This article is published with the authorization of the official account "Nibelungen Factory"
German writer Lothar-Günther Buchheim was a naval war correspondent during World War II, and in 1973, based on his wartime experience, he wrote the submarine-themed novel "Das Boot", which was made into a movie in 1981 and remade into a miniseries in recent years, these literary works faithfully reflect the combat and daily life of German submariners in World War II. Today's enthusiasts are not only concerned about the thrills of deep-sea diving, but also the "what" of submariners has become a topic of interest to enthusiasts, so what food will they carry during the cruise? And where is it stored? Why would they rather eat moldy bread than hard biscuits that are relatively unfleatable? We can all find out from this short article.
Lothar Gunter Buchheim (1918-2007)
The German submarine force can enjoy a special supply of food, which is the highest standard in the army. After the conquest of Western Europe, all kinds of food from France, The German-occupied territories of Denmark, allies Italy, and the neutral countries of Spain and Portugal were continuously sent to the submarine base, and the crew of the submarine waiting for the expedition were busy carrying raw meat, cooked meat, vegetables, fruits, cheese, honey, chocolate, smoked sausages, juice and canned food into the submarine. Although the food supply is abundant and there are many tricks, the high humidity environment in the submarine will make the fresh food quickly damp and moldy, so during the cruise, the submariners can only eat fresh food first, and then they can only rely on canned food and vitamins to survive. The longer the voyage, the more abhorrent the dietary conditions become.
In 1944, two crew members of U672 were posing as lobster-nibbling poses, and although the food was plentiful, there was nothing to eat after a long cruising time.
Every German submarine was equipped with food storage cabinets and refrigerators, and the late-war models even designed cold rooms. Although the German naval leadership had made strict requirements for submarine indicators, including food storage conditions, before the war, they did not think that submarines might also need to travel to North America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Indian Ocean, so it was inevitable that they would not be well considered. During the war, submarines could dock in Spanish ports for supplies, and supply ships and XIV supply submarines (commonly known as "cows") would also deliver food to submarines, but after a long journey, the food delivered in this way was certainly not new, in a word, if there was a foodie on a German ocean-going submarine, he would be driven crazy.
In addition to obtaining supplies from European ports and supply ships and supply submarines, German submarines fighting in the Pacific Could also go to ports in the Japanese occupation zone to "load goods", and if they encountered fishing boats during the voyage, the crew would often buy some fresh seafood or fish themselves. Sometimes, if a merchant ship hit by a torpedo or deck shell cannot sink for a while and a half, the crew will go up and raid it.
The food on the submarine is managed by two people, the sailor (and navigator) and the chef, the chef is not necessarily full-time, but the person in charge of cooking is always called "Smutje" because he is always dirty, and this person should not only be good at cooking, but also have the talent of how to arrange relatively rich recipes with limited ingredients like a restaurant owner.
Left: Chef at U604 takes stock of canned fruit.
Right: Ham and sausages hanging from the top of the submarine's cabin.
Based on the duration of the voyage, the three pairs will decide how much food to apply to the warehouse and how to mix it. After the food is delivered, it will be stored in a place where it does not get in the way under the arrangement of the three pairs and the chief engineer. The storage of food needs to follow the following three principles:
1. The food stored in the boat should be fixed properly to prevent displacement and falling when the submarine moves violently or when it is attacked by a deep bomb.
2. Food should be evenly placed throughout the boat, and attention should be paid to food consumption to minimize the impact of food on the center of gravity of the submarine. The weight of food consumed daily should be measured so that the captain can rearrange the ballast counterweight.
3. Food storage should not hinder the normal operation of valves and doors.
U295 crews stored boxes of apples in torpedo chambers bearing the name of the French city of Nantes, which is rich in apples.
In general, most of the food will be placed on the ground floor, the rear section and the motor room, and nothing can be placed in the diesel engine room, because the food placed there will soon be stained with a smell of diesel. The control room should be kept tidy, so nothing should be left behind. Therefore, without hindering the action, the rest of the food can only be piled up in living areas and corridors. Because the toilets of German submarines were cumbersome to use and could not be used during deep diving, toilets were often used to stack food. After the bathroom was occupied, the crew had to use buckets to solve physiological problems.
The submarine's kitchen is equipped with the necessary equipment such as an electric stove, an electric oven, an electric soup pot, a refrigerator, a sink, fresh water, sea water and water supply and sewing, and the space is very small, arranged close to the rear cabin. What you can eat with this set of things and monotonous ingredients depends entirely on the chef's creation. The interior of the submarine cabin was crowded, smelly, damp and oppressive, and it was not an ideal place to eat.
German submarine kitchen and electric stove.
