----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan B. Caveney" <ryanb@CYBERCOM.NET>
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 10:16 AM

>OTOH, what exactly is in "iron rations"?

I`ve always assumed them to be similar to the military biscuits that were
common during the early modern period. They were unleven biscuits of heavy
breads that are often described as being like eating a rock, but they were
also capable of sustaining a reasonably healthy person with no nutritional
deficency for reasably long periods of time (months) with little else.
These biscuits became popular when military forces abandon pillage as a
source of supply for the magazine system. They are dry as dust and very
hard. Some languages use a word more like cracker than biscuit to describe
them. They were often prepared long in advance of a campaign. Napoleon,
for instance began the baking of his supplies near the end of 1811 for his
1812 campaign. He had millions of biscuits prepared in depots throughout
eastern Germany and Poland which he brought into Russia. His troops, less
accustomed to portaging their supply, stuffed themselves and threw away most
of their food, intending to pillage Russia. Only Marshal Davout (and the
Imperial Guard) knew to take special preperations and made sure that the
biscuits were not gorged or discarded in order to make the march lighter,
because they anticipated the lower population density of Russia, and the
scorched earth tactics of the Russians. Anyway, these biscuits were months
old.

That is what I imagine when the idea of Iron Rations comes up.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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