For Bernard and Craig: Cookery on the Western Front

[Johnnie Lyle]

Tasting History has an interesting episode on what the BEF was eating (and being taught to cook) in WWI: https://youtu.be/S0cM-u7Jrh8?si=tcCwFK37Uu-K_oG9

The one bit that struck me was the comment that most of army cookery school was focused on sanitation. The food might not be palatable, but it was a damn sight safer than food was for most of military history.

[Craiglxviii]

Tasting History has an interesting episode on what the BEF was eating (and being taught to cook) in WWI: https://youtu.be/S0cM-u7Jrh8?si=tcCwFK37Uu-K_oG9

The one bit that struck me was the comment that most of army cookery school was focused on sanitation. The food might not be palatable, but it was a damn sight safer than food was for most of military history.

Interesting, I shall watch this tomorrow!

On the sanitation part, the cooking itself may very well have been carried out under clean conditions, but food was often brought up to the front line trenches in containers previously used for petrol, so chronic dysentery wasn’t unknown in some parts of the line which had new tins that hadn’t yet sweated the petrol out of their seams.

[Johnnie Lyle]

Tasting History has an interesting episode on what the BEF was eating (and being taught to cook) in WWI: https://youtu.be/S0cM-u7Jrh8?si=tcCwFK37Uu-K_oG9

The one bit that struck me was the comment that most of army cookery school was focused on sanitation. The food might not be palatable, but it was a damn sight safer than food was for most of military history.

Interesting, I shall watch this tomorrow!

On the sanitation part, the cooking itself may very well have been carried out under clean conditions, but food was often brought up to the front line trenches in containers previously used for petrol, so chronic dysentery wasn’t unknown in some parts of the line which had new tins that hadn’t yet sweated the petrol out of their seams.

Aye, but it wasn’t lethal the way it had been even as recently as the 2nd Boer War, where deaths from disease (especially typhoid) were almost double the combat deaths. WWI was the first war where disease was no longer the main cause of death (and for the BEF IIRC it also applied to their veterinary arms too), and the bulk of it is the improvement in sanitation.

[Craiglxviii]

Tasting History has an interesting episode on what the BEF was eating (and being taught to cook) in WWI: https://youtu.be/S0cM-u7Jrh8?si=tcCwFK37Uu-K_oG9

The one bit that struck me was the comment that most of army cookery school was focused on sanitation. The food might not be palatable, but it was a damn sight safer than food was for most of military history.

Interesting, I shall watch this tomorrow!

On the sanitation part, the cooking itself may very well have been carried out under clean conditions, but food was often brought up to the front line trenches in containers previously used for petrol, so chronic dysentery wasn’t unknown in some parts of the line which had new tins that hadn’t yet sweated the petrol out of their seams.

Aye, but it wasn’t lethal the way it had been even as recently as the 2nd Boer War, where deaths from disease (especially typhoid) were almost double the combat deaths. WWI was the first war where disease was no longer the main cause of death (and for the BEF IIRC it also applied to their veterinary arms too), and the bulk of it is the improvement in sanitation.

Yes, very true. It was also the first war where Forward Aid posts were more than mere casualty dressing-stations, and could carry out immediate life-saving surgery on battlefield casualties.

[Johnnie Lyle]

Yup. The medical system was very advanced. The Not So Quiet on the Western Front podcast had a good overview of the British casualty clearing system, and with only slight changes it’s the same one that we use today. The medical system is even more impressive when you consider that they didn’t have antibiotics and only marginal vaccines for things like tetanus, and it’s still light years ahead of what they had a decade previously.

But the sanitarians are probably the unsung heroes of WWI, because the standard 1915-1917 WWI battlefield was probably the most unsanitary one you could imagine, and they’re not having the kinds of disease that used to absolutely destroy armies.

[Drunknsubmrnr]

On the sanitation part, the cooking itself may very well have been carried out under clean conditions, but food was often brought up to the front line trenches in containers previously used for petrol, so chronic dysentery wasn’t unknown in some parts of the line which had new tins that hadn’t yet sweated the petrol out of their seams.

And every sailor ever points and says “Ha Ha”.

[Zen9]

Definitely a lot of lessons learned from the Boer Wars. I've read of the issues, and the waste was colossal.

My grandad was an Army cook and back then this involved training on making ovens, butchering as well as actual cooking for large numbers.

This is also the era of improving nutritional science.

[Bernard Woolley]

Yup. The medical system was very advanced. The Not So Quiet on the Western Front podcast had a good overview of the British casualty clearing system, and with only slight changes it’s the same one that we use today.

It’s been written that the next major advance in the military medical system was the CASEVAC helicopter in the 1950s. The BEF’s CCS was hugely advanced. IIRC, it was the first war where the majority of casualties were caused by enemy action and not disease.

The veterinary system was also a massively improvement over the debacle of the 2nd South African War.

[Johnnie Lyle]

Yup. The medical system was very advanced. The Not So Quiet on the Western Front podcast had a good overview of the British casualty clearing system, and with only slight changes it’s the same one that we use today.

It’s been written that the next major advance in the military medical system was the CASEVAC helicopter in the 1950s. The BEF’s CCS was hugely advanced. IIRC, it was the first war where the majority of casualties were caused by enemy action and not disease.

The veterinary system was also a massively improvement over the debacle of the 2nd South African War.

It was. Which may be another reason it sticks in our memory the way other wars with horrendous casualties didn’t. WWI also occurred after the major sanitation improvements in Western Europe and the Eastern US kicked in, and so horrendous deaths from diseases like typhoid were way down. Military deaths from disease are less startling if everyone is used to a high base mortality from “usual” disease.

The podcast Not So Quiet on the Western Front has a great primer on the BEF CCS, and a fascinating discussion on what may be an unofficial policy to stop giving RMOs the VC to discourage them from going out to rescue patients and getting killed, because the RMO and staff was indispensable to the CCS.

They also discussed how badly mustard gas damaged the CCS, since decontamination was in its infancy and medical staff were getting “gassed” just from contact with patients.