an Australian treatment centre on the island of Balikpapan, Borneo, in July 1945. These Malayans, who had been brought to Borneo as forced labourers by the Japanese, are clearly suffering from severe malnutrition. Millions of south-east Asians died of hunger as a result of Japanese policies.

  11. Japanese soldiers cooking their rations on Muchu Island, New Guinea, in September 1945. The Japanese army did not cook for its soldiers in field kitchens; instead each man lit a small fire and prepared his own meal.

  12. After having been in action for a few days in the Sanananda area of Papua, during which they survived on a diet of bully beef and biscuits, these US troops are enjoying the opportunity to cook themselves a jungle stew using fresh food.

  13. A badly emaciated Japanese soldier on Sandaken, North Borneo, awaiting transportation to a prisoner of war camp in October 1945. The American blockade of Japanese shipping meant that Japanese soldiers throughout the Pacific were left without food supplies, with devastating effect.

  14. Japanese civilians approach some GIs who are lunching on K rations in Tokyo in August 1945. By the end of the war the Japanese urban population was teetering on the verge of starvation, and as this picture shows the townspeople grew vegetables amid the ruins in order to survive.

  15. Australian naval personnel delighted by the soup, steak and onions, fresh peas, potatoes, bread and butter, strawberry ice cream and coffee piled up on their American mess trays. These Australians were discovering for themselves that the US military was the best fed in the world.