- Reaction score
- 5
- Points
- 430
I‘m looking for early references to Soldiers‘ (Mens‘) Christmas Dinner. The ones I have found follow:
The troops "enjoyed" Christmas Dinner in the open today, a drizzling rain adding to the merriment. The food was good, and much credit is due to Sgt. Val Alcock, the untiring [RCR] sergeant-cook. Each company sent one platoon at a time back to rear BHQ, which is now Command Post, starting at eleven o‘clock this morning. They queued up and received the usual Yuletide foodstuffs -- canned turkey, plum pudding, etc. If they were lucky they found a box or a heap of rubble to sit on while eating it hulked under their gas capes. - 31 Dec, 1943, S. Galloway, Some Died at Ortona
Christmas was unlike any I had ever celebrated. Our Battery cooks made use of an outside Italian oven where they performed culinary marvels. We had a makeshift Christmas tree on which the lads put gifts of cigarettes for the adult Italians and candy and gum for the children. The officers served the men what I thought was a very good dinner. The turkeys were perfectly cooked in the outside oven. Altogether I managed to assemble six pints of beer, two bottles of Scotch, and a bottle of Portuguese port. Of this I drank one beer, sharing the rest and my Christmas cake with the Command Post people. The Scotch I gave to the gunners who were visibly appreciative.
Throughout the day, the guns were silent on both sides. The Forward Observation Officer came in, and, as always, we were relieved to see him and his signaller and to hear how much worse things were with the infantry than with us. The F.O.O.‘s party polished off the port. - Alexander M. Ross, Slow March to a Regiment, 1993
The fifth day of the battle [of Ortona] was December 25, and the fighting went on. Most Canadians got a few hundred yards back from the fighting for an hour or two, long enough for Christmas dinner behind a wall or in a barn or -- in the case of the Seaforth Highlanders -- in the battered Church of Santa Maria di Constantinopoli. This is an extract from a diary kept by the Seaforth padre, Roy Durnford:
...C company came first at eleven o‘clock, A company at one, and so on until seven at night. The men looked tired and drawn, as well they might, and most who came directly from the town were dirty and unshaven. "Well," I said, "at last I‘ve got you all in church!" The floor had been cleared and tables set up, and it was heartwarming to see the tablecloths and chinaware some of the boys had scrounged, and the beer, cigarettes, chocolate, nuts, oranges and apples. There was soup, roast pork with applesauce, cauliflower, mashed patatoes, gravy, Christmas pudding and mince pies -- all excellent and a credit to the cooks. Plates were heaped high with as much as any man could eat.
The tables filled and emptied and filled again, and I saw many a tense face relax in the warmth within the walls of the battlescarred church. What a concert of noise! As relief and relaxation took hold, the talk became louder and greetings and jokes were shouted. The cookers hissed and sizzled behind the altar and the plates clattered as they were cleared from the tables and piled high on the altar itself. Desecration of the Lord‘s Table? It did not strike me so. Above the din one could sometimes hear machine-gun fire and shells. It was wonderful to hear so much laughter so close to so much death and suffering. - Past Combat Experience, Infantry Journal, Fall 1982
The troops "enjoyed" Christmas Dinner in the open today, a drizzling rain adding to the merriment. The food was good, and much credit is due to Sgt. Val Alcock, the untiring [RCR] sergeant-cook. Each company sent one platoon at a time back to rear BHQ, which is now Command Post, starting at eleven o‘clock this morning. They queued up and received the usual Yuletide foodstuffs -- canned turkey, plum pudding, etc. If they were lucky they found a box or a heap of rubble to sit on while eating it hulked under their gas capes. - 31 Dec, 1943, S. Galloway, Some Died at Ortona
Christmas was unlike any I had ever celebrated. Our Battery cooks made use of an outside Italian oven where they performed culinary marvels. We had a makeshift Christmas tree on which the lads put gifts of cigarettes for the adult Italians and candy and gum for the children. The officers served the men what I thought was a very good dinner. The turkeys were perfectly cooked in the outside oven. Altogether I managed to assemble six pints of beer, two bottles of Scotch, and a bottle of Portuguese port. Of this I drank one beer, sharing the rest and my Christmas cake with the Command Post people. The Scotch I gave to the gunners who were visibly appreciative.
Throughout the day, the guns were silent on both sides. The Forward Observation Officer came in, and, as always, we were relieved to see him and his signaller and to hear how much worse things were with the infantry than with us. The F.O.O.‘s party polished off the port. - Alexander M. Ross, Slow March to a Regiment, 1993
The fifth day of the battle [of Ortona] was December 25, and the fighting went on. Most Canadians got a few hundred yards back from the fighting for an hour or two, long enough for Christmas dinner behind a wall or in a barn or -- in the case of the Seaforth Highlanders -- in the battered Church of Santa Maria di Constantinopoli. This is an extract from a diary kept by the Seaforth padre, Roy Durnford:
...C company came first at eleven o‘clock, A company at one, and so on until seven at night. The men looked tired and drawn, as well they might, and most who came directly from the town were dirty and unshaven. "Well," I said, "at last I‘ve got you all in church!" The floor had been cleared and tables set up, and it was heartwarming to see the tablecloths and chinaware some of the boys had scrounged, and the beer, cigarettes, chocolate, nuts, oranges and apples. There was soup, roast pork with applesauce, cauliflower, mashed patatoes, gravy, Christmas pudding and mince pies -- all excellent and a credit to the cooks. Plates were heaped high with as much as any man could eat.
The tables filled and emptied and filled again, and I saw many a tense face relax in the warmth within the walls of the battlescarred church. What a concert of noise! As relief and relaxation took hold, the talk became louder and greetings and jokes were shouted. The cookers hissed and sizzled behind the altar and the plates clattered as they were cleared from the tables and piled high on the altar itself. Desecration of the Lord‘s Table? It did not strike me so. Above the din one could sometimes hear machine-gun fire and shells. It was wonderful to hear so much laughter so close to so much death and suffering. - Past Combat Experience, Infantry Journal, Fall 1982
) but not the same as the traditional Mess Dinner. I think it would be great if a unit could do both but the money probably isn't there. With guests it was probably the most fun but a lot of great memories (and bun fights) are created the traditional way. I prefered the traditional Men's Christmas Dinner.
