Weight Overall: 41.7 ounces

Weight of Food: 30.6 ounces

Comments:

This is not a lightweight ration. At 2.6 pounds, I can see Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) discarding some of the food so they could carry more ammunition. On the other hand, this might be all they got to eat for a day - or longer - depending on how the tactical situation was evolving.

The ham chunks are tasty, if a bit salty, and probably have a lot of protein. Combined with the Knäckebrot crisp rye crackers topped with canned cheese, you'd have at least one filling meal. The cheese was interesting. For one thing, I didn't know they made canned cheese. It had a surprisingly good flavor - kind of a mild, cheddary taste, a creamy white color and a fairly firm texture. You definitely need a stiff knife to pry it out of the can and spread it.

The "milchkaffee," a powdered milk/instant coffee combination, wasn't bad. You get two servings, each making a little over a cup of coffee. Although the directions say you can drink it hot or cold, I highly recommend drinking it hot. Or at least warm. I tried heating a US canteen cup full of water over my German-made Esbit folding metal stove, using the supplied Flammo heat tablet. It burned for about eight minutes and got the water warm. Not boiling, but tolerable enough to make instant coffee with.

Then there is the candy! Three different kinds! All of it good! The bright yellow lemon hard candies were kind of chewy in the middle, which was different. The bonbons candy was six pieces of a vaguely fruity-flavored chewy candy imported from Germany, and the chocolate was a good solid hunk of milk chocolate (the WWII kit had artificial chocolate). Enough to give you a sugar high that would carry you into the next day!

Final Thoughts on the World War II German Combat Rations for Paratroops:

This doesn't appear to be a lot of food at first glance, but then, you have to remember what it was designed to do - get a paratrooper through those first few critical days of combat, when he might, 1) Not have time to cook anything, 2) Be too tense to eat, or 3) Both. The best part of the ration for addressing those issues is probably all the candy. Somebody at the German high command showed some common sense with that decision.

That said, it's all surprisingly filling, especially the cheese. The overall weight of the ration includes the cardboard box Repro-Rations shipped it in. I'm not sure that's how it was done during the war, but it seems reasonable. The German markings certainly add an air of authenticity.

I also indulged and bought a few extras, things that a paratrooper might have added to this ration. One was a box of Koko's Energy survival food, three coconut-flavored bars in a small box that were supposed to provide 18 hours worth of calories. These were also packed in Luftwaffe (German air force) aircrew survival kits. Not sure what Repro-Rations used to make these, but mine were rather dry and crumbly. They did have a vague coconut smell, however, which was an odor that supposedly permeated German paratrooper's gear as well.

The other item was something I've wanted to try for some time, ersatz "coffee" made with chicory. Ersatz coffee was big in the German armed forces, simply because the nation's supply of real coffee had been mostly cut off by the Allied naval blockade. I found it to have a denser flavor than American-style coffee, more of an espresso-type taste, but with a distinct nutty aftertaste. The only down side - no caffeine in chicory coffee! So much for adding that to my morning routine.

There are no menu suggestions, so you are free to eat what you want, when you want. If bean and pasta salad is your idea of a smashing good breakfast, here's your chance! So I decided to take photos of the main meal groupings and then do individualized taste tests.

Breakfast started out with the "shelf stable" cinnamon bun. No, it's not going to be light and flaky like a fresh-baked bun, and it's rather flat because it's in a vacuum-sealed pouch, but this one was pretty good, even eaten cold: definite overtones of cinnamon without too much of a processed food taste. Paired with a cup of instant coffee (I tried the Rombouts brand because I'm not familiar with it) and the fruit puree squeeze pouch, it's not a bad way to start the day.

The cinnamon bun was made in the US (I think by a company that makes US military Meals-Ready-to-Eat) and the puree came from Belgium. Talk about international. Being able to have coffee, and being able to choose whether or how much cream and sugar to add to it, is a huge improvement over the WWII British tea-milk-sugar combo packets troops back then were issued. Or so it seems to this Yank.

The Ministry of Defense definitely takes hydration more seriously these days - there are FIVE different drink mixes for soldiers to liven up the water in their canteens. Which works out nicely because you only get SIX water purification tablets in the ration box. If you drank all of these in one day, that's about 10 cups of water (there are 16 cups in 1 US gallon). Toss in two cups each of tea and coffee, and that's a lot of fluids from one ration box.

It seems another purpose is to sneak in vitamins, rather than using pills. The apple drink mix has extra vitamin B₁; and the orange, tropical and cola flavors, extra vitamin C. The hot chocolate mix has extra protein included.

All tasted good when mixed with the recommended amount of water. The apple had a nice, vaguely tart green apple flavor and wasn't too sugary. It was touted as an energy drink, but didn't have appreciably more carbohydrates than the other mixes. The tropical flavor was more of a citric acidy-taste with no real fruit overtones, an odd yellow color, and wasn't overly sugary. I liked it the least. The orange flavor tasted like oranges, was a little too sugary for my taste, and had a milky-white color when mixed, which was a little off-putting.

