The Wehrmacht’s Eiserne Portionen or iron ration was a pre-packaged emergency combat ration somewhat like the U.S. Army’s K-Ration, designed to feed one man for one day, but without the amenities that accompanied the American ration. The iron ration consisted of 250 grams of Zwieback (hard biscuits or crackers) packed in waxed paper, 200 grams of canned Fleischkonserve (tinned meat), and 150 grams of canned Suppenkonserve (either condensed canned soup or Erbswurst, dried split pea sausage that could be reconstituted as a stew). This ration, also called the “Full” iron ration, was carried in the kitchen’s supply wagon located in the unit’s Tross, or field trains.
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The Fleischkonserve and the Zweiback was normally issued immediately prior to a unit’s departure for the field, and replenished when necessary. According to regulation, the tinned meat and crackers were supposed to be stored in the small pouch affixed to the Sturmgepäck ,
or assault pack, attached to the soldier’s Y-straps, along with the soldier’s weapon’s cleaning kit, sweater, Zeltbahn rope and pegs. It was a tight fit, to say the least. Soldiers could also store the tinned meat in his Tornister backpack, if he was assigned to the Tross (supply column) in a supporting unit.
During peacetime, tinned meat was rarely issued, since it was more economical to feed troops directly from the field kitchen. Until September 1939, units rarely strayed far from their Kaserne in any case, unless they were training at one of the larger Wehrmacht maneuver areas such as Grafenwöhr or Sennelager. Once the war began, however, necessity often forced commanders to order their men to open their tinned meat and crackers, especially when they had outrun their supply lines or had become encircled.
Tinned meat was usually issued directly from a wooden crate or cardboard box. Standard sized crates seemed to have been designed to hold fifty 850-gram tins and were supposed to be recycled for further use. The tins themselves usually had no labeling whatsoever, unless it was procured directly from civilian stocks, in which case it would have had normal commercial advertising labels.
Any description of the contents of Army-issued tinned meat would have been found on the crate or cardboard box itself. Unless he was paying attention at the time of issue, the average Landser had no way of knowing what type of tin meat he had received. The marking on the tins themselves consisted of indented or raised stamps placed on one end of the lid during manufacture. These were usually a series of codes that denoted canning plant, date of manufacture, lot number, and service that had ordered the product.