An Army marches on its stomach, observed Napoleon, a hundred and fifty years later General Rommel remarked that the British should always be attacked before soldiers had had an early morning cup of tea. This book, written to raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund and with a Foreword by General Lord Dannatt, sets out the human story of the food and "brew-ups" of the front-line soldier from the Boer War to Helmand. Throughout, the importance of the provision of food, or even a simple mug of tea, for morale and unit fellowship as well as for the need of the calories required for battle is highlighted with many examples over the century. For many, until 1942, the basis of food was "bully beef" and hard biscuit, supplemented by whatever could be found locally, all adequate but monotonous. Sometimes supply failed, on occasions water also. The extremes of hardship being when regiments were besieged, as in Ladysmith in the Boer War and Kut el-Amara in Iraq in the 1914-18 war. At Kut soldiers had, at best, hedgehogs or birds fried in axle-grease with local vegetation. On the Western Front the Retreat from Mons in August 1914 was almost as severe. The transport of food is as interesting a story as the food itself, ranging from oxen, horses, mules, camels, even reindeer and elephants to motor transport and aircraft in different theatres at different times. The first airdrop of food, not very successful, was in fact at Kut el-Amara in 1916. The inter-war years experiences of mountaineers and polar explorers, supplemented by academic diet studies of the unemployed in London and North England led to the introduction of the varied composite, or 'compo' rations, marking an enormous improvement in soldiers' food, an improvement commented upon by the bully beef and biscuits-fed 8th Army advancing into Tunisia from Libya on meeting the 1st Army which had landed in Algeria with tins of compo. The Italian campaigns of 1943-45, especially the Salerno and Anzio landings and the battle for Monte Cassino, presented particular difficulties. At Cassino food reached forward units on mules with Basuto muleteers and Indian porters for the last stage to men in ground holes or scrapes. Soldiers landing in Normandy and fighting on into Germany were generally well fed even during a hard 1944-45 winter. The worst suffering, though, fell on soldiers in the Burma campaign, especially in the Chindit columns. In one unit, the only food available at one time was the chaplain's store of Communion wafers. Many men died unnecessarily from the results of poor feeding. In the end of empire colonial campaigns soldiers were generally well fed even if the food was monotonous. Units in the Korean War experienced difficulties at the onset; in the Borneo jungle campaigns of the 1960s the problem was not so much the provision of food for patrols as how to eat it without the smell of the food and refuse from the packs giving positions away. For the Falklands War special cold weather compo had to be provided and was eaten on the long 'yomps' or 'tabs' marches. The soldier on the streets of Northern Ireland often lived on egg "banjo" sandwiches but real hardship was suffered by one Welsh battalion besieged by the Serbs in Gorazde during the Bosnia operations when Vitamin C deficiency led to scurvy. The book ends with food supply, often based on whole or part swapping with American military food (usually below British standards) in the Iraq operations and in Afghanistan. An appendix sets out the contents of a typical box of rations issued to a soldier in Helmand in 2011, very generous in quantity and easily prepared. One side of the box carries a stern message to the effect that a soldier must consume the entire contents in order to maintain full fighting efficiency. Such injunctions were not marked on the boxes of food sent forward to the troops in the Boer War; there the boxes were stamped with the initials of the Senior Catering Office Field Force. "Scoffs here at last." The work has been compiled from documents in the Royal Logistic Corps Museum at Deepcut, from memoirs, letters and interviews, and from the superb collection of regimental histories in the library of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. All royalties due to the author for this book will be sent to the Army Benevolent Fund, The Soldiers' Charity.

Written by a team from the U.S. Army's Combat Feeding Directorate at the Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center, this technical volume represents a comprehensive guide to how the military designs, processes, customizes, packages and distributes highly palatable, long shelf-life food products for field personnel. The book offers new data on numerous technologies used to solve problems such as nutrient densification, lightweighting, novel thermal processing, and long-term quality preservation in delivering appetizing foods and more. Testing techniques are explained for evaluating sensory qualities of foods and their effects on physical and cognitive performance.

