Rat & MRE packs just arrived..

[Jack]

 

 

My dear friends from RVops http://www.rvops.co.uk have just sent me some Rat & MRE packs -just in time for lunch. Dam good selection as well and I now suffering from the suffed ferret effect :schocked:

 

Just had a packet of M&M's that were packed in 1994.....well chocolate is chocolate! :oops:

[Enigma]

Used by dates are in some cases invented to replace stuff when its not neccecary like salt.

Eaten enough food that was outdated.

Must say a dairydrink out of date 2 months gives gasalarm :oops: for an entire evening...

[ArtistsRifles]

Most of the rat-packs we were issued in the late Seventies were date stamped in the mid-fifties.... I'm still here - despite the unfortunate side-effects of compo rations....

[ashley]

Whilst i was at boarding school in the early seventies (NOT BORSTAL :-D....) in good ol`e B.F.E.S. germany the head of catering (ex Whermacht chef ) fed the whole school on various military cast off`s.

 

I can remember one occasion `having a fag `the smoking variety, and stacked by the bins were large food tins the produce being emptied out for the evening meal and they were all pre 1945 dated :schocked:

 

This guy was always proud to announce when cake and fresh cream was on the menu. but when it arrived the cake was broken up for pea shooter ammo in the dormitory that night and the cream if left would return to its natural state which was ....condensed milk, this was kept to make tea/coffee after lights out with water from the hot tap in the bathroom to dunk oatmeal blocks in :tup:

 

Ashley

 

[AlienFTM]

Our (1970s) 4-man and 10-man Composite Ration Packs were dateable by the tin of red fish in every pack.

 

After Tuna became iffy because of Mercury in the seawater, we continued to see it in Compo for many years until it was replaced by Salmon.

 

... which in turn got removed - I suspect for the same reason - by Pilchard.

 

We ate like kings on exercise. With a 3-man CVR(T) crew, we might get 3* 4-man ration packs for four days, but if an exercise ran Monday to Friday, we'd get another 4-man pack for the 5th day, total 16 man-day-meals for 15 man-days. Note also that after crashing out at 0200 Monday and not eating until maybe 1600, then being back in camp by 1600 Friday so as not to upset the Germans, we ran up a lot of spare Compo.

 

Singlies had a daily Food charge deducted from their Military Salary at source, so back in camp, there was no necessity to acquire surplus Compo. Married "Pads" paif for their own food and many a cavalryman's child grew up familiar with Chicken Curry, Chicken Extreme, Stewed Steak in Gravy, Snake and Pygmy Pudding etc.

 

Even so. with BAOR on permanent 4-hours' notice to move throughout the Cold War, there were vast stocks of Compo and the QMG must have got in a sweat when he realised just how old some of the Compo was. We started having Compo Days, where the whole Army ate Compo - nothing at all fresh in order to shift some of the older supplies of rations. The Catering Corps were not allowed to use anything but Compo on Compo Days.

 

That said, after I left the cavalry for the Pay Corps, I was attached to an Armoured Workshop REME. Because of my Control Signaller skills, unlike any other Pay Clerk - sorry Military Accountant - who ever walked the planet, my going-out-on-exercise frequency actually went up. Incredible, but my skills were in short supply, even if my trade pay for Control Signaller was ceased six months after transferring in. Happy teddy bear was I ... NOT.

 

Now instead of messing by crew, the Main REME group with which I exercised, like most non-combat units messed centrally, i.e. the cooks went on exercise and cooked for everyone. But here's the rub. The cooks were on exercise; virtually the whole unit bar a VERY small rear party went on exercise, because the nature of their work and how they procured parts actually made their job EASIER on exercise because, for example, suddenly there WERE Chieftain engines in the whole of BAOR and we couldn't have Chieftains standing idle in the field, could we.

 

So the cooks went on exercise and they took all their fresh rations with them, even though Compo was available. So for the first week or ten days of an exercise we ate essentially fresh rations, and only when that was all gone did we resort to Compo. And boy did the REME not like Compo?

 

I remember the last day of one exercise, the cooks were really down to the bare bones of their Compo and one of the choice (CHOICE?!?!? FFS!) of dishes was pilchard pizza. Notwithstanding the fact that Pilchard is simply adult sardine, NOBODY would touch these pizzas. Me? I had a feast.

