Chocolate's Involvement in War

Chocolate's Involvement in War


Sainsbury's Christmas Truce Advert

While the message of the video above is nothing really to do with chocolate, it is important to understand that the gesture made by the British soldier was huge, not only because he was a Brit giving chocolate to a German, but also because chocolate was rationed during WW1 so chocolate would not have been easy to get.

In many wars throughout history, chocolate has offered soldiers fighting, a small comfort in times of great fear. In America during the Revolutionary War, chocolate was so highly valued that it was included in the soldiers' rations. During WW1 Cadbury helped to support the war effort by providing clothing, books and chocolate to soldiers and more than 2,000 of Cadbury's employees joined the Armed Forces. During WW2, Cadbury's Bournville factory was used for the war by producing seats for fighter aircraft. Chocolate was placed under government supervision for the whole of WW2. This was because it was part of the war time rations for civilians.

During WW2 Hershey Chocolate company was asked to create a special bar for the US Army emergency rations. The bar they produced became known as the 'D Ration'. It had a higher melting point than usual to withstand high temperatures. It was high in energy, nutritious and was suppose to taste like a 'boiled potato' so that the soldiers wouldn't eat the chocolate before they faced an emergency. More than 40 million special chocolate bars were made for the military. They consisted of a blend of chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, skim milk powder and oat flour. It had to weigh 4 ounces. The mixture was too thick to move through normal chocolate manufacturing machines at Hershey factories so initially each bar had to be packed into 4 ounce moulds by hand.

These are just a few examples of how chocolate has played a role in war.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/D_ration_chocolate_bar.jpg






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