I think Uboat.net is wrong.. (food conversation)

[fastfed]

I was curious about the food carried on the u-boats and was doing some reading..
Uboat.net has this article

http://www.uboat.net/men/foodstuffs.htm

If you add up the numbers thats almost 14 tons of food.. For something like 60 men..

I thought it was a little high and then looked at MODERN subs, with 100+ men.. They only have about 7 tons of food..

I cannot believe that 60 men would need 14 tons of food for 10 or so weeks, while a modern nuclear sub goes for 4 months with double the men and half of the food..

It makes me wonder how many things are really off when it comes to the facts of history..

Like the book "Iron Coffins"
Everyone here says take it with a grain of salt, that most was made up.. I was expecting people to complain about things like Werner constantly going to 280-290+ meters DAILY in a Type 7 uboat, yet people complain about stories being someone elses..

In any case..... :)

[Abd_von_Mumit]

11915 kg, if I'm not wrong - 12 tons.

I don't know if these numbers are correct.

BUT: today technologies of food preservation are much more developed. We crio-treat food, make powder edible after adding water and such miracles, that were rather not widely used during WW2. I think it is quite possible that their food was heavier - held in cans (thicker than ours), wet (preserved in varous kinds of fluids rather than by drying/vacuuming).

Also note that they needed to carry fresh water supply for whole their trip (sic!), while modern subs just "make" fresh water. Thist must have weighted additional tons.

[fastfed]

11915 kg, if I'm not wrong - 12 tons.

I don't know if these numbers are correct.

BUT: today technologies of food preservation are much more developed. We crio-treat food, make powder edible after adding water and such miracles, that were rather not widely used during WW2. I think it is quite possible that their food was heavier - held in cans (thicker than ours), wet (preserved in varous kinds of fluids rather than by drying/vacuuming).

Also note that they needed to carry fresh water supply for whole their trip (sic!), while modern subs just "make" fresh water. Thist must have weighted additional tons.


WEll Water was not included in the weight that u-boat.net states..

It does mention that there is canned food.. But still. I just cannot believe they had that much for only 10 weeks.. that comes out to about 5-6lbs of food per person, every day.. 5 pounds a food?? Thats a lot! lol

[Abd_von_Mumit]

WEll Water was not included in the weight that u-boat.net states..

It does mention that there is canned food.. But still. I just cannot believe they had that much for only 10 weeks.. that comes out to about 5-6lbs of food per person, every day.. 5 pounds a food?? Thats a lot! lol

Let's try to count it, very roughly of course - 1 day per 1 man:
- 1 loaf of bread: 80 dag,
- a piece of meat: 5 dag,
- a plate of potatoes: 60 dag,
- 2 glasses of milk: 50 dag
Looks like a minimum, weights total 195 dag = 1.95 kg = 4.3 lbs. Not so far from 5 pounds.

[Madox58]

Being pretty active myself?
I can put down a Wendy's triple cheese, dragged through the garden,
a double cheese same way, the largest fries they have and a large drink, just for lunch.
(I don't eat breakfast)

I snack all day on anything that don't bite me first.

Dinner for me can feed at lest 2 people for a day!

Then snacks till bed time.

So 5 or 6 lbs of food a day for active servicemen,
under stress, is not unusual.

And I only tip the scales at 155 lbs.
:D
(168 lbs when I was in the 82nd AirBorne)

[fastfed]

Being pretty active myself?
I can put down a Wendy's triple cheese, dragged through the garden,
a double cheese same way, the largest fries they have and a large drink, just for lunch.
(I don't eat breakfast)

I snack all day on anything that don't bite me first.

Dinner for me can feed at lest 2 people for a day!

Then snacks till bed time.

So 5 or 6 lbs of food a day for active servicemen,
under stress, is not unusual.

And I only tip the scales at 155 lbs.
:D
(168 lbs when I was in the 82nd AirBorne)
ACtive?? thats just the thing.. Everything I read about these guys, is 90% of the time, it was complete bordum..

[JokerOfFate]

privateer, you "All-American" then :DL

A friend of mine was in AFSOC :salute:

[Madox58]

ACtive?? thats just the thing.. Everything I read about these guys, is 90% of the time, it was complete bordum..
Boredom does not equate to inactivity in the service.
Stress also burns calories in massive quantities.

@Joker,
Yes.
I was an 'All American'.
:salute:

Some of the best times of my life were spent jumping from perfectly good Aircraft.
:haha:

Also, some of my worst.
:nope:
But that was then and this is now.
:yeah:

And I have high regards for the AirForce Special Operations Command members!

[JokerOfFate]

lol
Would of loved to of joined the AF but my ears go pop :DL still the USMC was nice.