 

Especially since the cooks and the MRG HQ all knew that I maintained their pay accounts and that their radio work became very poor when I made them learn to get by without me because I was due to be posted out you know?

 

Mmm Compo ... drool.

[ArtistsRifles]

Our (1970s) 4-man and 10-man Composite Ration Packs were dateable by the tin of red fish in every pack.

 

After Tuna became iffy because of Mercury in the seawater, we continued to see it in Compo for many years until it was replaced by Salmon.

 

... which in turn got removed - I suspect for the same reason - by Pilchard.

 

We ate like kings on exercise. With a 3-man CVR(T) crew, we might get 3* 4-man ration packs for four days, but if an exercise ran Monday to Friday, we'd get another 4-man pack for the 5th day, total 16 man-day-meals for 15 man-days. Note also that after crashing out at 0200 Monday and not eating until maybe 1600, then being back in camp by 1600 Friday so as not to upset the Germans, we ran up a lot of spare Compo.

 

Singlies had a daily Food charge deducted from their Military Salary at source, so back in camp, there was no necessity to acquire surplus Compo. Married "Pads" paif for their own food and many a cavalryman's child grew up familiar with Chicken Curry, Chicken Extreme, Stewed Steak in Gravy, Snake and Pygmy Pudding etc.

 

Heh - you forgot the old "favourites" - cheese possessed and bikkies brown....

 

Even so. with BAOR on permanent 4-hours' notice to move throughout the Cold War, there were vast stocks of Compo and the QMG must have got in a sweat when he realised just how old some of the Compo was. We started having Compo Days, where the whole Army ate Compo - nothing at all fresh in order to shift some of the older supplies of rations. The Catering Corps were not allowed to use anything but Compo on Compo Days.

 

That said, after I left the cavalry for the Pay Corps, I was attached to an Armoured Workshop REME. Because of my Control Signaller skills, unlike any other Pay Clerk - sorry Military Accountant - who ever walked the planet, my going-out-on-exercise frequency actually went up. Incredible, but my skills were in short supply, even if my trade pay for Control Signaller was ceased six months after transferring in. Happy teddy bear was I ... NOT.

 

Now instead of messing by crew, the Main REME group with which I exercised, like most non-combat units messed centrally, i.e. the cooks went on exercise and cooked for everyone. But here's the rub. The cooks were on exercise; virtually the whole unit bar a VERY small rear party went on exercise, because the nature of their work and how they procured parts actually made their job EASIER on exercise because, for example, suddenly there WERE Chieftain engines in the whole of BAOR and we couldn't have Chieftains standing idle in the field, could we.

 

So the cooks went on exercise and they took all their fresh rations with them, even though Compo was available. So for the first week or ten days of an exercise we ate essentially fresh rations, and only when that was all gone did we resort to Compo. And boy did the REME not like Compo?

 

I remember the last day of one exercise, the cooks were really down to the bare bones of their Compo and one of the choice (CHOICE?!?!? FFS!) of dishes was pilchard pizza. Notwithstanding the fact that Pilchard is simply adult sardine, NOBODY would touch these pizzas. Me? I had a feast.

 

Especially since the cooks and the MRG HQ all knew that I maintained their pay accounts and that their radio work became very poor when I made them learn to get by without me because I was due to be posted out you know?

 

Mmm Compo ... drool.

 

 

I used to like it too - our cooks had a singular habit of setting up the #1 field kitchen, opening all the packs and tins and throwing everything into a couple of the dixies together with a couple of tins of curry powder then rice in the other couple of dixies.

We had curry for every meal and funnily enough - despite the content including burgers in bean, suasage in beans, beans, chicken curry, chicken extreme, stewed steak in gravy, Snake and Pygmy Pudding, cheese possesed, fish paste, meat paste, crushed biscuits brown, cheese possesed, dead fly pudding etc. :-) :-) :-)

 

When I left I had a couple of cases of unused rat packs that got slowly used up. Played a mean trick on a non-army mate though. We went to a car show down in St Austell and made all-in stew every night we were there. Didn't tell him that a fortnight afer he ate the last batch the world would fall out his backside... God did he get a shock!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: