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plushcare.com. BBC

1:15

Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. This

1:17

is the BBC Home Service.

1:20

Here is a special bulletin read by John

1:22

Snagg. D-Day

1:24

has come. Early this

1:26

morning the Allies began the assault

1:28

on the north-western face of Hitler's

1:30

European fortress. The first official news

1:33

came just after half past nine

1:35

when supreme headquarters of the Allied

1:37

Expeditionary Force issued communique number one.

1:40

This said, under the

1:42

command of General Eisenhower, Allied

1:45

naval forces supported by strong air

1:47

forces began landing Allied armies

1:49

this morning on the northern coast of France. June

1:51

the 6th this year marked 80 years since D-Day,

1:53

which saw Allied troops and air forces enter

1:55

the Mediterranean. troops

2:00

attacking Nazi forces in Normandy,

2:02

France via sea, land and

2:04

air. The assault marked

2:07

the beginning of the liberation of

2:09

Western Europe and victory on the

2:11

Western Front and D-Day has been

2:14

described as the single

2:16

most important military operation the

2:18

world had ever seen. But

2:21

if an army marches on its stomach, what

2:24

was fuel in the troops going into

2:26

that crucial battle which signified the beginning

2:28

of the end of the war? Ten

2:31

biscuits, two blocks of

2:33

oatmeal, block of tea and

2:35

sugar, three the chocolate,

2:38

cigarettes was the other thing that was

2:40

taken. But as I'm an unsmoker it

2:43

didn't make any difference. I'm

2:45

Leila Kasim and in this episode

2:47

of The Food Programme we'll be

2:49

exploring the rations and food stuffs

2:52

that fed the army during World War

2:54

II heading back in time

2:56

in a Wiltshire village that housed one

2:59

of the most well-known regiments of the

3:01

D-Day assaults and getting a

3:03

taste of the kind of modern day

3:05

Russian packs that troops are eating now.

3:07

Okay so can we just pour in

3:10

out the curry? You

3:12

know that looks good. That looks

3:15

good to me. We

3:17

begin our journey at the

3:19

Keep Military Museum in Dorchester.

3:21

It's home to what is

3:23

believed to be the world's

3:25

only remaining complete D-Day

3:28

ration pack and my

3:30

producer Tori Pope went along to have

3:32

a look. Tori what was

3:34

that like? I actually felt

3:36

really privileged to be there in the same

3:38

room with this very unique artifact. When I

3:40

arrived at the museum there were lots of

3:42

people kind of middling about the main areas

3:45

looking at all the different military

3:47

displays but I got introduced to

3:49

the director of the museum Elliot

3:51

Metcalfe and he led me through

3:53

various little tunnels and dark corridors

3:56

to a small back store room which was

3:58

under lock and key. where

4:00

he placed in front of me a

4:02

little Tupperware box. In

4:06

front of us on the table is something

4:08

particularly special. It

4:10

doesn't look particularly impressive on first

4:13

examination because it's just a

4:15

Tupperware box. Could you

4:17

just read to me what's

4:19

on top of the box, what that label says?

4:22

So it says, assault, 20-wire ration pack,

4:25

please do not open, handle with extreme care.

