HistoryPorn @lemmy.world PugJesus @lemmy.world 7mo ago

Weekly wartime ration for two British civilians, excluding bread, fresh vegetables, and some canned goods, WW2, 1943

32 comments

And if you’re lactose intolerant, you have another reason to hate the Germans.
- Pretty sure the British thing to do in that case is to just lie down and die quietly for Queen and Country
It's hard to tell what everything is in black and white. What is all this?
- From the site I got it from, "This photograph shows the amounts of butter, milk, bacon, lard, sugar, cheese, tea and jam received by two people per week in Britain."
  
  Thank you!
- Was wondering the same. My guesses, clockwise from the top:
  
  milk
  
  tea?
  
  meat
  
  chocolate
  
  salt?
  
  bacon?
  
  sugarcubes
  
  cheese
  
  butter
Assuming you grew your own vegetables, maybe could fish if you had any skill.

I feel it's missing eggs. Fantastic protein source. No bread ? Are you supposed to make it yourself?

I see it excludes bread. What kinda cans would you get ? Beans spam maybe
- They called them Victory Gardens
  
  Oh I know. I remember doing WW2 at school and we made Victoria gardens. So I suppose they'd have chickens too
- Wouldn't citizens be expected to raise their own chickens, which would provide eggs? That's how it was in the US so I assume it's the same overseas.
  
  My Mum had a pet pig when she was a kid during the war. They had to eat it.
  
  More than likely. Suppose it would be much harder in Tennants and maybe in the north. Not sure what temperature chickens can handle n
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/98/a2756298.shtml
This… seems kind of amazing. You get bread and vegetables and canned goods, too? I wish I could get this each week! Good cuts of meat has gotten so expensive.
- Well, you still had to pay for all of this. It was just additionally limited how much you could purchase - with what is shown here being, then, the 'maximum'.
  
  You did have to pay, but it was massively supplemented by the govt with their food stamp program so you didn't pay much. Which makes sense, a lot of the people who needed this food were women with kids to feed and husbands overseas fighting. Fun bit of trivia, a shitload of people sent in what stamps they could when queen Elizabeth was married so she could afford her dress. She didn't actually use them though (I forget what happened to them).
  
  Ahhh, I was under the impression this was a weekly handout.
i would get so tired of milk... at least there was bread.
- All most people drank back then was tea which used milk.
  
  I can relate, I'm lost without milk in my tea or coffee.
Bloody hell that's a lot of milk! And, well, not much of anything else. I suppose you could make additional cheese??
- No soda or juice, so one supposes that was the primary non-water non-alcoholic drink.
  
  It was for the tea.
- I feel more normal about my tea/milk consumption now. Evidently, it's the way of my people.
  
  Yeah tbh after I made the comment I thought about it and I do actually get 4 pints delivered a week pretty much for 1 lmao
How often were the rations replenished?

Edit: whoops must have been still half awake somehow I skipped over the first word multiple times 😅
- Weekly?
- The first word.

32 comments