Oficers liquor rations in ww 2

[Walt's Daughter]

Excerpt taken from:

 

http://www.4point2.org/muzzleblasts83/muzz...ts-2004-dec.pdf

 

Officers in the 83rd, while overseas,received a liquor ration from the government. I received the first bottle at Anzio, I concluded that under no circumstances, would this liquor be available to any man while we were in combat. Then the bright idea occurred to me, “I’ll save it – this liquor will keep indefinitely andsometime in the future we’ll have aplatoon party. I had a heavy, khaki barracks bag thatwas about two-thirds full of stateside uniforms – dress shirts, pink and green pants, etc. The top of this bag was tightly sealed with a lock, for which only I had the key. My bag, along with all the other officers’ bags, was stored in an assigned trailer in the motor pool. About a year later when I had received another liquor ration, I headed for the motor pool. When I couldn’t find the officers’ trailer, I asked about its whereabouts, and the Sergeant pointed out a bigger trailer to me. I had no problem finding my bag, and no, I had not lost the key, if that’s what you are thinking. However when I unlocked the bag, the most awful, mind-numbing stench hit me. In checking, I learned that the bag transfer was done by throwing the bags to the ground, and then tossing them into the larger trailer. The result: every one of the fourteen or fifteen bottles was broken. My clothing soaked with whiskey, had to be destroyed. Of course, the men in my platoon were never told about the great party they missed in 1945, but all these years later we can finally laugh about it.