4:28

And the reason it's in a Tupperware-type

4:30

box is because it has an

4:32

airtight seal, so it

4:35

stops any moisture or hopefully

4:37

excess oxygen and things getting in and

4:40

deteriorating the contents further. And

4:42

what exactly lives in this

4:44

box? So it's a

4:46

waxed cardboard box, and it's

4:48

got some distinctive red lines running

4:50

from top to bottom across it. And

4:53

it says across the centre, the 24-hour ration,

4:56

and then A in brackets. The red lines that

4:59

run through the box, and

5:01

then the A in brackets, it's quite clear

5:03

that it's an assault ration pack, which was

5:05

only really used during the D-Day landings. As

5:07

far as we're aware, it's the

5:10

only sealed one still in existence. And

5:12

there are two or three empty boxes

5:15

known to exist in the entire world of

5:17

this particular one, but this is the only one that's

5:19

still got its contents unsealed. Well, I

5:22

wanted to try and get a peek

5:24

at this ration pack myself. So I

5:26

joined Elliot, Tori, and chairman of the

5:28

museum, Brigadier Richard Toomey,

5:30

remotely for a chat. Sorry

5:33

I couldn't be there in person, but I'm

5:35

very excited to speak to

5:38

you both about this very

5:40

cool little time capsule. Elliot,

5:42

I'm going to start with you. How

5:45

did this ration pack actually come to

5:47

be at the museum? So

5:49

the museum is in what was the

5:51

regimental depot and has been

5:53

since 1881, all the

5:56

way through until the late 50s. So

5:58

it could well have been here. since the war,

6:01

but we found it when we were looking

6:03

for rations and food stuffs for an exhibition

6:05

a couple of years ago. I see. So

6:08

it was already there. And then

6:10

when you were sort of rooting around for certain things,

6:12

you came across it and you thought, oh, this looks

6:15

interesting. Our cataloging system had

6:17

it labeled as a 1950s ration pack.

6:19

I don't know exactly why that's how

6:22

it was done in 2004 when it

6:24

was first cataloged. But as I was

6:26

saying earlier, the assault ration pack for

6:28

D-Day is very distinctive in its look.

6:30

It's got red lines running from top

6:32

to bottom, and there's not really anything

6:34

else like it. So its distinctive look

6:37

is really what made it obvious

6:39

to me that it was an

6:41

assault ration pack. It's a waxed cardboard

6:43

box, the idea being that that

6:45

would give it waterproofness. And it would

6:47

also, if the troops came up against gas

6:50

attacks, it would keep the gas contamination out

6:52

of the box as well. So

6:54

they were waterproofed and then sealed around the middle. The

6:57

top of the cardboard box would lift off, and

7:00

then all the contents would be laid out inside. Obviously,

7:02

we can only go off records from 80

7:05

years ago, which is why

7:07

we decided to have it x-rayed to

7:09

try and confirm if the contents that are

7:11

in the box are, as were laid down in

7:13

the regulations for what should be packed. So

7:16

the biscuits, chocolate, chewing

7:18

gum, the tissue paper, everything

7:20

is in there laid out as it should

7:23

have been. And what's actually written

7:25

on the lid? So to

7:27

be exact, I'll just grab it

7:29

from behind me. Oh yes, please,

7:31

please. Well, it's in its little

7:34

container, but it says the 24

7:36

hour ration and then it's got

7:38

A in brackets, and then it's

7:40

got brackets underneath that says instructions within. Which,

7:45

yes, implies that it's

7:47

kind of food in a format people might not be

7:49

so familiar with and there's ways to prepare it. How

7:52

interesting. And Richard, could you explain

7:54

a little bit about how ration

7:56

packs actually worked during World War

7:58

II? premiere

26:00

June 7th streaming on Hulu. Hey.

26:05

I'm Ryan Reynolds recently I us Mint

26:07

Mobile legal team if big wireless companies

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we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited

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26:45

what they would have been eating has

26:47

come to light thanks to Operation Nightingale,

26:50

a Ministry of Defence initiative

26:52

that uses archaeology to support

26:54

the recovery of servicemen and

26:57

women returning from conflict. Richard

27:00

Osgood is the archaeologist who leads

27:02

the project and has carried out

27:04

four excavations in Aldborne since 2019.

27:07

Easy Company are probably the most famous military

27:09

unit of the Second World War because of

27:11

the television series that accompanies them. They were

27:13

here for nine months in this small vulture

27:15

village, encamped on the football pitches it is

27:17

now, all around the village green. And

27:20

they were here just before D-Day, they came

27:22

back after D-Day and then before Operation Market

27:24

Garden, which is when they leave. The most

27:27

famous man, Dick Winters, ended

27:29

up commanding the unit. He was above the

27:31

post office as it is today with the

27:33

Barnes family and with another office called Harry

27:35

Welsh. The commanders were

27:37

at Littlecoat House, a beautiful stately home near

27:39

here and the other ranks were in stable

27:42

blocks around the village green and here on

27:44

what's now the football pitches in corrugated iron

27:47

nissen huts which must have been pretty miserable.

