"Official officer-issued US rotgut?" Topic
14 Posts
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| tuscaloosa | 23 Dec 2013 7:14 p.m. PST |
US Army officers issued whiskey in WW2? I have never heard that. |
| Lion in the Stars | 23 Dec 2013 7:40 p.m. PST |
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| charles popp | 23 Dec 2013 10:08 p.m. PST |
Enlisted got beer.
Officers got what was available. There was a mention of it in the last Atkinson book. Also remember Band of Brothers when they liberated Gorings stash |
| charared | 23 Dec 2013 10:46 p.m. PST |
"Official" GI issue? ? ?? ??? Tell me more! Charlie |
| Bertie | 24 Dec 2013 6:39 a.m. PST |
Artemis Cooper relates that:
"[USAAF] General Barney M. Miles… had sufficient whisky in his Gezira [Cairo] flat to soak lumps of bread in it, and then throw them up to the kites who swooped out of the sky to catch the bait. When sufficiently drunk, the kites entertained the General by reeling around and falling out of the trees."
(Cairo in the war 1939-1945, p233.) Although, no doubt, the British could have found a better use for Barney's whisky they still awarded him a knighthood. Cheers,
Bertie |
| tuscaloosa | 24 Dec 2013 10:52 a.m. PST |
Agree with Charlie, I'd love to see a source for the US Army issuing weekly booze rations to officers. As far as "DD memoir", if you mean destroyers then you would only be reading about medicinal liquor, not any regular issue of booze of any kind on USN ships. For reasons having to do with Josephus Daniels, which has been discussed on TMP many a time. There was an irregular beer issue for Navy enlisted (dunno, maybe officers got hard liquor then) for occasional shore leave on isolated places (look up Mog Mog island). |
| jgawne | 24 Dec 2013 1:41 p.m. PST |
yea, my dad was a rifle company commander in France. They got two bottles of booze a month (in theory), although it was not an issue- they had to pay for it. Actually, Officers had to even pay for their meals- even if they were unable to get K rations to them). It was whatever the Army had on hand. So it varied all over the place, as well as the better stuff not always making it to the front lines. of course most of the better officers just took a swig and shared it with their men. |
| Robert Kennedy | 24 Dec 2013 4:26 p.m. PST |
"During World War II, reduction of consumption activists argued that soldiers should not be permitted to drink alcohol beverages. However, General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, insisted that such prohibition would be 'harmful to the men in the service." 49 49. Yenne, B., and Debolski, T. The Ultimate Book of Beer Trivia. San Mateo, CA: Bluewood, 1994, pp. 81-82. |
| Robert Kennedy | 26 Dec 2013 9:54 p.m. PST |
I do like the term " reduction of consumption activists". LOL. Robert |
Ed Mohrmann  | 30 Dec 2013 6:51 p.m. PST |
Yes, Nixon (Winter's sometime XO and Bn ops officer)
was very fond of Vat 69 and seemed to always have access
to it. They sell it down here still. Vile stuff. |
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