Dinner in the Trenches: Army Rations, Rolling Kitchens, and the Logistics of Food for American Doughboys

Histories of rationing and food consumption on the home front have recently appeared with increasing frequency but few works exist on the use of military rations and military cookery of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe. World War I is often cast as the first war abroad for American soldiers who conquered logistical problems of supply lines while simultaneously fighting the German Army on the Western Front. This chapter explores the development of the scientifically informed military ration system that sought to adequately feed soldiers at war. Mobile kitchens and field bakeries used innovative approaches to deliver hot meals to men fighting in the trenches, replacing the traditional hard tack and dried or canned beef with fresh hot meals … as long as the men were faster than the rats. These innovations along with carefully maintained supply lines and contributions of the Red Cross figured into the morale of the AEF. Ultimately, American soldiers were not only nutritionally well fed, but fed well in a culinary sense too, an experience that became an integral part of their war recollections.