Rationing

Hi Folks,

It's high time for me to learn something about the rationing that happened during the war years, and I thought it would be great to get a thread going in here about it, for us all to add to and read.

As I write this, I'm already ahead of myself imagining fixing my snack of cream cheese with raspberry jam topping it, both liberally smeared on bread ... my evening snack I'm sure some treat like this would have been a godsend to anyone through those rationing years?

Our younger generations don't seem to have a clue what deprivation is because even our deprivation comes with abundance that many would have sold their souls for to feed their families?

I guess I'd like to know things like "WHAT" was rationed and how people coped.

Thanks in advance for any input here!

Karmen

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Vets Dottir
I guess I'd like to know things like "WHAT" was rationed and how people coped.

Both my parents lived through WW2, one in Indonesia, the other in Holland. My Mom is always proud to tell she lived through the harsh winter of '44-'45 on tulip bulbs!

H.

[Tony Smith]

Australian troops returning to Australia from the Middle East in 1942 stopped in Ceylon while Churchill and Curtin argued over their final destination, Burma or Australia. From letters from home, they knew tea was in short supply and stocked up. One soldier in a battalion history is reported to have dumped the contents of his kit bag overboard and filled it with tea when re-embarking, making a tidy profit upon retuning home.
On the contrary, in New Zealand many farms were left with unharvested crops, unshorn sheep and unmilked cows due to a manpower shortage, with a surplus of most produce.. Some battalions had to be prematurely demobbed to provide manpower for home production.

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
Both my parents lived through WW2, one in Indonesia, the other in Holland. My Mom is always proud to tell she lived through the harsh winter of '44-'45 on tulip bulbs!

H.

I've heard about this eating of tulip bulbs in Holland many times ... wow and thank god for tulip bulbs if they sustained peoples lives. How did your Mom prepare them? Or did she just eat them raw? I wonder what they taste like?

I know that since joining MLU I've come to appreciate tulips in a different way, which I've always loved anyways for their vibrant colours and shapes ... beauty ... but their service to the Dutch hungry people, and their symbolism as a bond between Holland and Canadian Soldiers/Canada is wonderful. I never see "just" beautiful flowers when I see tulips anymore

K.

Originally posted by Tony Smith
One soldier in a battalion history is reported to have dumped the contents of his kit bag overboard and filled it with tea when re-embarking, making a tidy profit upon retuning home.

Ah, the entrepreneurial spirit or aka great opportunist who was appreciated by tea lovers back home I'm sure I can NOT imagine doing daily life, or life at all, life without my coffee!!!

On the contrary, in New Zealand many farms were left with unharvested crops, unshorn sheep and unmilked cows due to a manpower shortage, with a surplus of most produce.. Some battalions had to be prematurely demobbed to provide manpower for home production.

Interesting to draw attention to this part as most people immediately only think of hunger and scarcity during those years. It must have been so awful to see the crops and all go to waste when so desperately needed ... and ouch, those poor unmilked cows ... that engorgement really had to hurt them

K.

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

Rationing went on in Britain until many years after the war. Somewhere in my loft I have my grandmothers last ration book which was dated 1955, the year before I was born.

I can remember as a child in the 1960's, that several of the older local women (in their 50's and 60's) that I knew in my local village still kept tinned milk supplies in their pantries just in case they went through rationing again.

In Britain immediately after the war rationing got tighter than it had been during the actual war. This was because we were sending considerable supplies into war ravished Europe, and not just to the liberated countries like Holland and France, but even to Germany, as it was realised that if starvation and malnourishment got any worse there civil society would breakdown completely.

Britain embarked on an enormous increase in mechanisation during the war years, as it had previously in 1917. The Americans came to an arrangement whereby, if they supplied tractors, combine harvesters etc. under a form of war aid we would provide food for American troops stationed here.

Many families here received food packages from American soldiers who had visited them in their homes, and had been appalled by how small our civilian rations were.

My mother told tales of the American Airman who smuggled a cooked chicken out of his base and gave to her father.

A friends mother used to tell of the great generosity of American negro Engineering Battalions who built the airfields in Northamptonshire.

