Food & Compo

Steak and Kidney pud was always one of my favourites followed by bacon grill at breakfast. But one one occasion at the end of an exercise the cooks were running short on the last day out and we had to have Steak and Kidney for breakfast. It lost a bit of its appeal at 6 am!!

Noch ein bier,

Norman.

Stephen Lock wrote:

I found it amusing that A) compo came with "menus" ("and what will Sir be dining on tonight?" ehehehe) and B) some of you kept the menus, and the compo rations!, as souvenirs!!! Bit of a weird lot we got hanging around here....

I take it you are referring to me sir? as I posted all the menu's and pictures of compo...

So for your information, I will tell you while I do collect papers referring to the former Ordnance Corps, I am also a volunteer and researcher for the RLC Museum, and the compo shots came from my reseach papers.

brrowe wrote:

Do you remember the tins of chocolate, packed out with Rowntrees Fruit Gums to stop the chocolate from rattling about?
We always exchanged the chocs for fresh eggs when arriving on location for a scheme.
I used to lust after the tinned bacon, although the interleaved cellophane was a bit tough.

You were supposed to remove the cellophane I think

We used to get so frustrated with the mess that the whole bacon/plastic caboodle used to end up in the gash pit.
I often wonder how the wild boar used to get on when they tried eating the stuff !

Strangely, Compo bacon wasn't entirely new to me.
I remember my mother buying tins of the stuff in the early fifties, from our local Co-op.
Must have been WD surplus stock, so I actually enjoyed the stuff, and used to eat it straight out of the tin, on bread (yes, I did remove the cellophane.)
Also the "hard tack" biscuits were an old friend too. I remember seeing a sign outside a shop in the late 40s announcing "Biscuits on sale here". Thinking that I was doing my parents a favour I spent all the money they had given me for whatever I had gone to the shops for originally, and bought about a dozen packets of the things.
You can imagine the result, I had to take the lot back. I think the shopkeeper took pity on me as I was only about nine at that time, he and refunded the money.

I think rationing was still in effect till July 1954 so things like tinned bacon and preserves used to have a lower points value?

brum wrote:

We used to get so frustrated with the mess that the whole bacon/plastic caboodle used to end up in the gash pit.
I often wonder how the wild boar used to get on when they tried eating the stuff !

I can't quite recollect the name now, but we used to have an exercise based near a Schloss, they had wild boar in the (empty) moat, they would eat anything Brum, our cooks used to just tip all the old food over the side and it'd be gone in seconds.

I never knew they sold Compo from shops, but I was in Germany anyway.

That moat sounds nightmarish Jim. You didn't have any officers disappear, did you?
I was born in '41 and can't remember seeing army rations in the shops. Sounds like a bit of the old Black Market in action there !!

LOL Brum,

No being a Staff Clerk I was lucky, the Officers quickly learned to be nice to us if they wanted good service.

I did wonder about the black market bit myself.

Is it possible that the same people who did 'Tinned Bacon' or othe compo delites also sold to the public at the time?

Whestlers do 'Cook in the bag' for the Army but also sell under that name in camping shops, with nice labels!

Mike_2817 wrote:

Stephen Lock wrote:

I found it amusing that A) compo came with "menus" ("and what will Sir be dining on tonight?" ehehehe) and B) some of you kept the menus, and the compo rations!, as souvenirs!!! Bit of a weird lot we got hanging around here....

I take it you are referring to me sir? as I posted all the menu's and pictures of compo...

So for your information, I will tell you while I do collect papers referring to the former Ordnance Corps, I am also a volunteer and researcher for the RLC Museum, and the compo shots came from my reseach papers.

Aahhhhh....well, yes, I can certainly see the items being used as archival material and such, absolutely. Makes a tad more sense than a private individual keeping them, as interesting as that would be. Not at the beginning, of course, but years and years later to have them, sure!

I mean, I found it odd to picture your average squaddie actually saving such things. But then who knows what individuals will collect.

Certainly no insult intended....just bit of chain yanking :-)

I have very little left from my Army service, and what I do have is mainly by accident. Mike though has a marvellous store of really interesting items Stephen.

I have boxes of collected junk from my service days.Even have the pt 2 orders of my promotions .How sad is that??
Must find out when the local kids are having a bonfire.

I have my pfile, some interesting stuff in there. LOL.

jim wrote:

I have very little left from my Army service, and what I do have is mainly by accident. Mike though has a marvellous store of really interesting items Stephen.

Some people save stamps!

I collect Militaria Stephen, heres a link to my project pages:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike.comerford/ORDNANCE/index.htm

I have that bookmarked in my favourites Mike, always nice to have a nostalgic wander round that page.

Interesting stuff

Yes it's a great read Gordon.

Mike

I agree it is a veritable treasure trove of interesting items

I know who to turn to when I start to tackle the subject of RAOC major units in Schleswig Holstein!!

We also have a very active RAOC Forum @ www.raoconline.com where members of units can be contacted.

Mike_2817 wrote:

jim wrote:

I have very little left from my Army service, and what I do have is mainly by accident. Mike though has a marvellous store of really interesting items Stephen.

Some people save stamps!

I collect Militaria Stephen, heres a link to my project pages:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike.comerford/ORDNANCE/index.htm

Both my parents collected things, as did I. Bit of a packrat actually, at one time.

Dad collected Militaria as well....had one of the most extensive collections of cap badges and related items in Canada before he died, with some rare pieces he'd managed to track down.

Mom collected Coronation Mugs then eventually expanded out into Royal Commemoratives in general. When she died her collection numbered close to 200 items, some going back as far as Victoria's Silver Jubilee!

I collected Beatlemania, mainly, but was known to collect just about anything that caught my fancy....books (had a few old books, one dating to 1753, a leatherbound Latin textbook. I paid a dollar for it in 1969!)....German souvenirs (those little steins, ashtrays, etc one could pick up at any tourist trap in the country, with painted views of, for instance, the Mohnesee on them or the Osthofentor in Soest etc). Sadly, I've lost all that stuff now.....gone.....

Dad's collection was sold off by mom after he died to another collector. She got enough for it, she once told me, for a downpayment on a quite nice condo out in Victoria, so I'm guessing it was in the double digit thousands (10-20 thousand, probably!)

So, yes, I do understand the collection bug, absolutely! Even as a packrat myself, though, it always surprising me what people will collect.

Hmm,

seems I don't have the bug, not unless you count hoarding books as collecting.

The love of books is bibliophilia, and someone who loves to read, admire, and collect books is a bibliophile. So yes you have Jim.

I knew that Mike, I was just keeping it simple for the board.

You have been outed Jim - You can read LoL