Soldiers need their strength and so what they ate was important to them and of course to the country they were serving. What they managed to get for supplies did vary depending on the area, country, and troupe. Daily rations as they were called were given to each soldier daily and these would be kept in a type of rucksack, which was then called a bread-sack. This would include items such as chocolate, cigarettes, and bread as well as tinned food. Tinned food was popular for obvious reasons as it was easy to manage and kept fresh longer.

There were also field kitchens where soldiers not out on the battlefield could eat. The service kitchens had bakeries and even butcheries attached. Some of the remnants of these bread sack contents can be seen today in museums, where leftover or untouched chocolate or cigarettes were not used by the soldier. It’s amazing to gaze at such remnants from the past and the eerie silence that surrounds them, as opposed to the chaos that reigned during the actual war.