From enlistment in 1914 to the end of service in 1918, British men's bodies were constructed, conditioned, and controlled in the pursuit of allied victory. Physical Control, Transformation and Damage in the First World War considers the physical and psychological impact of conflict on individuals and asks the question of who, in the heart of war, really had control of the soldier's body. As men learned to fight they became fitter, healthier, and physically more agile, yet much of this was quickly undone once they entered the fray and became wounded, died, or harmed their own bodies to escape. Employing a wealth of sources, including personal testimonies, official records, and oral accounts, Simon Harold Walker sheds much-needed light on soldiers' own experiences of World War I as they were forced into martial moulds and then abandoned in the aftermath of combat. In this book, Walker expertly synthesizes military, sociological, and medical history to provide a unique top-down history of individual soldiers' experiences during the Great War, giving a voice to the thousands of missing, mutilated, and muted men who fought for their country. The result is a fascinating exploration of body cultures, power, and the British army.

People eat and drink very differently throughout their life. Each stage has diets with specific ingredients, preparations, palates, meanings and settings. Moreover, physicians, authorities and general observers have particular views on what and how to eat according to age. All this has changed frequently during the previous two centuries. Infant feeding has for a long time attracted historical attention, but interest in the diets of youngsters, adults of various ages, and elderly people seems to have dissolved into more general food historiography. This volume puts age on the agenda of food history by focusing on the very diverse diets throughout the lifecycle.

IN THIS VOLUME:- Editorial The Indian Ocean – Future Challenges —Air Cmde Jasjit Singh Civil Power and the Army — Lt Gen SK Sinha The Rationalisation of Para Military Forces —Lt Gen ML Chibber Internal Security and CI Operations in Urban Areas — Lt Gen PN Kathpalia Nuclear War in South Asia – The Worth Case —Maj Gen Satinder Singh Medical Support of the Ground Forces in NBC Warfare — Col KP Saksena Military Budgetting and National Security — Brig NB Grant The Computer and its Effects on Management from Army to Regimental Level — Col BS Ramdas The Afghan Problem and South Asian Perceptions — IDR Research Team An Indian MBT for the 21st Century — IDR Research Team Window on Pakistan – Turbulence in Sind — Samuel Baid Weapons and Technology — Maj Gurmeet Kanwal Letter to Editor

Easter Sunday, 23 April 2000. Time: 19.50.A diver’s paradise in Malaysia turns in seconds into a tropical hell for the Wallert family. An extremist Islamic rebel group takes them hostage and they are transferred to the Philippine island of Jolo. The days, and then months, become a torture for the hostages as the carefully planned commando operation tries to extort political concessions and money from the Philippine government. Ten divers from Germany, France, South Africa, Lebanon and Finland, and eleven hotel employees and WWF rangers find themselves political chips of Philippine and international politics — and of the media —as the fate of the author, his wife Renate, his son Marc, their fellow captives and the heavily armed hostage-takers is followed day by day for weeks by journalists and the media. This true story tells the experiences of the hostages—what they lived through and suffered, and their hopes, anxieties and disappointments. Marc Wallert was the last member of the author’s family to be freed. The last chapters capture what life is like as a short-term-celebrity after the release.

Janet Macdonald, author of the acclaimed Feeding Nelson's Navy, now turns her attention to food in the British Army over the past two centuries. Napoleon's remark 'an army marches on its stomach' has become an over-used cliche. It is a simple statement and undoubtedly true, but like many such simple statements, the actuality of what fills that stomach and how it is provided is far more complex.The more you think about this subject, the more questions come to you: what did the British soldier eat: how was it cooked? Did it provide a proper diet or were there health problems from vitamin and other deficiencies? Did all ranks eat the same way? Who organised the whole thing? Here then, are the answers to those questions, with some insights into the personalities who made a difference—the unsung heroes of the British military machine.

Professional publication of the RD & A community.