Troops - Page 1

British Daily Ration - 1914
• 20 oz. Fresh or frozen meat, or 16 oz. preserved or salt meat
• 20 oz. bread, or 16 oz. biscuit or flour
• 4 oz. bacon
• 3 oz. cheese
• 5/8 oz. tea
• 4 oz. jam
• 3 oz. sugar
• 1/2 oz. slat
• 1/36 oz. pepper
• 1/20 oz. mustard
• 8 oz. fresh or 2 oz. dried vegetables
• 1/10 gill lime juice if vegetable not issued (for scurvey)
• 1/2 gill rum (at discretion of commanding general)
• not to exceed 20 oz. tobacco per week

Substitutions
• 4 oz. oatmeal or rice instead bread
• 1/3 oz. chocolate instead of tea.
• 1 pint porter instead of rum
• 4 oz. dried fruit instead of jam
• 4 oz. butter, lard, or margarine, or 1/2 gill oil instead of bacon

23 Sept. 1915, Very wet day. I bombarded Huns' wire.
 Other platoons of 'B' Company went into trenches.
 Very wet!
24. Sept. Bombarded Huns. Brought my platoon &
 No. 7 into trenches. Very muddy & wet!
25 Sept. Very wet night. Bombarded wire "8/62"
26 Sept. Patrol from 5th Glos. went out I a.m. One
 officer & I Cpl. killed. Very wet night! Very tired.
27 Sept. 7 p.m. "Wind up" opposite "Buck". Huns
 shout: "Come on, Gloucesters, the Royal Berks led
 the attack!" Spy reported caught in village, dressed
 as English officer. Cold night but fine.
28 Sept. Awful night & very dank. German in front of
 our wire! Huns "wind up" at 4.20 a.m.
29 Sept. Relieved & came to Souastre. Nice billet.
30 Sept. Delightful sleep in bed - the 1st I've seen
 since I left England. Had bath!
11 Oct. Back to trenches. I rode "bike" up to
 Hebuterne - awful thing! Slept at "Poste Cambron"
 [sicl.
12 Oct. Day's rest on Keep. Saw 18 aeroplanes bomb
 Achiet-le-Grand station!
13 Oct. Relieved in trenches. Wet - in support trench
 "Biron".
14 Oct. Up in fire trench. Collins (10th R. Irish Rifles)
 with me. Rats & mice in dug-out; crawled over me!
16 Oct. Working party in afternoon. London Territorial 
 RFA to tea & lunch, I had lunch early tho'.
 Lilian sent me a lavender bag.
19 Oct. Awful bombardment. 450 Shells but 59 duds on
 us, on left corner of trench.
20 Oct. Left trenches. Saw German - missed him but
 Hesketh Pritchard & snipers had him. New billet - 
 dirty!'

German Daily Ration - 1914
• 26 1/2 oz. bread or 17 1/2 oz. field biscuit, or 14 oz. egg biscuit
• 13 oz. fresh or frozen meat, or 7 oz. preserved meat
• 53 oz. potatoes, or 4 1/2 oz. vegetables, or 2 oz. dried vegetables, or 21 oz. mixed potatoes and dried vegetables
• 9/10 oz. coffee, or 1/10 oz. tea
• 7/10 oz. sugar
• 9/10 oz. salt
• 2 cigars and 2 cigarettes, or 1 oz. pipe tobacco, or 9/10 oz. plug tobacco, or 1/5 oz. snuff (at discretion of commanding officer)
• 0.17 pint spirits
• 0.44 pint wine
• 0.88 pint beer