Day to Day Life Overseas!

[twobisquit]

(Marion's note: This topic was split off from another. We felt that it deserved it's own spot.)

 

Hey people. We are not all dead yet. Stop trying to bury us yet already. Makes us feel bad. Sure we like to talk about some things. Other things go into our "selective memory" and get forgotten, usually. Ask us anything, like conditions, food, equiptment, morale, uniforms, different outfits we liked and disliked, discharge point system ETC.

 

In fact, I still am in E mail with 2 other guys from my old 7th Inf Reg. 3rd Inf Div. from ww 2 and we sure have some B.S. sessions about the "old days" and how we are doing now. Surprisingly, most of us returned to civilian life with one thing in mind. Going to work and getting ahead and continueing our life. And Marion, I am afraid to put too many things on this forum as you may advance me in my PFC rank which I would not like. I was, still am, just a PFC Infantry rifleman in my mind.

[Custermen]

Surprisingly, most of us returned to civilian life with one thing in mind. Going to work and getting ahead and continueing our life.

Hmm. That is not the ONE thing that I would have tought you would say.

Thanks for setting us straight.

I have been listening to a DVD entitled "The Last Reunion" of the 337th Infantry Regiment, which contains hours of interviews. One wife said she wanted to send her husband something special for Christmas. She had saved up her money to buy it. She wrapped her Christmas present very carefully with this special surprise as the center piece. The GI got the present and opened it to find a can of SPAM!

Spam was scarce in the States so she thought it would be a treat for her husband.

My Dad told about one of his buddies got some potatoes and he began frying them along the advance to Rome. An artillery shell struck nearby and everyone began to move and seek cover. They yelled back at him to take cover. His reply was something like "Not until I finish cooking my French Fries".

 

j3rdinf, do you have any stories about food? Did you guys ever find a special treat from the locals that you cooked up?? What was the best meal you ever had?

 

Steve

[Walt's Daughter]

Hey people. We are not all dead yet. Stop trying to bury us yet already. Makes us feel bad.

 

Sorry my dear! I apologize if it upset you or anyone else. I don't think that was my intent or Paul's (one of your fellow WWII vets). Trust me I don't blame you for not wanting to hear of such things, but I think the reason we posted it here and why it's been talked about before was to bring home a point to appreciate everyone while they are still here. And to that I say a big AMEN!

 

Now, let's get onto more pleasant territory. Yes, we would love to hear more stories from you on anything you'd love to talk about. I like Custerman's question regarding food too. There is so much I want to know about army infantryman and engineers from an everyday standpoint. My dad is not here to answer my questions anymore.

 

I would STILL love to create a page for you so people can see what you are all about and to hear the things you would love to discuss with us.

 

And oh my dear, please don't stop posting because of the rank system. I apologize if it is stopping you, but it's just kind of a fun thing for us and other sites like us. Oh my God, I'm certainly not a general! Though my husband might beg to differ on that sometimes.

[j3rdinf]

Hey Marion: I really meant that first line as a "funny" and did not take offence . And believe me I know how many ww2 vets have passed on. Now to question about food.

Mostly it was K and C rations with a occsasional" hot" meal brought up but always with

good hot coffee. A dogface was fueled by 3 things, coffee, cigarettes and looted booze.

When lucky to stop for a while in a shelled out village we "looked for" eggs, fat, and the

Kraut black bread. Also any chickens around and potatoes. This sure aided our meals

of K and C rations. Many times fires were not possible and our rations were cold. However setting a empty K ration inner waxed package on end it was possible to heat up a canteen cup of water when you liit the waxed box. This at least gave you fairly hot coffee from the breakfast ration coffee tin or package. (powdered). Sugar was also

included. I think that food was always on our mind. Crumbling the C ration round bisquits, adding sugar, dinner cocoa powder, and a crumbled fruit bar into some water

and heating over a waxed liner for heat made a nice supper dessert. The damn D ration bar was the last resort food. Good only for knawing on in a dire emergency.

Some kind of a almost inedible choclate ? bar but packed with calories they say. The

dinner K ration can of cheese with crackers was also a favorite. But not the lemonaide

package with it. A can of spam would be a blessing but was only with some "hot meals"

and not distributed to us. It would have made a nice meal though. The 10 in one meals were almost non extent to us and possibly part of "hot chow" when possible.

Not complaing, just explaining. Any more qustions???

[Walt's Daughter]

Okay so we're all happy!

 

Boy what you said about the rations is what I've heard from any GI I've talked to in the past, especially the part about the chickens and the chocolate energy bar. That seems to permeate even the movies and shows on WWII too. Seems that every time I watch an old movies or old episodes of Combat, they are always chasing down a good chicken or two!

 

It's amazes me how long you guys went without food, or if you had food, what you REALLY had to exist on. I'd be dying because I am always hungry. I'm just a little thing, but I LOVE to eat. I can't imagine being hungry ALL the time. And then to think, that is just ONE thing you had to deal with.