27:49

I'm quite surprised how much still lies below

27:51

the ground of the football pitch, what lies

27:53

beneath. Think of these footballers running over and

27:55

over these pitch. Well, we found lots of

27:58

concrete pads of the old buildings. cheddar

38:00

cheese flavour spread, spicy red chilli

38:02

sauce, tea bags times two, instant

38:04

coffee times two, chewing gums, sugar

38:06

times four, tissues, matches and a

38:08

spork. When you read the

38:10

contents do they sound familiar from when you

38:13

guys are in the army? Yeah, very different.

38:15

Let's have a look. What

38:18

is in the packet? Oh right, okay. It's

38:21

all the pouches and things loose. These

38:25

are like microwavable rice pouches.

38:27

Some of these pouches are

38:29

exactly like that. I think we need to try some

38:31

of these. I'm

38:35

gonna say the Rajma Masala.

38:37

Do you know what? Look at

38:40

the ingredients. That's pretty good. It's

38:42

water, red kidney beans, onions, tomato

38:44

paste, tomatoes, sunflower oil,

38:46

spices, salt, ginger, garlic, mango powder.

38:48

That's kind of like what you

38:50

would get at home right? Okay,

38:53

so let me just pour in out the curry.

38:56

You know that looks

38:59

good. That looks good

39:01

to me. It looks

39:03

nice and thick. It looks

39:06

like a lovely sauce. So what is

39:08

it? Beans. This looks like something I

39:10

would make at home. Let's try it,

39:12

I'll tell you. That's

39:15

nice. That's

39:19

like a home cooked bean curry to me. That's

39:21

pretty good. This is pretty much what I would

39:23

make at home. That's pretty good, isn't it? Yeah.

39:25

It's better than most plain meals I get. Yeah,

39:27

I'm really impressed with that. That's nice. I mean,

39:29

as I said, if I was eating it, it's

39:31

like 20 days in a row, then I'm like,

39:33

oh my God, you might have

39:35

changed. Yeah, that is actually quite nice. Thanks, Kieran. Look, you

39:38

guys are just making my own lunch. Right, so

39:40

this is the hot chocolate, which looks nice.

39:42

You just mixed it with water. That's

39:46

not bad. That is

39:48

good. What are you having, Kieran? I'm

39:51

having like good flashbacks. So I've

39:54

been playing cold night time. Someone gives

39:56

you this. Thank you. I

39:58

love you. So is it as good as you? I remember. Wow,

40:01

there it is. There's that

40:03

hit. Yeah. I think I'm going to go and cry. I was

40:05

going to say that. I could get a little tear come down

40:08

my eye. Oh my gosh.

40:10

Wow, yeah, there it is. Awesome.

40:13

It stirs those little memories of the

40:15

miserable moments when you are absolutely drenched.

40:17

You feel so wet that you feel

40:19

like your skin is actually... From rain.

40:22

From rain, because you've been out in

40:24

constant rain. I mean, you're in a

40:26

little shell scrape as well. A little

40:28

hole you've dug yourself through the mist

40:30

and all falls into there with you. So you're

40:32

literally surrounded nonstop by water. So someone coming along

40:35

gives you that. The best cup of tea I

40:37

ever had was on exercise. I

40:39

was just covering half exercise. It was

40:41

minus something either. And someone had in

40:43

me a warm, milky, sugary

40:45

tea. And I drunk it and

40:48

thought, do you know what, this is heaven. Do you

40:50

know what's funny? You say that because there's only two

40:52

kinds of tea that I will drink and that's exercise

40:54

tea and hospital tea. Because both

40:56

of them are welcome at the most

40:58

miserable points in your life. It's

41:01

the little things that make a

41:03

bad situation so much better. And

41:05

when you find something to

41:08

make the darkest times a

41:10

little bit greater, yeah,

41:12

it's just magic. Sweet, sugary

41:14

comfort in the worst of

41:17

times for our British troops.

