Bread of the Poilu, Part I

Bread of the Poilu, Part I: The Bread Ration

Poilu

  I have returned after a rather protracted absence while experiencing what we used to refer to in the Army as being "OBE" (Overcome By Events), a catchall phrase used to indicate being preoccupied by a simultaneous accumulation of issues which prevent one from fulfilling other missions.
I apologize for not responding yet to the many comments, and will answer them as quickly as possible.

  For those unfamiliar with the term, "poilu" (translation, "hairy one") was a slang term applied to French infantrymen of World War I, a reference to their unshaven (and often unkempt) appearance which was also considered to be rather manly and virile.

    But on to the bread: in the French army of World War I, as with most European armies of the time, bread was a critical part of the soldier’s daily rations whether in garrison or in the field. This is shown in the chart below. The daily bread ration of the French soldier throughout both world wars was 750 grams (~26.5 ounces).

Daily Bread Ration, 1914
Country	Bread		Hard Bread
	metric	US/English	metric	US/English
Austria-Hungary	700 or 840 grams*	24.5 or 29.5 ounces*	500 grams	17.5 ounces
France	750 grams	26.5 ounces	600 grams	21 ounces
Germany**	750 grams	26.5 ounces	500 grams	17.5 ounces
Great Britain	450 or 570 grams*	16 or 20 ounces*	450 grams	16 ounces
Italy**	700 grams	24.5 ounces
Russia	1024 grams***	36 ounces	717 grams	25.5 ounces

*Rations amounts varied, dependent on a number of factors such as type of unit and proximity to the front lines. **Same bread ration weight in WWII

***Originally measured in the Tsarist-era system of measures. The wartime bread ration was        2.5 "funt" (фунт). One funt=approx. 409.5 grams

  In the French Army, fresh bread was commonly in the form of pain ordinaire, literally “ordinary bread”, but perhaps more aptly translated as “standard bread”. Pain ordinaire was produced in round loaves of 1500 grams in weight:  two daily rations. It was a round, flattened loaf approximately 270 mm in diameter and 97 mm in height (approx. 10.5 x 4 inches). It had a somewhat tough crust, a dense crumb and fairly low moisture content which allowed it to remain edible (after 18 hours of "ressuage", or resting after baking to allow for venting of excess moisture) for up to five or six days in summer or eight days in winter, and to stand up to rough handling while in transport.

Pain ordinaire was normally made using a levain* (starter) for leavening. Using levain, rather than yeast, enhanced the bread’s ability to keep longer without going stale. And as a levain is made from supplies already on hand, flour and water, it obviates the need to use scarce transportation resources to keep the army bakeries supplied with yeast. Brewer’s yeast was authorized for use in extenuating circumstances, but only for a day until a starter from leftover dough could be produced. With the occupation of Belgium and the loss of much of their logistical support, pain ordinaire was supplied to the Belgian army. However, many Belgians disliked the somewhat tangy taste of French pain ordinaire made with levain, instead preferring the yeast-leavened version.

* Levain is the French term for a mixture of flour and water that has been colonized by yeasts and bacteria.

French soldiers carrying their dinner, soup and bread, 1915.
The bread is pain ordinaire or pain biscuité. 

gallica.bnf.fr / Biblioteque nationale de France

At Amiens (Somme) a pile of pain ordinaire on the ground, awaiting transport.

Pain biscuité (biscuit bread) was pain ordinaire prepared in a slightly different manner and baked longer to produce bread with lower moisture content in order to increase its keeping qualities to 20-25 days. Of approximately the same size and shape as pain ordinaire, pain biscuité had a slightly flatter shape, a thicker crust and weighed 1400 grams (~50 ounces) due to its lower moisture content. The daily bread ration for pain biscuité was 700 grams. As it was less susceptible to mold, pain biscuité made with brewer’s yeast and cooled for 24 hours could be stored for as long as 18 to 20 days, but was recommended to be used by the 10^th day.

Arrival of bread and tobacco rations by truck.

