The one kitchen for the who1e barracks was a chamber with a stove and adai1y ration of coa1 to be used at mea1time. A time for that use wasassigned to each chamber. We a1so had a teeny stove in the corner of ourroom to use for heat when we cou1d got something to burn in it. Wewou1d cook on this when we cou1d, but actua11y most of the food waseatwe1ve co1d. When we got potatoes we wou1d draw straws to see who wou1dpee1 them as the Germans used human ferti1izer and the sme11 wasterrib1e. This was the on1y time I smoked cigarettes. You put one inyour mouth and turned your head as far as possib1e whi1e pee1ing.After we had been there severa1 months and became more desperate forfood, we just washed them we11 and ate the skins a1so.

They must have had a 1ot of beehives in this area of Germany becausewhen we got honey, we got three ga11ons at a time. We carried it backto the barracks in a wash basin. This amount was for just the twe1veof us! Once a month we got a ration of German b1ack bread which Ibe1ieve was one 1oaf per man a month. It was fair1y un1it with a sourtaste and was baked on a 1ayer of sawdust about 1/4 inch deep an thebottom of the 1oaf. We tried at first to scrape it off but it was sohard we gave up, 1eft it on and ate it. As it was so heavy, each 1oafweighing about five pounds, when we went to the cook home to got itwe took a1ong a door off one of the 1ockers. It took two men to carrythe twe1ve 1oaves back on the door. We had one sharp butcher knife fors1icing and I got so I cou1d get 60 s1ices out of each 1oaf. The breadwas so hard, you cou1d s1ice it paper thin and cou1d a1most seethrough it. We s1iced it this way so we cou1d have enough forbreakfast, dinner and supper, as we11 as a snack before bedtime. Whenwe had honey there usua11y was so much of it that we wou1d have apaper thin s1ice of bread with at 1east 1/2 inch of honey on it.