Food is critical to military performance, but it's also central to
social interaction and fundamental to our sense of identity. The
soldiers of the Great War didn't shed their eating preferences with
their civilian clothes and the army rations, heavily reliant on bully
beef and hardtack biscuit, were frequently found wanting. Nutritional
science of the day had only a limited understanding of the role of
vitamins and minerals, and the men were often presented with a diet
that, shortages and logistics permitting, was high in calories but low
in flavour and variety. Just as now, soldiers on active service were
linked with home through the lovingly packed food parcels they received;
a taste of home in the trenches. This book uses the personal accounts of
the men themselves to explore a subject that was central not only to
their physical health, but also to their emotional survival.