Feeding the Free-European forces

[the hairy bloke]

I'll probably also put this on the Connoseurs thread as well, but...........

I have been wondering what spices were availible on Britain during the War.

I would imagine that the free-Czecks, and Poles might want various spices, plus Indian army, and so forth.

Does anyone have any idea what would be around, and how it got to the UK?

 

[Shangas]

I can't imagine there would've been very much. Imports into Britain during the war were pretty slim due to the u-boat attacks. Rationing was VERY strict. What spices and condiments which did make it in most likely came from the 'States...

 

[Stanley Doble]

The same ones they had prewar. Salt and pepper.

It got there by boat.

There were convoys crossing the ocean steadily from Halifax and New York. Spices are something you can put a lot of in a small space. I doubt there were any severe shortages of spices. I don't recall anything about them even being rationed but I could be wrong. The English didn't use a lot of spices in those days anyway.

The Uboat menace was very bad but only for about a year, then they managed to beat them back and avoid them. The convoy system offered some protection. Only about 1% of shipping got sunk later in the war. Tough on the guys on those 1% but did not seriously hinder the war effort.

The tricky part was shipping the mass quantities of men, weapons and materiel needed for the D day invasion, plus the air defenses (bomber and fighter) feed all the military personnel and feed the civilian population. In this the needs of the civilians came last as a matter of necessity.

Would also like to correct the misapprehension that everything came "from the states". It mostly came from Canada especially in 1939, 40 and 41. Canada went on a full blown war footing one week after England declared war. All those big boxy army trucks you still see scattered around England were made in Canada. The US joined in 3 long years later, in December 1941, only after the Axis powers declared war on them and attacked Pearl Harbor.