Food Packages from Home/ Redcross...

[connie]

For those in POW camps at this time, discussions of meager food may be difficult. Those who received Red Cross packages may have found both food and items for trade.

Those still serving in battle zones (and those who served there before captivity) must have vivid memories of the packages from home and their contents. I know one fellow who asked for only popcorn because this traveled well. But I know others looked forward to anything but Spam! Chewing gum, candy, fruitcake... what did family package to ship to the war zone?

[connie]

This topic has not taken off. With a good portion of the division serving the bulk of their time in the ETO as POW's, I imagine that the Red Cross Packages were, for many, all that made it through. Carl's site had photos of these packages.*

For those who remained behind to fight, though, I imagine that letters and packages from home were, when they got through, something that was emotionally sustaining. I know that items sent at this time had to be requested. The postal order that I saw said that these requests also had to be approved by someone higher up. I know that Dad's requests were simply written in letters home and that was sufficient. I have no idea what enlisted men had to go through to request items from home. I am sure the packages that arrived were as individual as the people back home and the soldiers writing requests.

Anyone else care to share?

Food items?
Toiletry items?
Clothing?
What do you remember requesting/ receiving in packages from home?
Any notes about the postal system in general...?

* To find the photos of Red Cross Packages on Carl's 106th site, go to:
www.the106thinfantrydivision.be.tt/
Enter the site and click on "Kriegies" along the sidebar.

[floydragsdale]

Hello Connie:

Yes, I remember packages from home. When the B.O.B. began all of our Christmas packages and letters were lost. The mail truck(s) were caught in an ambush. As I recall, the mail bags were used as a road block. Some of them were destroyed (blown sky-high) we were told, to keep the Germans from getting them.

The weather was so cold that I remember asking for a pair of warm mittens when I wrote home. My "trigger finger" would get very cold and it was difficult to use in the trigger housing of my rifle. Army gloves (wool) were useless in subzero weather.

I don't remember the details now, however the package never did reach me and it was returned home, waiting for me when I was discharged from service over a year later. I used those mittens until a few years ago.

Cookies and fruit cake were a favorite to ask for because they wouldn't spoil. Yet by the time they reached us most of them would be just crumbs; nevertheless, they were eagerly consumed. I usually shared them with other soldiers in my Company.

Mail service was severely disrupted the first few weeks of the Bulge Campaign. Some of my mail never did reach me and it was waiting for me after I was discharged from service. Several of those letters were from my Dad who died while I was "up on the front lines" fighting a war when he wrote them.

I read them over a year and a half after he died. It was a very strange feeling for me, indeed.

Floyd,
2nd Btn., 424th Regiment.

[connie]

Hi, Floyd,

The mitten bit hits a familiar note. Dad had a leather pair of chopper's mits to wear over his wool gloves. He wrote of having a horror of losing them and therefore never setting them down. He wrote asking for a back-up pair. But that was just before the BOB. It's probably doubtful that any arrived before warm weather-- if at all.

Fruitcake, hard candy, and cookies seemed to be favorites with him, too. I think he asked for some malt at one time to add to concoction made from powdered milk and some of that indestructible chocolate you carried. Another friend asked only for popcorn. So, when the worst was over there were evenings around the fire popping corn in a mess kit that would never be the same.

I don't know if he lost anything in ambushed mail. But, he did experience huge delays -- some explained and some that were not.

There was a warm scarf that came at one point. Oh, and there were razor blades... and an occasional book that got passed around the unit.

Connie