Dining in the trenches of World War One (this is the real IB stuff)

Hello our dear readers, hope youre all doing well and enjoying life, just like us bagels are since we have an HL+SL history test tomorrow. YAY. (sense the sarcasm) Anyway, World War One is pretty much all we can think about right now, so we decided to include it to our blog as well. We're gonna be talking about the foods that the soldiers ate and the demands WW1 placed on the home front. So unless youre an IB History student (and maybe even then), this is gonna be really boring for you and we suggest you leave. Tho we ought to be studying so this isnt gonna be long.

Often food wasnt even available for the soldiers. The catering service wasnt exactly functioning if angry Germans were killing the French on the Western Front or the Russians on the Eastern Front. They didnt get a lunch break. Theoretically a British soldier would get this on a daily basis:

560 grams of bread OR 448 grams of flour OR 112 grams of oatmeal

84 grams of cheese

18 ounces of tea

112 grams of jam OR 112 grams of dried fruit

14 grams of salt

0,8 grams of pepper

1,4 grams of mustard

224 grams of vegetables

0,05 liters or rum OR 1 pint of porter

560 grams of tobacco

1/3 chocolate

112 grams of butter

56 grams of dried vegetables 

Now that might sound rather modest, when you take into consideration the fact that these people are fighting a war (imagine how much energy it takes to kill just one person and multiply that with 10438052. These people really need food. Or actually the better solution would be if people would stop killing each other just to expand their territory. I mean come on would you get over your problems and stop killing other living organisms for no good reason. Every living organism is a biological miracle, just imagine what a single cell can do, alone. Ok MOVING ON). However, when you compare it to this theoretical daily ration of a German soldier, the British are gonna start to seem fortunate. 

742 grams of bread OR 490 grams of biscuits

392 grams of egg biscuit

1484 grams = 1,484 kilograms of potatoes

126 grams of vegetables

56 grams of dried vegetables

Looks like the British blockades on Germany were working, huh. At least there was a bit more variation in their menu. Poor Germans. And they didnt even win.

USA used strong propaganda to appeal to their citizens, and that way save supplies for the Allied forces. Take a look.

 

These kinda posters obviously raised morale and the feeling of unity. And as you probably understood people were strongly encouraged to keep in mind the vast need of supplies on the front. And to eat corn.

Thats it for today, we bagels have to get back to studying. Hope you enjoyed this rare, never-ever-gonna-happen-again educational piece and learned something. Like every IB student knows, learning and education is a never ending process; one which you will never cease to enjoy. Learning is the road to happiness, indeed. And in case youre wondering, bagels became increasingly popular only after the WW1. But we'll tell you all about the history of bagels some other time. 

BYE and wish us luck. We're gonna need it.

xoxo,
Hitler and Stalin ;) (and dont think we dont know these guys werent around yet during WW1, we're not THAT bad in history..)