Tag Archives: K rations

Rolling Bones

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80 years ago. Awaiting removal of a roadblock on the road to Eisfeld, Germany, a 90mm GMC M36 tank destroyer crew whiles away the time shooting craps. 28th Infantry Division (“Keystone”), U.S. Third Army, 12 April 1945.

Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-204555, National Archives Identifier 6927819

The men are likely “Cossacks” of the 630th TD Battalion, Battle of the Bulge vets who passed from temporary XVIII Airborne Corps control back to the 28th near Wolfstein around this time.
Among the camp gear accumulated on the back of the M36 is a case of “10-in-1” rations, Menu 3, which would include bulk-packed K rations in two 5-serving packs, the first in packages and the second in cans. Of key importance, a 10-in-1 also held ten packages of cigarettes– each holding 10 Chesterfields, Luckies, or Pall Malls– along with ten GI matchbooks and 250 sheets of GI toilet paper. Tough but fair.

Traveling light

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Some 80 years ago, “backpacking around Europe,” a GI takes a breather along the Rhine in increasingly Allied-occupied Germany, April 1945.

LIFE Magazine Archives – William Vandivert Photographer

Besides his M1 Garand cane (muzzle awareness be damned), he is lightly equipped with his M1936 khaki webbed belt and suspenders complete with E-tool, while two extra 80-round bandoliers for said Garand are carried bandito style. A pair of cardboard K-ration “Supper” boxes are tied together. As a party favor, he has what looks like an M1 pineapple grenade on his left shoulder.