They saved their rations to put together surprise parties for local children, dressing up as Red Indian', Pirates, etc, and setting off into the countryside in 2.5 tonne trucks to round up the children.

Sadly at first the Red Indian raiders were all too real for one of her friends, who ran away as fast as her little legs would go screaming away in fright, until reassured that these were not cannibals she had taken them for but friends.

Rationing was very hard for civilian workers, and urban peoples. It was not quite so bad in rural areas and farms.

My father left school in summer 1945 having lived on boarding school food, and being really hungry often.

Having his call up deferred because of the end of the war, he went onto a farm in Shropshire. He recalls the delight of having a cheese provided on the sideboard that they were quite welcome to help themselves to, after their main meal was over.

Photographs show that he grew in girth and muscle volume substantially within months.

Two of my mothers brothers emigrated immediately following the war. I have letters they sent back to my grandmother, and the first letters from both one son in New Zealand and another in America both go on at length about just how great the food was, and how freely it was available compared with Britain.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Tony Smith

On the contrary, in New Zealand many farms were left with unharvested crops, unshorn sheep and unmilked cows due to a manpower shortage, with a surplus of most produce.. Some battalions had to be prematurely demobbed to provide manpower for home production.

Tony,

In Britain, there was an organisation called the Women's Land Army, I believe Australia had one also, presume NZ did not hence the problems you mention.

The WLA was formed to replace the male farm workers who were called up. My mother was one of the "Land Girls", and very proud she is of what they achieved. She was on a large estate in Worcestershire, looking after the cows, and her favourites, the Hereford bulls. From reading an account from one of her fellow land girls on the same farm, they grew carrots for the local American Army base, but did not know till later, that they hated carrots!

To get back to rationing, I do not think clothes have been mentioned?

Richard

[Tony Smith]

Australia did have a Women's Land Army, and also had the use of POW's and internee's. The Italian POWs were quite productive and co-operative, with many choosing to settle here at war's end. The German POWs and internees slightly less so. The Japanese POWs were quite steadfastly unco-operative.
Japanese made up a far larger proportion of New Zealand POWs, and I would presume they also had a similar attitude to co-operating.

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Richard,

Just behind my childhood home in Rutland was an old Land Army camp. It took the form of a Nissen Hut and a brick built water tower.

Many of the middle aged ladies in the village had been in the Land Army and had arrived in the village through becoming members of the Land Army.

Mrs Day, Mrs Green, Mrs Nash, Mrs Harris etc. etc. These were some of the nicest, hardest working ladies one could imagine, and they stuck together for years after the war in the way they had as Land Girls in the war.

Mrs Day used to look after me, and came to own the camp, which she turned into a house.

They used to tell the most amusing tales of events in and around the camp.

The Land girls comprised a real mix of girls coming from all walks of life, and many came from urban slum dwellings, who had never seen the countryside, whilst others came from richer backgrounds and really struggled to cope with the mud, cold and physical work.

Italian and German prisoners of war made up the other part of the workforce.

In 1945 the local village football team was comprised of 9 Germans & two 16 year old villagers.

The Germans were kept in a hutted prison camp, but the Italian's bedded down in farm barns. One of these barns still had lovely murals on its walls as late as the 1970's, when I last climbed into the hayloft.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Richard Farrant]

Hello Nick,

It is intersting to hear that the former land girls in your area, still remain close by. Assume they married local men. Near where I live in Kent, a former WLA hostel, is now the Brenzett Aeronautical Museum, full of WW2 artifacts, mostly aircraft parts that have been excavated in the area as well as a remarkable collection of WW2 bomb disposal equipment. The Museum holds a WLA reunion annually and again, a fair number still live in this area. These hostels were mostly for where the girls were used as a form of labour pool, going to work where needed. In my mother's case, she was "posted" to a family estate and lived in a cottage with others and a housekeeper.

Richard

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

As this is a list dedicated to old vehicles, and populated by a lot of Colonial farmers, I have posted a photo of machine to keep you all contented.

In order to get the food production up in Britain the government established the War Agricultural Committees which advised farmers on methods, provided machinery, and even took over failing farms.

