5 ms·

I remember reading an account by a German soldier in WWI who had just taken an American trench and in it he found a fresh Apple Pie from Boston, and he immediat

I remember reading an account by a German soldier in WWI who had just taken an American trench and in it he found a fresh Apple Pie from Boston, and he immediately knew the war was hopeless.

jthrowsitaway 5y ago
Because the US troops were supported by super logistics? That's a lot to infer from a pie!
- paxys 5y ago
  If German troops are malnourished within their own borders and Americans are eating freaking Apple Pie from thousands of miles away, it's hard not to draw conclusions.
  - idontwantthis 5y ago
    If the Germans are struggling to supply beans and bullets, and Americans are so flush they can "waste" a tremendous amount of logistical overhead on transporting pie just to make the soldiers feel better, then it says a lot about how things are going.
    - natmaka 5y ago
      Maybe did the US only supply a few (hundreds...) pies, for some brass to drop it down before abandoning a location, for the Germans to find it and become discouraged. It seems that in ancient times some town besieged for quite a long time was starving but did throw away munificent food, simulating neglect, in order for it to fall on the attackers, who (not eager to maintain camp for long) promptly packed up and leaved.
    - s5300 5y ago
      I think the US making ice cream in their airplanes were the best example of this. Not sure of which model of craft, but they were essentially able to fly milk to a high enough altitude it turned into ice cream. The ability to have been able to spare aircraft for the sole purpose of doing that said a lot.
- a1445c8b 5y ago
  I would guess because success in war is partly determined by soldier morale and delicious food, particularly ones that bring up happy memories, is one of the best morale boosters out there.
- laverya 5y ago
  If you're eating 2000 calories a day of bread and a bit of sausage filled with sawdust (not a lot of food for a soldier), it means that your logistics systems are probably almost at their breaking point. If you're eating 5000 calories a day of beef, potatoes, bread, and apple pie shipped from Boston, there's probably a lot that could be reworked to supply even more calories of bread instead - or the same calories to more people.
helloworld11 5y ago
Likewise for German forces in the second war. When they encountered the sheer richness and quantity of U.S provisions after the D Day landings, for many of them it really brought home how hopeless their situation was in ways that abstract ideas of military and economic balances couldn't. Of course this shouldn't necessarily be used to draw absolute conclusions. Soviet forces were basically pushed into battling the Germans while subsisting on what could basically be called starvation rations, but they managed to crush the Wehrmacht piece by piece. Incidentally, the U.S also fed much of the Soviet Army from 1943 onward, to the point where Soviet food provisioning became highly dependent on U.S supplies (only from 1943 onwards).
- Thorrez 5y ago
  >Soviet forces were basically pushed into battling the Germans while subsisting on what could basically be called starvation rations, but they managed to crush the Wehrmacht piece by piece. But the Soviets lost more solders than the Germans.
  - chrisco255 5y ago
    They did the bulk of the Nazi killing.
  - SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
    > But the Soviets lost more solders than the Germans. Yes, they won by playing to their strength - many more expendable soldiers. "Quantity has a quality all its own." - (attributed to) Joseph Stalin.
- missedthecue 5y ago
  Captured german defenders on D-Day famously asked their American captors where all their horses were.
  - andi999 5y ago
    Source?
ac29 5y ago
Wouldnt food rations have come via boat during WW1? I'm not sure how fresh a pie would be that was in transit for a week or more.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- chrisco255 5y ago
  Yeah unless it was shipped on a refrigerated ship. Impressive logistics for the time if true.
Symbiote 5y ago
I found that difficult to believe. There were refrigerated ships [2] but I don't think flash freezing methods had been invented. The pie would be mushy, and how would it be transported from the port to the front line? The New York Tribune (18 May 1918, page 3 [1]) has an article describing a much more likely process: send the ingredients to the front line, and send cooks. Apples, flour, butter and sugar transport very easily. Eggs are fragile, but maybe they used dried egg, or maybe that wasn't a problem. > "When we got our affairs in tip top shape two American girls could cook 3,000 doughnuts a day and 150 pies." [1] https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1918-05-18/ed-1/?sp=3&r=0.478,0.097,0.419,0.331,0 https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1918-05-18/ed-1/?sp=... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_ship#Timeline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_ship#Timeline
- mytailorisrich 5y ago
  There's a lot of propaganda in time of war.
- rndgermandude 5y ago
  >Eggs are fragile, but maybe they used dried egg, or maybe that wasn't a problem. Or they used chickens.