I was curious about the cola-flavored mix. It was more reluctant to dissolve in cold water, although it did have an appealing brownish cola color and syrupy texture. There was a cola taste, but it was overshadowed by the ascorbic acid added to boost the vitamin C. And, OK, I cheated with the hot chocolate mix, using the electric kettle instead of solid fuel tablets to heat the water. So sue me. It had an OK texture, a little watery, and it was MINTY. As it, "We thought it'd be a good idea to dissolve an entire peppermint patty into this cup of hot chocolate mix" minty. But I drank all of it.

Lunch was the bean and pasta salad, eaten cold right out of the pouch with the provided spork, with the oat digestive biscuits (had to look up what those are) and cheddar cheese-flavored spread.

Although the salad supposedly had chili flavoring in it, it seemed a little bland to me so - out came the mini-bottle of hot sauce included with the condiments. THAT certainly livened things up. The mix of two kinds of beans, some corn, and pasta in a light tomato sauce was flavorful, but kind of gooey texture-wise. I thought it tasted fine eaten cold. Although I have to admit that it did look like, ummmm, fresh vomit.

Only two of the biscuits were intact, the rest were broken up or just crumbs, a consequence of being tossed into the box loose rather than being packed in, I guess. They have a slightly sweet taste with noticeable oat overtones. The cheese spread, made in the US and probably another MRE item, was very flavorful and went well with the biscuits.

There are enough snack items to keep almost anyone from feeling hungry during the day. I thought the cranberry cereal bar was quite good, lots of berry flavor and chewy, not rock hard like some bars. The bag of nuts was a mix of peanuts, almonds and cashews and wasn't salted, which I happen to prefer. The three sesame seed bars had a nice honey flavor but were a bit gooey (mine were all stuck together, probably due to heat). The creamy peanut butter was a perfect topping for them. It was made in the US, I suspect by another MRE contractor because of the brown packaging used.

Dinner was excellent, the sausage casserole package had three English-style sausages in it, along with big chunks of potato, peas and carrots and a rich brown gravy. Heated up, it tasted very good, and the portion size filled you up. Paired with the shelf-stable chocolate brownie (which was the size of my hand), it was more than enough for a satisfying dinner. The brownie was a little dry and crumbly, however, unlike the cinnamon bun.

Final Thoughts on the British 24-Hour Operational Ration Pack:

The ration comes in a plain brown cardboard box that is 9 3/4-inches long by 7 3/4-inches wide by 4 1/4-inches high, held closed with a strip of clear packing tape. This is a lot of food - more than 6,500 calories in a box that weights a little more than 4 pounds. Everything tasted good to me, although I am not a terribly picky eater to begin with. There was enough variety in the entrees, and with all the snack foods there's little chance of feeling hungry during the day. As with the WWII British rations reviewed above, though, you'd think the military would find more ways to minimize the weight of the packaging.

Although a few waterproof matches are included, there is no pocket stove and solid fuel tablets, or flameless heaters as some countries put with their soldier's rations. So that's an issue. Although the cardboard box could fuel a small fire, enough to heat up a mug of tea. Maybe. If the weather was dry. Another omission - no toilet paper. Yeowwwwww. Although maybe that's what the 10-pack of tissues was intended for, which is hardly adequate. Nor was there any salt and pepper (but the hot sauce is plenty potent). The Brits seem to have an aversion to seasonings. The spoon/fork (spork) turned out to be a little too flimsy to do a good job of scraping food out of the bottoms of pouches, and it wasn't really long enough, either.

A nice touch is the large clear zip-close plastic bag, which is big enough to hold all of the food, or when you're done for the day, all of the trash. My only complaint about some of the pouches is they don't have tearing notches and are impossible to open without a knife or scissors. I did find it odd that some of the pouches were a shiny metallic silver, or red in one case. Not very stealthy.

As far as long-term storage goes, if I was going to squirrel these rations away for a rainy day, I'd remove the fruit puree and the hot sauce - liquids just don't last.

The most amazing thing about this ration pack? The feedback sheet. The Ministry of Defense actually wants to know what the soldiers who have to eat this stuff think about it! Heck, they'll enter you in a drawing for a new iPod just for filling out the feedback sheet and sending it in. Someone at the MOD should get a special medal for thinking that up. Even if they never act on the feedback, it's a nice gesture.

(COMING SOON)

24-Hour Individual Combat Ration - Menu 5, South American Vegetable Chili and Dumplings with Vegetables in Tomato Sauce main dishes

Unlike in WWII, the modern German army is fully on board when it comes to 24-hour ration packs and boxed rations - and as you would expect from the Germans, they do a thorough, workmanlike, and at times very clever job of it (although there are also some curious omissions). I wanted to try a different type of ration, so got one of their vegetarian menus. There are at least 12 menus all told. As with the modern British rations, this one comes from MRE Mountain.

