The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food

623 Pages·2012·4.62 MB·English

by  Lizzie Collingham

The Taste of War
The Taste of War
World War II and the Battle for Food
LIZZIE COLLINGHAM
THE PENGUIN PRESS
NEW YORK
2012
THE PENGUIN PRESS
Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York
10014, USA • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL,
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Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First American edition Published in 2012 by The Penguin Press, a
member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Copyright © Lizzie Collingham, 2011
All rights reserved
Illustration credits appear on pages xi–xii.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA Collingham, E. M. (Elizabeth M.) The taste of
war : World War Two and the battle for food / Lizzie Collingham.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-101-56131-7
1. World War, 1939–1945—Food supply. 2. Food supply—History—20th century. 3. Food security—
History—20th century. 4. Nutrition policy—History—20th century. 5. Starvation—History—20th
century. 6. Food habits—History—20th century. 7. War and society—History—20th century. I. Title. II.
Title: World War Two and the battle for food.
HD9000.5.C624 2012
940.53′1—dc23
2011043783
Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in
any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of
copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
PEARSON
ALWAYS LEARNING
For Sarah
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Note on Sources
Maps
1 Introduction – War and Food
PART I
Food – An Engine of War
2 Germany’s Quest for Empire
From wheat to meat
Defeat, hunger and the legacy of the First World War
Autarky and Lebensraum
Herbert Backe and the Hunger Plan
Genocide in the east
3 Japan’s Quest for Empire
A radical answer to rural crisis
One million households in Manchuria
From Nanjing to Pearl Harbor
PART II
The Battle for Food
4 American Boom
5 Feeding Britain
From meat to bread and potatoes
American dried egg and Argentinian corned beef
6 The Battle of the Atlantic
The worst winter of the war
The American lifeline
Frozen meat versus men and arms
Victory in the Atlantic
7 Mobilizing the British Empire
The Middle East Supply Centre
Profiteering in East Africa
West Africa and the dollar deficit
The Bengal famine
8 Feeding Germany
The battle for production
The occupation of western Europe
Greek famine and Belgian resilience
Allies and Aryans
9 Germany Exports Hunger to the East
Living off the land
Implementing the Hunger Plan
The food crisis of 1941–42
The Holocaust in Poland
Food confiscation in the Ukraine
10 Soviet Collapse
11 Japan’s Journey towards Starvation
Rice and sweet potatoes
Chaos and hunger in the empire
12 China Divided
Nationalist collapse
Communist survival
PART III
The Politics of Food
13 Japan – Starving for the Emperor
Healthy eating as a patriotic virtue
Churchill’s rations
The American blockade
Guadalcanal
New Guinea
Burma
Hunger on the home islands
Surrender
14 The Soviet Union – Fighting on Empty
Feeding the Red Army
Feeding the cities
The American lifeline
Perseverance despite hunger
15 Germany and Britain – Two Approaches to Entitlement
1930s Britain – a nutritional divide
1930s Germany – the campaign for nutritional freedom
The politics of rationing
Feeding the British working classes
Feeding the German war machine
The black market
The German cities – hungry but not starving
16 The British Empire – War as Welfare
Dr Carrot – guarding the British nation’s health
Closing the nutritional gap
Health and morale – the Army Catering Corps
Fighting on bully beef and biscuits
Porridge, peas and vitamins
Nutritional reconditioning – the Indian army
17 The United States – Out of Depression and into
Abundance
The ‘good war’
Future hopes
Troop welfare
Australia – food processing for victory
Feeding Pacific islanders
PART IV
The Aftermath
18 A Hungry World
19 A World of Plenty
American plenty versus European relief
A vision for the future
The shape of the post-war food world
The rise of the new consumer
A Selective Chronology of the Second World War
Notes
Bibliography
Index