Winter in the field

[jim]

It may be very cold at Enfield - and some of you live on a limited budget.

They had small cans of wood alcohol to heat things in the field.  You see Captain Winters using one in the Bastogne.  Burns hot with a white flame.  Hard to find and they are a bit on the expensive side.  Never sure on the contents until you pop it open and try and light it.

A quick, inexpensive item would be a can of Sterno.  Not authentic but will get you by.  Not as hot burning but it will heat water.  Paint it OD.

The picture includes and original can, Sterno can and a pack of matches I made.

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[jim]

It is just smaller than the canteen cup so care must be taken when digging your little trench to put it in.

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[jim]

Food

The typical soldier ate K Rations in the field.

There are a number of ways to get or make you own K Rations.  The easiest is to contact Kevin Frank with the 101st.  He makes a good product and takes his time with packaging and sealing.  But if you go that route you better contact him now.  He has a real job and may not be making bulk orders for Enfield.

The cheapest route is to make your own.  Plenty of sources can be found for K Ration boxes on the internet.  Do a search for K Ration box and a number of vendors will pop up.  Get the boxes now.  You can keep them flat in a drawer until needed.  Some come put together with a waxed inner box and others come flat that you have to glue together.

I will be making a number of posts on this tread about going the economy route and making something that will get you by.  The 90th ID page has details on all the meals, labels, boxes and what to put in them.  I followed their instructions to make the match book in the picture above.

90th ID K Ration page  www.90thidpg.us/Paperwork/HowTo/KRation/index.html

In the picture below you see Kevin's inner and outer box at the top.  The middle is an inner and outer box.  The inner box has been waxed.  Better get a few extra boxes if you go this route because there is a learning curve to it.  The bottom is a flat outer box like you would get it out of the mail.

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[Daniel Elling]

Another piece of gear that’s inexpensive but oh so useful is the canteen cup stove. It takes up no space and you can usually find them for around 13$ at your local surplus store. Two esbit fuel cubes get the cup hot enough for a hot drink or heating a medium size can of soup. olive-drab.com/od_soldiers_gear_canteen_cup_stove.php.

www.joesarmynavyonline.com/product-p/140592.htm

Above is a link to some online for less than $10

[jim]

You beat me to it.  I was going to get mine out of the shed and make a post with a picture of one today.

Guys, the canteen cup stove is an interesting piece of gear.  I never saw one when I was running the woods hard from the 70's to mid 80's.  I picked one up sometime in the late 80's and thought it was a new item.  Never used it.  It was just in with my stuff.

When I started WW II reenacting I never thought of using it because it was "new".  One day I got in a discussion about it and did a little research.  It came out in 1943 and was issued to the troops.  Now as to how widespread their use was and how many were out there that is a mystery - but they are a period item and very handy when used in the field with a canteen cup and some type of tablet heat tabs.

Thanks for the link, Dan.  To save on shipping this would be a good item for a few of you to get together and make a group purchase.  Pass them out when you next get together.

[jim]

Here is a picture of the canteen cup on top of the stove and another one showing the wood alcohol can inside the stove.

This is the way to go at events with high authenticity standards or at living histories. If you can get one can you an always reload it with Sterno.

The base of the stove is wider than the base of the canteen cup.  You flip it over to store it on the cup.  If you are using the larger Sterno can you can put the stove on the canteen cup and it makes it easier to set over the Sterno can.  You hole doesn't need to be that deep and the base makes the width of your hole a little more forgiving.

Gluing a K Ration box together in the background of the first picture.  I use cloths pins to hold things together until the glue dries.

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[jim]

Cold weather tip for those troops with little money.  This is a tip that Dan E swears by.

If you haven't picked up a period field jacket liner (original or repo) or have a tanker jacket or lined 41 jacket get the field jacket liner made for the M65 field jacket - it looks like a poncho liner made into a jacket.  They can be picked up in just about any surplus store.

If you didn't get that HBT jacket that fits skin tight to make you look oh, so sexy, (yes, I have seen some of you guys) you can layer up by wearing your T Shirt, Shirt and then the liner followed by your jacket.

This would not be something you walk around in during the day.  You hate to be the one pointed at and hear "Look at that Farb".  Roll it up in your bedroll and break it out as it gets dark.  When the big heat tab in the sky comes up you can roll it back up in your bedroll.

The above is not for authentic events but will get you by for cold events like Lugoff and Enfield.

[jim]

Now that you guys have your boxes glued it's time to start.

Once you are used to doing it this is what you should end up with.

It's missing a few little things like gum and cigarettes but the major components are here.

All the little things you want to add can be found at the 90th ID site.

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[jim]

The major component of the meal and the item that takes up most of the space in the box is the meat can.

The 5 oz size can fits the best.  There are a number of different meats than come in the 5 oz cans and you can pick the one you like the best - NO POP TOP CANS .  I happen to like the store brand chicken and the most expensive Hormel Smoked Ham.

Remove the label, place a P-38 on top of the can and slide it in the box.

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[jim]

Next item that takes up room is the crackers.

Plain Club Crackers and Graham Crackers are what you uses.  Nice thing about this is if you want a couple more than 4 just add them in as you wrap them in cling wrap.

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[jim]

The next item is dessert.

I get this Chewy Bar that can be found in the gluten free section of the store.  Kinda' like a brownie.

I wrap it in the alternate wrapping for the 2 oz D Bar.

The reason I use this is because it does not melt in the summer and turn into a brick in winter.  It's a quick and easy box filler.

Some of the lads have had these and given them a thumbs up.

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[jim]

Coffee, and in fact all the drinks are a little tricky.  The lemon powder and bouillon drinks pretty much follow the coffee process.

If you've been saving your MRE coffee packs (upper left) you can either use it as is or glue a period label over it (lower left).

If you don't have the MRE coffee packs you have to go the hard road.  I've gone down it so I'll try and save you some experimentation.

You need to go to the 90th ID web link and print out labels (this applies to coffee, powder and bouillon).

You will waste a row of labels but cut so you have two rows and one row.  Throw away the 1 row.  Fold it in half so you have a long single row on one side and a reversed long single row on the other side.   I tried cutting out single rows and gluing them on all four sides but the bottoms kept blowing out.  This saves you from having to glue the bottoms.  At this point you need to size it with the amount of drink you want to put in it.  Cut the individual packages to size and glue the sides.  When dry put in the drink and glue the top.

Point of note - you are putting it in a paper wrapper.  If you make these up a long time in advance the contents will lump and harden.  Place these and the chewy bar in small zip locks until the day of the event and you load your box.

If you want to get kinda' half way there you can insert single serving packs into the wrapper.  My thought is "If you go that route why bother with the outer wrapper?"

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[jim]

Doing sugar cubes is a lot easier than granulated sugar.  Print out the label, cut and wrap.  You can tell it's not me who wraps the Christmas Gifts.

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[jim]

With all that food you know what's next.

Again print the labels out.

You can either just put a wrapper around an MRE pack or open up two packs, unfold, lay out and wrap (that's what's in the picture).

Don't have any MRE paper around?  Start saving those tan napkins from all those fast food joints.  They make a good substitute - or you can roll some of the real stuff.

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[jim]

As stated above - the meal is missing some of the little thinks but the bulk of the meal is there.

Any minor touches you wish to add can be found at the 90th site along with instructions and print outs. 

You want to blow a weekend?  Get into making the matches.  Not really that hard - but vary tedious.

MRE on left - home made on the right.  Period matches had the striker on the front, modern on back.

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