For such a small carton, the variety and quality of food is amazing. Truly. Good-bye to the bad old days of iron rations (canned meat and bread and not much else) day after day after day. Please bear with some of my translations, the last German I had was in high school, which was ... a long time ago. And I took the liberty of converting grams into ounces.

Contents:

South American Vegetable Chili - 1 container, 11.1 ounces

Dumplings with Vegetables in Tomato Sauce - 1 container, 11.3 ounces

Tuna with Lime and Pepper - 1 package, 3.3 ounces

Instant Chocolate Muesli - 1 pack, 3.5 ounces

Instant Apple-Apricot Dessert - 1 packet, 1.7 ounces

Chocolate Cookie Bits - 1 pouch, 1.2 ounces

Canned Rye Bread - 6 slices, 8 ounces

Hard Crackers - 12, 4.6 ounces

Black Currant Jam - 1 carton, 1 ounce

Sour Cherry Jam - 1 carton, 1 ounce

Cream Cheese Tomato/Paprika Spread - 2 cartons, 3.7 ounces

Sesame Seed Bars - 3, 1.8 ounces

Chili Pepper Spread - 1 squeeze pouch

Coffee - 2 packets

Tea - 2 packets

Cappuccino - 1 packet, 0.6 ounces

Sugar - 4 packets, 1 ounce

Creamer - 2 packets

Salt - 2 packets, 0.2 ounces

Exotic (Tropical) Flavor Vitamin-Fortified Drink Powder - 1 packet

Grapefruit Flavor Vitamin-Fortified Drink Powder - 1 packet

Orange Flavor Vitamin-Fortified Drink Powder - 1 packet

Lemon Flavor Vitamin-Fortified Drink Powder - 1 packet

Dried Fruit Mix - 2 ounces

Chocolate - 2 bars, 1.8 ounces

Chewing Gum - 12 pieces

Water Purification Tablets - 4

Multi-Purpose Paper - 2 sheets,  7 1/2 X 7 3/4 inches

Wet Wipe Cleaning Cloth - 1, 5 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches

Weight Overall: 72.1 ounces

Weight of Food: 62 ounces

Tightly packed! No loose bits rattling around in this ration box.

Comments:

Breakfast started with the instant chocolate muesli cereal and the instant apple-apricot dessert. Both are commercial freeze-dried products and the directions said you could use warm or cold water to rehydrate them. I opted for hot water for the muesli and room-temperature tap water for the dessert for comparison. Unlike many American-made freeze-dried meals, these didn't have a zip closure top, so unless you fold the stiff envelope top over, hot food gets cold quickly. And the accordion fold on the bottom of the envelopes, designed to help them stand upright, made it rather maddening to try and pry out bits of oatmeal and fruit. 

Both items were ... OK. Like most freeze-dried foods, it seems like there are always some little bits that refuse to rehydrate properly. The muesli was very chocolaty, and seemed to consist of nothing but oats and cocoa powder, but it was filling. The dessert would have probably done better with warm water - most of the fruit bits were still chewy despite soaking in water for about 10 minutes. Paired with a mug of the instant coffee, though, it was a filling breakfast. Thankfully the Germans know how to make a good cup of coffee. It's a little stronger than Americans are used to, but you get enough creamers and sugar to tone it down.

The snack items were all tasty and filling, almost a couple of meals by themselves. The dried fruit mix of cranberries, bananas, papaya and mango and was quite good, if a bit sugary; all of the pieces were very small, however. The sesame seed bars were stuck together (seems to be an issue with these things) so I ate them as one single bar. Gooey with a distinct honey flavor.

The chewing gum (made in France, which is kind of funny when you think about it, but that's NATO for you) had a nice spearmint flavor and came in a nifty little zip-closure pouch. And the two small hard chocolate bars, well ... the Germans know chocolate! There should have been a dozen of these in the ration box.

The rye bread was quite good, considering it was canned. The slices were thin, but had a solid, rather grainy texture and a nice smooth taste. They were moist enough that you didn't need a topping on them, but I tried the tomato/paprika cream cheese and they went really well together. The two cartons of spread were more than enough for all six slices of bread.

The only disappointment was the crackers, a dozen thick 2x2-inch shortbread-like things that had gone rancid. Even though the foil packaging was still sealed, they had definitely gone bad. This was one of numerous commercial food products in the ration. I had to try the two jellies on my own pieces of toast. Each had the required fruity taste, but they both wanted to come out of their little tins as one solid glob. I liked the black currant better than the sour cherry, which was very sour.