"Some of the best times of my life were spent jumping from perfectly good Aircraft.
:haha:

Also, some of my worst.
:nope:"
I know how you feel there, you love it but it's a dirty job, just be glad you're home *Hands ice cold beer* :DL

[Madox58]

:hmmm:
I never felt it was a dirty job.
I just could not stand the 'Fake' hard cores.
They damned near got me killed several times!
:nope:
It was so bad once, I threatened to kill my spotter myself!
:o
After that?
I was done.

Hello growing my hair long and working in a Gas Station!
:har:

[JokerOfFate]

We didn't have "Fake" hardcores, we were in...stupid name...Ai Anbar or something that was nasty... and sandy as well...:DL

I think I have my H.U.M.P around here somewhere.



What! You don't want the beer? :DL

[Madox58]

I always take the Beer Mate!
:yeah:

My time was in the 80's
Unlisted Middle Eastern areas when we whacked Kadaffi,
Operation Urgent Fury,
Unlisted South American areas,
etc.

[JokerOfFate]

Are you sure not even a little bit Irish :DL

Well, I've been in it a lot longer then I let on,

Operation Vigilant Resolve
Operation Phantom Fury
Recon (http://www.subsim.com/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fallujah)
Ai Anbar

[JokerOfFate]

P.s. What was it like working with the boys from the 22nd MEU

[Madox58]

Marines and AirBorne never got along while I was in.
:haha:

They called us 'Bird ShXt' cause we fell from the sky.
We called them 'legs' cause all chickens have them.
:har:

Plus on training in landing craft?
We beat them everytime!
(No one told us we were suppose to climb down a net! so we jumped!)
:haha:

Now the SAS Guys are a different story.

[Weiss Pinguin]

I bet you guys could'vepacked away 14 tons of food in several weeks easy :haha:

[JokerOfFate]

"They called us 'Bird ShXt' cause we fell from the sky."
lol :rotfl2:

I heard they were pro being "the most decorated of the Marine Corp" :haha:

[U777]

Also note that they needed to carry fresh water supply for whole their trip (sic!), while modern subs just "make" fresh water. Thist must have weighted additional tons.

I thought diesel subs had the same technology except they used waste heat from the engines vs steam.

[reignofdeath]

Not sure youd have to look it up, carrying 'fresh' water wouldnt make sense, because in the conditions of the sub, which Id assume would be warm no matter what, especially traveling under water, Id figure that 'fresh' water that was 'stored away from the beginning' after even a few weeks would stagnant and become undrinkable. Hmmm. something to look into no doubt

[Schöneboom]

Re the fresh water, U-boats had distilling units aboard to make water for drinking and for the batteries. Total storage capacity for potable water: 4070 liters (on a Type IXC)

About the food itself, I would factor in waste and spoilage (esp. bread and produce) and the weight of containers. Also, if the Kriegsmarine operated like other services in wartime, people might have requisitioned more food than they actually used on board, making the remainder "disappear" afterwards, for the benefit of their families. Given the increasing hardships back home, I would be surprised if this wasn't common practice later in the war.

[GoldenRivet]

One thing you must consider with respect to comparing modern food stuffs to those of sub days gone by... is the changes in packaging and storage and preservation etc.

A lot of stuff today is freeze dried, or powdered etc.

back then sub crews in the kriegsmarine got the real deal most of the time.

[reignofdeath]

This is true, Im sure they have quite alot of MRE type meals which would reduce the weight a ton, but still provide the same if not MORE calories that normal meals can deal out.

One thing you must consider with respect to comparing modern food stuffs to those of sub days gone by... is the changes in packaging and storage and preservation etc.

A lot of stuff today is freeze dried, or powdered etc.

back then sub crews in the kriegsmarine got the real deal most of the time.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Could also be that crews back then overstocked since they couldn't really be sure exactly how long they'd be out. I dunno how food stores and all that are calculated today, but it's gotta be more exact than it was in WWII. Maybe some bubbleheads could fill in the blanks :hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

Re the fresh water, U-boats had distilling units aboard to make water for drinking and for the batteries. Total storage capacity for potable water: 4070 liters (on a Type IXC)

About the food itself, I would factor in waste and spoilage (esp. bread and produce) and the weight of containers. Also, if the Kriegsmarine operated like other services in wartime, people might have requisitioned more food than they actually used on board, making the remainder "disappear" afterwards, for the benefit of their families. Given the increasing hardships back home, I would be surprised if this wasn't common practice later in the war.

I recently read the book: U-Boat War Patrol (The Hiden Photographic Diary )F U-564) and IIRC it stated that 1 litre of water took 1 litre of diesel to create.

In UK/Imperia; measure terms, 1 Gallon of fresh water weighs approx. 10 lbs.