There are several really good books wrtten at the time by A G Street and a Wiltshire farmer called Hosier describing the work. Britain's farmers had gone through a series of terrible recessions in the 1880's, 1900's 1920's due to competition from cheap colonial imports of foodstuffs.

Under invested and with large areas out of production (just like today) they suddenly had to bring into production areas of land which had not been ploughed since the Napoleonic Wars or before the Black Death.

Tremendous numbers of machines were shipped here, and old machines like steam traction engines and Australian stump busters imported in 1917 were pulled out of the stinging nettles and brambles where they had rusted since 1919.

Teams worked around the clock to get land prepared. In my teens I used to work farms at harvest with the men who had done this work 30 years before. They took great pride in telling me of the struggles they had had harvesting flax on the 70 acre field, and of ploughing through the terrible winters of 1939-40, and 1947.

In their own quiet way, and now unrecognised way, these men and girls, made just as important a contribution as many a soldier, sailor or airman.

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

One last photo.

HE WORK OF THE WOMEN'S LAND ARMY IN THE RECLAMATION OF FEN LAND, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND, 1942
Land Girls Ivy Reid, Alice Crook, Joy Godsall and a colleague dig an old bog oak out of this piece of reclaimed fen land in Cambridgeshire. The original caption stated that this tree was over 100 years old.

The caption should read "over 1000 years old" because these trees are remnants of an ancient 2,000 to 4,000 year old forest that ran along the Fen Edge. As the waters rose with global cooling, they fell and were swallowed up in Fen peat.

These trees have become like iron, and weigh many many tonnes. They are hard to remove even now with a thirty tonne excavator.

These poor girls have the job of doing it by hand.

I don't fancy the state of their backs, that night!

Regards

Nick Balmer

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

Who's going to be leading who?

Regards

Nick

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Nick Balmer
Who's going to be leading who?

Nick,

A good question, without a doubt he has the advantage of weight.

Ha It could have been her, but it is the wrong breed.

I have just come across a BBC website where people have been asked to submit their memories of Britain during the War. One of my mother's Land Army friends, wrote an account of their life. It mentions when mother had to chase an escaped bull through the village to recapture him, a man who saw what was happening, hid behind a gate.

Richard

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Nick Balmer

In order to get the food production up in Britain the government established the War Agricultural Committees which advised farmers on methods, provided machinery, and even took over failing farms.

Nick,

My grandfather was invalided out of the First World War and was then involved with the War Ag at that time. He used to tell me of the steam engines and early tractors that they had to maintain, Titans, Moguls, the first Fordsons, etc.

Richard

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Richard,

I have had a bit of experience using these poles to lead Jersey and Lincoln Red bulls.

Mostly, its not too bad as the ring in his nose is in quite a sensitive place and he will not pull or push too hard, but on one occasion I had to capture a bull that had broken out of his field, and who was very determined to get at some nice available young heifers up the lane.

I managed to get the hook in in place after several attempts, but how to turn a very worked up bull in a Cornish sunken lane, that was barely wider than the bull was long, was quite beyond me. So I ended up trying to restain the bull's further progress.

Thankfully after about quarter of an hour jousting, the cow man realised that I was missing, and came to find me.

Was I relieved.

Regards

Nick

[Nick Balmer]

Hello Richard,

I went to look for a photograph of one of the big Australian stump busters I have somewhere, but failing that..


AMERICAN FARMERS VISIT BRITAIN: LEND-LEASE EQUIPMENT IN ACTION, UK, 1943
Land Girl Kathleen Johnson demonstrates the ploughing capabilities of a Caterpillar D2 tractor and Oliver deep digger plough to Mr Heline, Mr Howard and Mr Robinson on grassland, somewhere in Buckinghamshire. The plough is from the Oliver Farm Equipment Company of Chicago.

Regards

Nick

[Nick Balmer]

Hello,

All that webbing needed flax.

It had to be pulled, and preferably when wet. It was an awlful job.

Here's a photo from World War 1.

Regards

Nick

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Nick Balmer
All that webbing needed flax.