A IXC submarine with a total crew of 55 people would need to carry 12,583 kg of food and drink for a 12-week voyage, including:
Raw and cooked meat: 224kg
Sausage: 108kg
Canned meat: 2180kg
Canned fish: 150kg
Potatoes: 1750kg
Other vegetables: 1555kg
Lemon: 416kg
Fruit: 300kg
Eggs: 270kg
Butter: 50kg
Hard cheese or processed cheese: 50+65kg
Coffee: 60kg
Tea leaves: 3kg
Milk: 784kg
Bread: 456kg
Canned bread: 660kg
It should be noted that the types and amounts of food that submarines need to carry on each voyage are not set in stone, and jams, dehydrated potatoes, juices, rice and noodles are also regulars on the list. The type VII submarine, which is smaller than the Type IX submarine, has a crew of up to 50 people, so the type and amount of food that needs to be carried are similar to the Type IX.
As a staple food of submariners, how to properly store bread has always been a difficult problem, hard biscuits are stored longer, but they are too difficult to eat, and can lead to indigestion. The Bread that the Germans had been letting go for a while was called "rabbits"—because moldy bread would grow fur, it was about the same as a rabbit's fur. Ace Captain Reinhard Suhren once wrote:
"Bread was the biggest problem, we put the bread in a hammock and tried to keep the air circulating, but it didn't take long to spoil, and the bread was full of mold and looked like rabbits. We can only tear off the moldy part as much as possible and eat it together. ”
Left: A chef working in a submarine's kitchen, where the space is cramped and crowded.
Right: Submarine crew dining on deck before the outbreak of war.
In addition to freshly baked bread, the submarine also carried a large number of canned breads, how exactly do they taste? I am afraid that the enemy has the most right to speak. On 21 November 1942, U163 sank the British merchant ship Empire Starling, and Captain Eric Mockton was picked up by the crew and taken prisoner, who later recalled the food of the German submarine:
"Breakfast is served at 7 o'clock every day, with brioche, coffee, biscuits or jam sandwiches, and the bread is encapsulated in an airtight canned container with a diameter of 10 cm and a height of 23 cm, which is very well preserved, but it is a little dry to eat..."
Modern canned bread.
Overall, the food supply system for German submarines was reasonable, and bread was divided into fresh and canned categories. Fresh bread is not long, then eat first, after the fresh bread is exhausted, there are still a lot of cans to eat, and the consumption of canned bread is strictly limited, no one eats too much.
Left: German submarine crew cleaning dishes.
Right: Although shark meat is not very tasty, no one would mind adding a dish at night.
Below is the recipe of the submarine U93 during the fourth week of a cruise (January 12-18, 1942), from which it can be seen that bread is served twice a day. Somehow, Thursday's dinner was not planned, and according to German seafarer tradition, Thursday was "Donnerstag", a day to improve life, and the recipe for this evening may have been arranged differently.
Monday
Breakfast: coffee, bread, lard
Lunch: lentils with sausages, plums
Dinner: tea, butter, bread, a variety of sausages and meats
Tuesday
Breakfast: coffee, bread, butter, jam
Lunch: soup, pork, potatoes, vegetables
Dinner: tea, butter, bread, a variety of sausages
Wednesday:
Breakfast: cornflakes, buns, butter
Lunch: boiled eggs, spinach, potatoes, apricots
Dinner: tea, butter, bread, beef tongue, sausage, cheese
Thursday
Breakfast: coffee, bread, butter, jam, cheese
Lunch: sour kohlrabi, whole ham, boiled apples
Friday
Breakfast: coffee, butter, bread, eggs
Lunch: soup, braised beef, potatoes, peaches
Saturday
Breakfast: coffee, bread, butter, jam
Lunch: noodle soup, beef, pudding
Dinner: tea, butter, bread, cold cuts
Sunday
Breakfast: coffee, bread, eggs, butter
Lunch: Pork, cabbage, creamy strawberries
Dinner: tea, butter, ham, bread, sausages
The Type XIV supply submarine is equipped with an electric oven, so it can replenish fresh bread for the combat submarine at sea. The U459 is the first boat in its class, and excerpts from the report during the first mission of the boat are as follows:
“...... The electric oven can bake 80 loaves of bread weighing about 1 kg in 10 hours, and bake 800 loaves of bread in one night, which is handed over to the submarine, which makes the crew overjoyed. The 250 loaves of bread needed by the crew have also been made. The rye bread we make is very solid, tastes great, and doesn't spoil for a long time..."
In February 1943, the U459 supply submarine was photographed from the deck of U604.
Each submarine also carries at least 300 kg of raw dough and a large number of hard biscuits when it goes out, both of which can be moved. The former is time-consuming to process, while the latter is so hard to eat that some do-gooders have even given it the nickname "Panzerplatten". Obviously, these two things would not appear at Dönitz's headquarters. In addition, there is a kind of artificial meat filling (Bratlingspulver) made from soy protein, which is also notorious for being difficult to swallow.
The hamburger steak made with artificial meat looks quite like that.
The packaging of food that is carried to the submarine is not necessarily strong, and the cans may explode due to pressure changes, and the food that is cracked in this package will be prioritized. If the label falls off, it is completely impossible to verify what is in the can. So, if the fresh ingredients have to be exhausted in the first ten days of the voyage, and what can be eaten later, it is entirely up to God.