I remember reading an account by a German soldier in WWI who had just taken an American trench and in it he found a fresh Apple Pie from Boston, and he immediately knew the war was hopeless.

jthrowsitaway 5y ago

Because the US troops were supported by super logistics? That's a lot to infer from a pie!

paxys 5y ago
If German troops are malnourished within their own borders and Americans are eating freaking Apple Pie from thousands of miles away, it's hard not to draw conclusions.
- idontwantthis 5y ago
  If the Germans are struggling to supply beans and bullets, and Americans are so flush they can "waste" a tremendous amount of logistical overhead on transporting pie just to make the soldiers feel better, then it says a lot about how things are going.
  - natmaka 5y ago
    Maybe did the US only supply a few (hundreds...) pies, for some brass to drop it down before abandoning a location, for the Germans to find it and become discouraged. It seems that in ancient times some town besieged for quite a long time was starving but did throw away munificent food, simulating neglect, in order for it to fall on the attackers, who (not eager to maintain camp for long) promptly packed up and leaved.
  - s5300 5y ago
    I think the US making ice cream in their airplanes were the best example of this. Not sure of which model of craft, but they were essentially able to fly milk to a high enough altitude it turned into ice cream. The ability to have been able to spare aircraft for the sole purpose of doing that said a lot.
a1445c8b 5y ago
I would guess because success in war is partly determined by soldier morale and delicious food, particularly ones that bring up happy memories, is one of the best morale boosters out there.
laverya 5y ago
If you're eating 2000 calories a day of bread and a bit of sausage filled with sawdust (not a lot of food for a soldier), it means that your logistics systems are probably almost at their breaking point. If you're eating 5000 calories a day of beef, potatoes, bread, and apple pie shipped from Boston, there's probably a lot that could be reworked to supply even more calories of bread instead - or the same calories to more people.

helloworld11 5y ago

Likewise for German forces in the second war. When they encountered the sheer richness and quantity of U.S provisions after the D Day landings, for many of them it really brought home how hopeless their situation was in ways that abstract ideas of military and economic balances couldn't. Of course this shouldn't necessarily be used to draw absolute conclusions. Soviet forces were basically pushed into battling the Germans while subsisting on what could basically be called starvation rations, but they managed to crush the Wehrmacht piece by piece. Incidentally, the U.S also fed much of the Soviet Army from 1943 onward, to the point where Soviet food provisioning became highly dependent on U.S supplies (only from 1943 onwards).

Thorrez 5y ago
>Soviet forces were basically pushed into battling the Germans while subsisting on what could basically be called starvation rations, but they managed to crush the Wehrmacht piece by piece. But the Soviets lost more solders than the Germans.
- chrisco255 5y ago
  They did the bulk of the Nazi killing.
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
  > But the Soviets lost more solders than the Germans. Yes, they won by playing to their strength - many more expendable soldiers. "Quantity has a quality all its own." - (attributed to) Joseph Stalin.
missedthecue 5y ago
Captured german defenders on D-Day famously asked their American captors where all their horses were.
- andi999 5y ago
  Source?

ac29 5y ago

Wouldnt food rations have come via boat during WW1? I'm not sure how fresh a pie would be that was in transit for a week or more.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
chrisco255 5y ago
Yeah unless it was shipped on a refrigerated ship. Impressive logistics for the time if true.

Symbiote 5y ago

I found that difficult to believe. There were refrigerated ships [2] but I don't think flash freezing methods had been invented. The pie would be mushy, and how would it be transported from the port to the front line? The New York Tribune (18 May 1918, page 3 [1]) has an article describing a much more likely process: send the ingredients to the front line, and send cooks. Apples, flour, butter and sugar transport very easily. Eggs are fragile, but maybe they used dried egg, or maybe that wasn't a problem. > "When we got our affairs in tip top shape two American girls could cook 3,000 doughnuts a day and 150 pies." [1] https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1918-05-18/ed-1/?sp=3&r=0.478,0.097,0.419,0.331,0 https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1918-05-18/ed-1/?sp=... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_ship#Timeline https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_ship#Timeline

mytailorisrich 5y ago
There's a lot of propaganda in time of war.
rndgermandude 5y ago
>Eggs are fragile, but maybe they used dried egg, or maybe that wasn't a problem. Or they used chickens.