41:20

And back at the Keep Military

41:22

Museum in Dorchester with Elliot Metcalf

41:24

and Brigadier Richard Toomey, I

41:27

wanted one last peek at the

41:29

ration pack that survived D-Day, which

41:32

Elliot says needs very careful

41:35

preservation. Unfortunately it

41:37

won't last forever. The

41:39

food stuff we know from stains on the

41:41

boxes and things is leeching out. So it's

41:43

just a case of preserving

41:45

it as best we can. I didn't want

41:48

to open it downstairs because it was quite a moist

41:50

environment, but in here it's fine. It does

41:52

have quite a chocolatey beef smell to it. What

41:54

does it smell like, Tori? Ooh,

41:57

yes. Does it smell like an oxo

41:59

cube? the wax of the

42:01

packet. Oh. But

42:03

you can detect, I think I can detect some

42:05

sweetness of chocolate. Wow.

42:07

And kind of a slightly beefy smell,

42:10

so yeah. So it has an aroma.

42:12

Yeah. Yeah. Whether it had

42:14

an aroma in 1944, I'm not so sure. There

42:17

was a soldier in 1st

42:20

Battalion, the Dorset Regiment, called

42:22

Private Terry Parker, and battalions

42:24

of the, Battalion of

42:27

the Dorset Regiment, landed by landing

42:29

craft in the very first assault

42:31

wave at the west end of

42:34

Gold Beach at 25 past 7 on D-Day. We

42:39

ended up being given by the

42:41

family Terry Parker's diary. Terry Parker

42:43

wasn't allowed to keep a diary,

42:46

but he kept one anyway, and

42:48

it's very insightful about

42:50

how frightening it was. And a

42:52

large number of the soldiers in

42:54

his battalion were killed and wounded

42:56

on that, on that first day,

42:59

and he records the platoon commander

43:01

is killed and his platoon sergeant

43:03

is killed. All the

43:05

officers are killed or wounded

43:07

apart from one in his company. But

43:10

his diary says on Friday

43:12

the 9th, so after

43:15

the two 48-hour ration

43:17

packs might have been eaten, 24-hour

43:19

ration packs might have been eaten

43:21

48 hours later, he writes

43:23

on the 9th, same place, short of

43:25

grub. And then on

43:27

the 10th, he's written same place, company

43:30

truck with rations, big eats.

43:33

So after the fighting and the

43:35

casualties amongst his mates and being

43:37

in a burial party, burying them,

43:40

his next concern is I've run out of

43:42

food. And you found it

43:44

in the diary he wasn't meant to keep, but it reveals

43:47

so much in that, in those

43:49

couple of lines. People of

43:51

Western Europe, a

43:54

landing was made this morning on the

43:56

coast of France by troops of the

43:58

Allied Expeditionary Force. This

44:01

landing is part of the concerted United

44:03

Nations plan for the liberation of Europe,

44:06

made in conjunction with our great Russian

44:08

allies. I

44:11

have this message for all of you. Although

44:14

the initial assault may not have been made in

44:16

your own country, the hour

44:18

of your liberation is approaching. You've

44:28

been listening to The Food Programme. I'm Leila

44:30

Kazim, and the producer of the programme was

44:32

Tory Pope. This

44:36

is a story about one of

44:38

Britain's most revered institutions, and

44:42

the theft of ancient treasures that were sold around

44:44

the world. It felt like a real punch to

44:46

the stomach. My God, things are being stolen from

44:49

our museum. I'm Katie

44:51

Rassell, and from BBC Radio 4,

44:53

this is Thief at the British

44:55

Museum. At

44:59

the heart of our tale is

45:01

an antiquities dealer turned amateur detective

45:03

thrown into the centre of a

45:05

global scandal. I was shocked.

45:07

I remember that thing my hair stood on

45:10

in. Search

45:13

for Shadow World, Thief at the

45:15

British Museum, on BBC Sounds. Welcome

45:21

to The Bright Side, a new

45:23

kind of daily podcast from Hello

45:25

Sunshine, hosted by me, Danielle Robé.

45:27

And me, Simone Boyce. Every

45:30

weekday, we're bringing you conversations

45:32

about culture, the latest trends,

45:34

inspiration, and so much more.

45:36

We'll hear from celebrities, authors,

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experts, and listeners like you.

45:41

Bring a little optimism into your life with The

45:43

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45:45

Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio

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