The drinks were a highly varied lot, showing that the modern German army also takes hydration seriously. The instant coffee was stronger than Americans are probably used to; the instant tea was good, but a little flat tasting and wouldn't satisfy a true tea lover. Having four packets of sugar helped with that. The instant cappuccino was adequate on its own (no extra sugar needed), but the packet only brewed a little over a mug's worth.

The drink mixes intended for a soldier's canteen all made a little over a pint (two cups) and were fortified with a lot of different vitamins, which is a more sensible way to get those vital nutrients than telling people they have to take a huge pill every day.

The exotic mix was a whitish-orange color, and had a vague citrus taste with coconut overtones. Why does everyone think that putting a few drops of coconut into something makes it "exotic"? It was OK, but I liked it the least of the four mixes. The grapefruit mix was a little sugary, a whitish-yellow color, and tasted vaguely of citrus but not really like grapefruit. I thought the orange drink would be, well, orange, but I guess the Germans aren't as big on food colorings as the Americans, because it was also a milky orangish color. But at least it tasted like actual oranges. As did the lemon drink, which was a brighter yellow and so looked the most appealing. It was also the most refreshing of the drink mixes, with a zesty lemon taste and even a bit of lemon rind aftertaste. I liked that one the most.

I tried something different with the two "ready-to-eat meals" that are the main entrees. Rather than pairing them up with other ration items, I ate each one separately as a meal in its own right, to see how filling they would actually be.

I tried the dumplings with vegetables in tomato sauce entree cold, to see if the claim that "Meals can also be eaten cold without any loss of nutritive value and without substantial reduction in taste" would hold up, and it does. By and large. The six large dumplings in the aluminum tray would surely have tasted better hot, but the entire thing was palatable, if a little salty and rather slimy-looking. I'll have to take their word for it that there were any vegetables swimming around in all that greasy-looking bright red tomato sauce, though, because all I could make out were some tiny reddish bits. It did make for a filling lunch.

Heating up the vegetable chili was problematic, and highlighted one of this ration's biggest failings - it's both awkward and time consuming to heat up these entrees in a mess tin of boiling water, try to fish them out without burning one's hands, and then wrestle the foil lids off without risking more burned digits. Other nations have developed better or at least safer systems. The heating up was accomplished with some element of risk; the actual eating was very satisfactory.

The entree was tasty, if a little bland, but squeezing the entire packet of chili pepper spread into the middle of things resolved that issue, and it made for a very filling hot meal. That said - I grew up in the American Southwest. Anyone who called this concoction "chili" would be either soundly beaten or run out of town on a rail. It's just ... wrong ... to see corn, kidney beans and *gasp* green beans in anything called chili. But since this rather grandiosely-titled South American Vegetable Chili comes from Germany, I can forgive them not knowing any better.

As an aside, my dedicated and hard-working FRAs (Feline Research Assistants) gave two claws-up to the remnants of both entrees, leaving the gold-colored aluminum ration containers shiny clean. Honestly, there's enough food in this box to make five or even six meals for a normal adult, although I can see an active and engaged soldier consuming every morsel and still being hungry.

Final Thoughts on the German 24-Hour Ration Pack:

The German ration comes in a thin gray cardboard box, hinged at the top, measuring 9 3/8-inches long by 7 1/4-inches wide by 3 5/8-inches high. As noted above, it is much more tightly packed than the British 24-hour ration box (but also much flimsier). As is the British ration above, this one is loaded with calories, almost 7,000. And every single food item tasted good, to me at least (excepting the crackers, as noted above. Even I have limits). The two vegetarian entrees were surprisingly filling, enough so to distract you from the fact that they didn't contain any meat.

That said, it has some shortcomings. The major ones are, 1) No spoon or eating utensil of any kind, 2) Water purification tablets for only two canteens worth, not enough for all of the drink mixes included, and 3) No ability to heat the rations except by building a smallish fire with all the wrappings. The odd-looking wooden safety matches included are packed in a waterproof packet but aren't waterproof themselves. You can eat all of this stuff cold, but ... would you really want to?

The lack of any dedicated toilet paper is another concern, although the two included pieces of "multi-purpose paper" would do. In a pinch. The included wet wipe was a nice touch, but I'd like enough to use one after every meal.

As with all modern rations, there is an abundance of packaging, but I think these German rations do the worst job of protecting the main entrees and some of the condiment items from rough handling. The soft aluminum trays and foil coverings are vulnerable to bending or crushing, then leaking, or to punctures, much more so than the usual pliable envelopes most other nations use for their troop's rations. It just seems like a rather old-school way to do things, and I don't think it will last as well under long-term storage conditions.

This ration did not include the clear plastic zip-top bag that was included on the contents list, an odd omission considering the Germans are good at quality control.

* Sadly, Repro-Rations is closing effective April 30, 2020. They will be missed.