Aside from uniform, weapons, and field equipment, another important part of your reenacting gear should be period correct rations. With a little work, you can prepare period rations that both taste good, and look right for our impression. At the least, please repackage, relabel, or otherwise camouflage modern foods for events. We've all seen reenactors with an otherwise excellent impression, ruin the picture by opening up a Lunchable, or a Ding-Dong, washed down with a Capri-Sun, etc. Until we can field enough men to warrant constructing and filling the 14-man Composite Ration crate, the next best option is the 24-Hour Ration Pack. I've been continuously experimenting and improving these for about half a year. The instructions that follow explain how to make usable facsimiles of the rations, not museum quality reproductions.
The 24-Hour Ration was issued to troops when it was unclear when they would be able to be resupplied with the standard Composite or field service rations. For D-Day, assault troops were issued with two of these packs, one kept in their mess tin, and the other taking the place of the spare canteen in the haversack. The rations were packed in a small cardboard box, 6.9x4.7x2.3, labeled THE 24-HOUR RATION (INSTRUCTIONS WITHIN). Polarbear Enterprises sells reproductions of these boxes, but any simple cardboard box would do. Usually, the box was opened prior to going into the field, and the candies, crackers, and gum put into pockets, and the other rations put in the mess tin.
The 24-Hour Ration contained the following items:
Trying to recreate a block of dried meat poses a couple challenges, not the least of which is coming up with something edible. One option is to use beef jerky, or some other dried meat. Another option is to use freeze-dried meat available through backpacking suppliers. For these, all that would need to be done is to repackage in white paper with a simple MEAT printed on it. (All the single-word labels mentioned should be of large, capital, block letters, of a sans serif font, for example Helvetica.) Another option is to cheat a bit and use canned meat. A tin of Spam would be appropriate, however the only cans available today have the pull-tab. Another option would be a can of beef stew, commonly known as "M&V" in the British Army. A further option would be one of the tins of corned beef that is opened with a key. Corned beef, also known as "Bully Beef" has been issued to British troops for many, many years. If you decide to go the canned meat route, please take steps to "defarb" the cans. At the very least, remove the modern label. Spraypainting the stripped can OD is an additional step. Relabeling the tin with a period-correct label is another option.
These will take the most work to prepare, but are very handy in the field. First, create a small, bag out of aluminum foil, sort of like a miniature brown paper bag, with a base 1 1/2 x 1", and 2 to 3 inches high. The easiest way to do this is to form the foil around a small block about the size you need. Next, prepare the tea mixture. The original blocks contained tea, milk, and sugar. I've found a good mixture is two heaping tablespoons of instant tea, one tablespoon of powdered milk, and one tablespoon of powdered sugar (granulated sugar will work, but powdered mixes better in water.) Put the powders into the foil bag, tap to settle, then seal up the bag, trying to keep the form as compact and square as possible. Bundle two of these blocks together in a sheet of white paper labeled TEA.
The sugar issued was actually in large lumps of about a tablespoon each. 4 sugar cubes wrapped together in foil or paper would also work.
No set amount has been found in my research, but a couple teaspoons or tablespoons should more than suffice. A small envelope of foil, wrapped or labeled with white paper marked SALT would work.
These were not your usual Saltines, but hard biscuits, like hard tack. There are tins of crackers available at some Indian and Asian food stores that are very like the issued tins of crackers that came in the Compo Ration crate. The crackers themselves are not the same thickness, but the tins are great. For the 24-hour ration, however, 10 square crackers of whatever is your preference will work.
Bouillon cubes are available individually wrapped cubes, which makes this very easy to reproduce. Wrap two of the blocks in white paper printed with SOUP.
I'd suggest a few more than 4, if needs arise. Several Kleenex sheets are easier to pack than wadded up toilet paper off the roll.
Hard candies. Whatever you like, grab a couple handfuls.
If you want to go for it, try hitting a British or Indian grocery, or some other shop that might have some British imports. Try and find Wrigley's PK or Arrowmint gum. There were the types issued to troops, and can still be found wrapped as they were during the war. It is not stick gum, as we are accustomed to, but more like Chiclets with the hard candy shell. Two of these 4-piece packets were issued. If these are not available, Chiclets themselves can be packaged in a bit of cellophane (not Saranwrap.) Or, the easiest way is to get two of the 5-stick packages of Wrigley's spearmint gum available at most any super-market.
You can make up foil packets of instant oatmeal, or take the prepackaged instant oatmeal packets and wrap them each in a piece of white paper labeled OATMEAL.
I haven't been able to find chocolate bars with raisins. However, there is a candy called "Chunky" that is a small block of chocolate with raisins and nuts that is very good. Take these out of the original wrappers and rewrap in foil.
Plain Hershey bars work great here. Just take off the modern brown wrapper with all the nutritional info, and leave in the foil. Or, you can try your hand at making up a period label.
