The biscuits, known as hard tack, had to be softened with a liquid. Initially these were provided by companies in India but in 1915 manufacturing was moved to Australia. It is for this reason, no doubt, that the many personal memoirs of the AIF recall ‘going over the top’ with a voluminous pockets of the Australian blouse stuffed with extra tins of bully beef and packets of biscuit, ‘just in case’.”Ĭatering for diverse cultures and food habits across the Imperial forces – including British, Indian and Australian – was not an easy task.īiscuits were an important part of the ration. “Quite often, men might have no more than their 24-hour iron ration to sustain them for up to three days, sometimes even longer, until they either got back to their own lines or the supply system caught up with them. Graham Wilson, in his book Bully Beef and Balderdash, found that Australian soldiers often had to rely on their Iron Ration: The reality, however, was quite different. The theory was that as troops moved in an advance, their division train would push supplies forward and provide fresh meals. The ration was designed to provide a minimum of 13,890 kilojoules (3,319 calories) per day, sustaining a man in the field for 24 hours, and it was not to be eaten except in emergency-with permission from an officer. ![]() ![]() For this reason Australian troops were issued with the ‘Iron Ration’, an emergency supply of preserved meat, cheese, biscuit, tea, sugar and salt.
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