In 1937, Colonel Paul Logan, a quartermaster of the American Army, requested a special order from the candy company, Hershey's. He wanted a special type of chocolate bar that would be used by troops as an emergency ration that would be high in energy but easy to carry.
What resulted was a disgusting combination of chocolate, sugar, cocoa fat, skim milk, and oat flour that became dreaded amongst the Army. The unusual blend of cocoa fat and oat flour made it extremely hard to bite into, which, while good for resisting high temperatures, made it very hard to bite into. Even when people were able to bite into it, its overwhelming bitterness, barely mitigated by the sugar, made for an unpleasant taste. As a result, the D Rations became widely known as "Hitler's Secret Weapon".
However, while its taste was most disgusting, the D Rations did prove to be very useful. During D-Day, food and supplies were limited due to the difficulties of shipping supplies across the English channel. As a result, many soldiers carried with them the D Rations, which, despite their repulsive taste, were able to provide troops with a high amount of energy. Just 4 of the bars provided about 2400 calories. To put it into perspective, it is recommended that the average adult male eat 2500 calories a day. Being so small and nutritious, Hitler's Secret Weapon provided the Allied troops with the energy they needed to successfully penetrate German defenses and take the beach of Normandy.
http://nowiknow.com/the-wartime-chocolate-bar-you-dont-want-to-eat/
http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/d-day-rations-how-chocolate-helped-win-the-war
I found your post really interesting and couldn't help wondering horrible the chocolate must have tasted given the requirements for it's taste. However, looking deeper into the topic, I found out that not everyone hated the chocolate. For Europeans who had little access to food and chocolate was rationed, getting their hands on American chocolate was a great joy. To them, it tasted amazing and it was not a common occurrence. At the same time, giving the chocolate to Europeans helped Americans reduce the negative light they could have been viewed in and ended. It's amazing how something we all take for granted now was a food that not only contributed to the success of WWII but also allowed American to reach out a helping hand without worrying others about their intentions.
ReplyDeletesource :
http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/chocolate-the-wars-secret-weapon/
After reading this blog article (and the my love of chocolate), I now think of Hershey in a whole new light. I am actively going to select buying Hershey's chocolate over other products in their honor of what they did to produce a high calorie ration for our American troops. Buy Hershey's.
ReplyDeleteCharles, very interesting post on the role of chocolate during WWII. It's interesting how the purpose of this chocolate was not to make it taste good but rather to make it nutritious. The army order for millions of these chocolate bars had a pretty significant impact on Hershey as a company as well. For factory workers, making the bars was a challenge because the chocolate "would never come out of the molds right," they wouldn't get cool enough, and it was hard to pack the bars into boxes due to their unusual shape. In fact, due to soaring orders for the chocolate, the factory began running three shifts a day, seven days a week, winning awards for production and quality soon after.
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