The round shape and thick crust of pain ordinaire made for a sturdy loaf that could endure being tossed about during the transportation process. The mission of the ration parties was one of the more dangerous of World War I, as soldiers would have to leave the relative (emphasis placed on "relative") safety of the front-line trenches.

Several methods to transport pain ordinaire to the front-line trenches were improvised.
One was to impale the loaves on a stick and carry between two soldiers, as illustrated above. 
Twine could also be passed through the center of the loaves to string several loaves together
for transport.

At Camp Coëtquidan (Brittany), German prisoners of war prepare pain ordinaire for transport.
Note the baisure (part of the loaf with no crust) on the sides of the loaves, resulting from the loaves being placed close to each other in the oven. While it does affect the keeping qualities by leaving an entry point for moisture, it does not affect taste or texture. Apparently these loaves were intended for immediate consumption.

A third type of bread was the French WWI version of hardtack, "pain de guerre" (war bread). It was a departure from the traditional type of hard bread or hard tack in that pain de guerre included leavening. While it didn't have the long-time storage capability of previous hard breads, it was more palatable and less likely to cause digestive problems.

There were many sources for bread in the French Army. Bread could be procured from civilian bakeries in time of extreme need, but was more commonly produced in permanent army bakeries, field ovens or in rolling ovens (“boulangeries roulantes”) that accompanied units in the field. 

Even while moving daily and under adverse conditions, field bakeries equipped with  boulangeries roulantes were expected to be able to produce an output of not less than six batches of bread in twenty-four hours, The production of a bakery unit of 32 boulangeries roulantes was rated at 26,880 rations (13,440 loaves) per day.

(above and below)
Testing field ovens (boulangeries roulantes), Argenteuil (suburb of Paris), 6 May, 1914.

Coming soon, how to make your own pain ordinaire (see photos below). 

I need to tweak the formula just one more time before unleashing it. 

Sources

L'Intendance en Campagne,

enri Charles-Lavauzelle, Éditeur militaire (Military publisher), Paris, 1914

No. 96bis, Instruction sur les Boulangeries Légères de Campagne

Henri Charles-Lavauzelle, Éditeur militaire (Military publisher), Paris, 1901

No. 96, Subsistances Militaires, Boulangeries Roulantes de Campagne

Henri Charles-Lavauzelle, Éditeur militaire (Military publisher), Paris, 1910

No. 96, Subsistances Militaires, Boulangeries Roulantes de Campagne

Henri Charles-Lavauzelle, Éditeur militaire (Military publisher), Paris, 1915

The French P-38 Can Opener

The French P-38 Can Opener.

    Can opener, scraper, screwdriver, chisel, pick, the tool of a hundred thousand uses, "The Greatest Army Invention", "invented in just 30 days in the summer of 1942 by Maj. Thomas Dennehy at the Subsistence Research Laboratory in Chicago"*, was actually invented 30 years earlier by a Frenchman.

Several of my P-38s.
The two on the right are from the mid-1970's and still quite functional after 35+ years of use.

     In 1911, Etienne Marcel Darqué invented a pocket-sized can opener ("ouvre-boite") that was adopted by the French Army in the following year. Similar in appearance to the folding P-38, it was of rigid construction and was issued with a grooved wooden block to protect the user from the point on its cutting end. The weight of the opener was 15 grams (about 1/2 ounce), and the block another 15 grams. 500,000 were manufactured initially and served with the Poilu in the trenches alongside older model can openers.

Ouvre-boîte Darqué, modèle 1912

Dimensions, Ouvre-boîte Darqué, modèle 1912

But the story of Mr. Darqué's ouvre-boite does not end there. In 1913 he invented a folding version. Sacrebleu! The P-38 "John Wayne" that I had worn for so many years on my dog tag chain was not the product of American ingenuity! "How can that be?" thought I, but there it was, U.S. Patent number 1,082,800 of December 12, 1913, for E.M. Darque's "Tin Box Opener".

The folding version was apparently not adopted by the French Army, although it was manufactured in France post-WWI France for a salmon cannery in Newfoundland. In 1932, Darqué followed up with an improved version which included a blade locking device. In 1933 the patent was approved in the US as patent no. 1,921,911 and in the UK as patent GB386235(A).

