Field kitchen
The field kitchen is part of the military and civilian supply infrastructure. This is a mostly provisional, often open-air place where warm food is prepared. The most important device in field kitchens is the field cooker , also known as the "goulash cannon".
development
In the first half of the 19th century, the military began to realize that the poor preparation of food was often partly responsible for illnesses in soldiers. Experiments with field kitchen systems were therefore made in various armies. On January 19, 1818 (inconsistent December 30, 1813) Goethe documented in his diary with Friedrich von Kurkowski-Eichen a designer of a mobile field kitchen that was supposed to cost 243 thalers and two groschen of Prussian courant .
In Switzerland there were smaller field kitchens as early as the 1880s. In Germany , Major Hahn presented a "field cooking machine" in 1889, which won various prizes. Kaiser Wilhelm II also devoted himself to the problem: “I also want to mention the introduction of the mobile field kitchen, which I first saw occasionally during a maneuver in the Russian army. It was of the utmost importance for maintaining the army's ability to fight, since the possibility of adequate nutrition kept our crew fresh and healthy. ” In Russia, experiments with such devices had been carried out since the 1890s with the system designed by Staff Captain Kowalow. In both cases, the kitchens were not officially introduced. The Russian army therefore first used field kitchens during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05. This innovation was adopted by the Japanese during the war . In Austria-Hungary , the field kitchen M.1909, designed by Manfréd Weiss on the pressure cooking principle in 1909, was introduced to the Austro-Hungarian Army .
Back then, every company or battery had a field kitchen. This was organizationally assigned to the battle baggage. The field kitchen also carried a third iron ration for each soldier, which was prepared during the deployment if necessary. This also relieved the soldiers' marching packs. One disadvantage was that the entourage increased.
A model in use before and during the First World War - Hf. 12 - was a pair of horses. Large field kitchen, model Hf. 11 , was driven with two heavy draft horses before the start of the war, and later with two light and two heavy draft horses each with four horses. It was driven from the box and consisted of a front car with a limber box and a rear car with the actual cooking equipment, fuel and accessories. Both parts were semi-rigidly connected to one another. The third iron portion was in the limber box. The rear car had a cooking and a coffee kettle. Both field kitchen models were adopted unchanged by the Wehrmacht. For the motorized units, the field kitchens were converted to rubber tires and coupled as single-axle trailers. With the fast troops it was common practice to mount the goulash cannon on the back of a truck or a half-track vehicle.
During the First World War, the field kitchens usually drove as close as possible to the front at dusk or at night . The field kitchens became social meeting places for the soldiers to exchange news. The mail was also posted there. This unprotected gathering of soldiers made the kitchens a target for enemy artillery . Therefore, sometimes not all of the companies' food collectors were allowed to visit the kitchen at the same time. During the Battle of Verdun , experienced soldiers kept as far away from the kitchens as possible because of the danger. Often it was not possible for the field kitchens to come close to the front. Therefore the meals had to be brought to the front over quite long distances. Often the food arrived there cold.
Well-known German manufacturers of field kitchens were the former Darmstadt large-scale kitchen manufacturer Gebrüder Roeder and the company Haas & Sohn ( Neuhoffnungshütte ) from Sinn. Field kitchens are also used in civil protection and disaster control, for example in the care service or independent catering units.
Trivia
Historic field kitchens for cowboys and farm workers in the USA were named as the chuckwagon .
literature
- Regulation H.Dv. 476/3, The large and the small field kitchen, 1937
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Illustration of the field kitchen , accessed on May 19, 2014
- ^ The Ostpreußenblatt March 17, 1973 / Volume 11 / Page 5 (The poet noted the inconveniences of everyday life) , accessed on May 18, 2014
- ↑ Military Weekly Vol. 2 Vol. 1890 pp. 2154–2160
- ^ Wilhelm II .: Events and Figures 1878-1918. Publishing house KF Koehler, Leipzig / Berlin, 1922, p. 192
- ↑ Kriegtechnische Zeitschrift, 1898 pp. 105–109
- ↑ a model of it is exhibited in the Vienna Army History Museum , cf. Army History Museum / Military History Institute (ed.): The Army History Museum in the Vienna Arsenal . Verlag Militaria , Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-69-6 , p. 20
- ^ Georg von Alten: Handbook for Army and Fleet. Vol. 3 Berlin a. a, 1911, p. 535
- ↑ Wolfgang Wallenda: Snipers of the Waffen SS on the Eastern Front - In the crosshairs of the hunters . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2014, ISBN 978-3-7347-3984-2 .
- ^ Matti Münch: Verdun. Myth and everyday life of a battle. Munich, 2006 pp. 93–95