Nick,

I know this thread is getting a little off rationing, but to follow up on flax. Where I used to get my sandblasting done, it was known as the old flax factory. The building the chap used was intriuging as it had a heavy steel door almost like a bank vault. It transpired that this building was converted from a large concrete tank for the flax to be soaked in, and the door was access to empty the tank once drained and process completed. Not sure if it originated from WW1 or 2.

Richard

Hello everyone, amazing posts here!

As ever, I love how a thread in MLU can pull out so many great stories and details, and photos, from so many folks in different places in the world ... but then again, WW2 and it's impacts effected everyone all over the world ... and so many countries, militaries, and citizens joined in cooperation efforts.

I so often wish I'd never been moved away from back home and everyone there as a little kid, to be taken out of that environment for basically the rest of my life until now, because I really feel I truly lost out on soooo much ... that just "being there" hearing the spontaneous personal memories and stories, and conversations, from people about all those times of life ... I missed out bigtime and now most people with the stories are passed on already.

Below is a link to a site I found that briefly talks about rationing (which even mentions a bit about clothing rationing!!! )

http://www.edwardwillett.com/Columns/warrationing.htm

Keep the stories coming

Karmen

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Vets Dottir
As ever, I love how a thread in MLU can pull out so many great stories and details, and photos, from so many folks in different places in the world ...

Karmen,

Sorry for deviating away from your original theme. You may like to take a look at the following BBC website. They invited people to write their WW2 memories and have compiled a website. I only chanced upon it and found my mother mentioned in one of the Land Army stories.

Here is section on memories of rationing;
www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/

Richard

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally posted by Vets Dottir
I've heard about this eating of tulip bulbs in Holland many times ... wow and thank god for tulip bulbs if they sustained peoples lives. How did your Mom prepare them? Or did she just eat them raw? I wonder what they taste like?

I actually don't know! I do know you can't eat them raw, according to one recipe I found they were easy to prepare: peel like an onion, remove the heart (poisonous) and then boil. It was then made into bread or mixed with the food from the central food kitchens. No doubt many recipes existed...

H.

Originally posted by Richard Farrant
Karmen,

Sorry for deviating away from your original theme. You may like to take a look at the following BBC website. They invited people to write their WW2 memories and have compiled a website. I only chanced upon it and found my mother mentioned in one of the Land Army stories.

Here is section on memories of rationing;
www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/

Richard

Hi Richard,

Isn't it great to browse online and happen upon mention of family and other loved ones like this? I'm still thrilled I found my Grandpa listed in WW1 archives, I didn't know if he had served until then and now I even have access onmline to his assessment papers I love the internets positives! I'm amazed by something every day

I'm totally enjoying this thread and it's interesting stories and freeflows ... and thanks for giving that link. I'll check it out

Karmen

Originally posted by Hanno Spoelstra
I actually don't know! I do know you can't eat them raw, according to one recipe I found they were easy to prepare: peel like an onion, remove the heart (poisonous) and then boil. It was then made into bread or mixed with the food from the central food kitchens. No doubt many recipes existed...

H.

Hello Papa Hanno

I Googled various words for tulip bulb recipes but didn't come up with anything really, YET. I'll look some more. I'm curious. I'll bet many recipes were "oral" tradiiton (no pun intended )

Karmen

[Max Hedges]

after all these years my mother still has some motor sprit ration tickets. She also rembers clothing coupons were still in use in 1949 and since mums parents lived on a property they had plenty of butter they would trade the butter coupons for sugar coupons.
Max

[Noel Burgess]

My Mother ran a Ladies Hairdressing shop during the war in Redcar (North Yorkshire). Today she was recounting how war-time shortages effected that business:

Named Beauty Probucts, Shampoos etc were severely restricted - these were kept to be sold as something special at christmas.

My mothers "leg makeup" was well known and highly sought after in the area (because of the severe shortage of nylon/silk stockings) and she and her friends, in common with many women, would draw a "seam" down the back of thier legs to simulate stockings.

She also said that something as simple as a comb was a scarce item. When she did manage to "get hold" of a delivery of them there was a queue down the street from the shop.