Can Opener, Patent 1,921,911, August 8, 1933

     However, contrary to popular perception, the Army did not initially recognize its potential and issue the P-38 in massive quantities with canned rations. In fact, the P-38 got a somewhat slow start. The cans in C-Rations and K-Rations still utilized a steel-wire key ("sardine key") opener. Early in 1943 the K-Ration meat can was re-designed with a special light plate top "that may be opened with any knife blade, thereby dispensing with the need for a key and permitting the saving of metal used for keys.", but still retained the key through the end of the war.

Note the "key" (can opener) in the accessories section at the bottom of the illustration.

     In October 1942, it was recommended that with the initial issue of the 5-in-1 ration (so named as it was intended to feed 5 soldiers for one day) "certain can openers now on hand" (probably the P-38) were to be issued at the rate of two per vehicle. Eventually, a can opener was supplied in the main carton of each 5-in-1 ration. In May 1943, two "pocket-style can openers" (P-38's) were added to  the 10-in-1 rations.

     C-Ration cans were still manufactured with a scored key-opening band below the top of the can. This caused problems when some of  the contents of C-Ration meat unit would often spill out of the top of the can. Continued attempts at raising the band approximately 3/8 inch proved unsuccessful, as it weakened the container. "Nevertheless, the (Subsistence Research) Laboratory recommended that further efforts be made to develop a can with raised score that would withstand rough handling."; not exactly a rousing official endorsement of the P-38.

1945 C-Ration Menu 1: note the key method of opening the can.

     Meanwhile, soldiers (being pragmatic creatures) solved the problem by attacking the top of the C-Ration can with knives, bayonets, or can openers. Eventually it was determined that the most cost effective method would be to issue can openers. By the summer of 1944 an accessory pack with a can opener for the C-Ration was procured. In April 1945 the specifications for a new C-Ration were published, which incorporated the accessory packet including a "small can opener".
     Researching patents in the United States Patent and Trademark Office database for patents with "can opener" in the title from October 1940 through the end of WWII revealed that the first P-38-style can opener patent filed during this era was patent number 2,412,946, filed July 3, 1944 and approved on December 24, 1946. The patent related to improvements on existing designs, primarily in locking the blade against the body of the opener when not in use to eliminate the danger of injury to the user.
    "But", one might argue, "why would the government allow one of its officers to patent such a device, rather than throwing it out into the public domain?" There is definitely a precedent for such a patent. On October 17, 1939, in order to prevent commercial exploitation without the permission of the inventor of that culinary delight known as the D-Ration (formerly known as the "Logan Bar"), the US Government took out a patent. for  Major (later Colonel) Paul P. Logan of the Quartermaster Corps Technical Committee. Patent 2,176,086 "Concentrated Emergency Ration" was apparently filed without having to wait for approval.

      Given the P-38's ancestry and preponderance of hard evidence in Mr. Darqué's favor, I for one am convinced that Etienne Darqué is the true father of the P-38. Major Dennehy may have been the stepfather who brought it to the Subsistence Research Laboratory, but credit must certainly be given to the individual GI who truly recognized the P-38 for the great piece of equipment that it is, and for popularizing it to the point of becoming a military and cultural icon.

* The original article proclaiming Major Dennehy as the inventor of the P-38 was originally published in 1985 by Maj. Renita Foster, and reprinted in 2009 (but no sources were cited in the article). The article may be found at http://www.army.mil/article/25736/the-best-army-invention-ever/

Sources:
QMC Historical Studies Number 6, The Development of Special Rations for the Army, September 1944
QM Corps CMH Pub 10-12-1, The Quartermaster Corps, Organization, Supply and Services, Erna Risch, US GPO, 1953.
Quartermaster Food & Container Institute for the Armed Forces, Operation Studies Number One, Volume XII, Ration Development, June 1947
http://patft.uspto.gov
http://ouvres-boites.com/index.php/2011/03/02/22-l-ouvre-boite-du-poilu-le-nouveau-couteau-a-conserves-darque
http://worldwide.espacenet.com