British and enemy civilian food-supplies

Category

Library Item

Item no

32758

Title

A contrast indeed! British and enemy civilian food-supplies.

Description

From the Illustrated London News published 1918, March 9th, page 295. Drawn by W.B. Robinson. Additional title: The food situation in this country compared with that in Germany and Austria: Relative rations and supplies (or absence thereof) shown in diagram.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1918

Size

39.6 x 26.7cm

Type

Press cutting; Reproduction

Location

Reference Library

A failure to anticipate and manage the strain war placed on the food supply meant that by 1916 Germany and Austria faced severe food shortages. Rations of coffee, tea, meat, sugar and butter were nearly impossible to obtain, even for those who could afford it, and stores of cocoa, eggs, and fruit were completely spent.

Bread, meat, milk, and sugar rations were available only by ticket, and at prices often double that of normal peace time. The poor suffered most; regularly unable to find a suitable substitute for butter, many of Germany's poor would line up outside the butcher's shop beginning the evening prior for a chance to buy fat. Even the men in Germany's army were subjected to food rationing; food parcels from home were prohibited in an effort to end civilian suffering and many soldiers survived on soup which sometimes included the odd bit of salt fish.

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Events > Wars > Rationing

Events > Wars > War shortages

Events > Wars > Wars

Events > Wars > World wars

Sport and leisure > Activities > Eating and drinking