 

Personally for you, were you ever privy to any special meals? You know like Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.? How often did you get packages from home?

 

Believe me I have a million questions, but we'll start slow and then go like hell!

[j3rdinf]

Now that you mention it Marion, did miss one Christmas meal. Some things just cant be helped I guess. As both myself, my only brother and my Dad were all serving it was

a bit difficult for Mom to send over that many packages. However I did recieve at least

one a month. Usually some cookies, saradines which I loved and some kind of a canned plumb pudding.. Now, my Aunt Helen knew the best thing. A fresh baked loaf

of bread, cut lengthwise with most of the inside torn out and a pint of Old Grandad bourbon sealed inside. This was quickly devoured by the squad. Never found one broken. Of course the packages were occasionally lost in transit, but usually we recieved them in a few weeks sometimes.

Just like mail arriving. Usually 10 days worth or so at a time. Always started reading the older ones first.. The "V mail" was good but not much space for a long letter.

I often wonder where the letters to KIA's , MIA's, and WIA's went . Hopefully the WIA's

followed them, but the others?????. Maybe this is not the correct place on this forum to

add any more postings Possibly another topic should be used if you wish. You got me

started though. Aint you sorry. Will reread your post on pics and later try posting one.

Right now I have about 50 WW 2 pics in my photo storage on Comcast.net of my few pics and many from a friend of mine from the same 7th Inf Reg who although in a different part of the 7th Reg. was platoon ldr. (Lt.) of I&R platoon if you have any interest..

[Walt's Daughter]

Just love the bread with hidden liquor inside. What a GREAT aunt you had! She was probably the favorite aunt in the platoon. God bless you Aunt Helen!

 

Did you say that your brother and dad were both serving too? Wow, did everyone come home okay? That had to be very hard on your mom.

 

 

I often wonder where the letters to KIA's , MIA's, and WIA's went . Hopefully the WIA's followed them, but the others?.

 

I wonder too. Can you imagine the thousands of letters that were sent with no one to receive them? Now that would make quite a book wouldn't it? Hmmm. Not that I haven't got enough else to do, but that may give me an idea for the future.

 

Hey we can take these posts and start a new topic. Heck, why don't we go that? Hey it's my forum, so we shall. Let's start a topic title. How about Day to Day Life overseas?

[j3rdinf]

"Did you say that your brother and dad were both serving too? Wow, did everyone come home okay? That had to be very hard on your mom." Yes, quite true. Fact is my dad

(not reg. army and couldnt enlist again finally "volunteered for the draft" and was excepted at age 46.) The same time he was comming home on a hospital ship after being badly wounded in France I was heading over to the ETO. Took me about 10 weeks to find out his condition. Made me kinda unhappy with the Krauts to say the least.. And yes, my brother was a gunner in the Air Force, while I was just a dogface.

Kinda hard on Mom during this time, also shortened her life as she died about 2 years after the war. My dad survived after a stay in the hospital, and all three of us came home thank God. This was quite a reunion. Damn it, you got me thinking of things

that happened and will continue as memory serves and time allows. You really have me

thinking back a ways. And yes, my dad was a ww 1 wounded vet in France also. He was born Apr. '1898. Also had one cousin (Ray Kelly) who was a surviving member of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. He was also transferred to the Yorktown which was

bad news. But he survived the war also. All of this is actual facts and can be verified.

[James Pickering]

..........The GI got the present and opened it to find a can of SPAM! Spam was scarce in the States so she thought it would be a treat for her husband ...........

I think most of the SPAM produced in the US in 1940-1942 must have gone to Britain and Russia.

 

I am not sure if it is anecdotal or not, but I read somewhere that Nikita Kruschev said that the Red Army would have foundered and starved if it wasn't for SPAM.

 

I know that in Britain SPAM was almost always available on ration and for many families became the multi-purpose meat of wartime existence. I can still vividly remember my father slicing and frying Spam as a substitute for bacon/ham as he fixed Sunday morning breakfast in the early War years. I still like SPAM -- we buy it at he grocery store all the time!

[texas38]

I can't speak to the scarcity of it since I was just a kid and ate what Mother served, but I remember eating Spam quite well. In fact, it was a favorite of mine. We continued to eat it after the war, too. Then I grew up and went off to start my own household and somehow or other, Spam got forgotten. One day, years later, I happened to spot it on the shelf in the market and I thought, "Hey! I haven't had that in a long time!" So I bought it and went home and served it for dinner. Well, I guess tastes and/or habits change over the years without even realizing it because that Spam was sooo salty I swear it made my tongue raw. So, no more Spam in my house. Someone told me, "Oh, they have low sodium Spam, now." Thanks, but I'll just stick to fond memories. But as a side note, has anyone been to Hawaii? Those people had to eat Spam during the war and never gave it up. McDonald's features Spamburgers and those people really lap it up!

 

Oh, well. Whatever makes you happy.

 

Marilyn