大象传媒

My father John Cory鈥檚 story from his memoir 鈥淎 Span of Years鈥� as left to the family, edited by Richard Cory.

When the troop was out of action we surveyors were subject to other duties, such as cookhouse and guard. Derrick and I on occasion took over the cooking for the troop, so that the cook could go on a trip. It was always a good thing to be on friendly terms with the cook.

Another duty was collecting food from army supply depots in the rear, such items as tea, sugar, sometimes fresh meat but more often than not the tinned variety, catering tins of corned beef or spam. Its wonderful what can be done with corned beef, such as broken up for stews, or dipped in batter and fried. Potatoes usually came in tins, similarly other vegetables, such as beans, carrots. Milk was usually the evaporated variety, but sometimes powdered. Fresh bread was obtained from an army bakery in the rear, but butter was usually margarine.

Fruit came in tins or dried. We seemed to get a lot of dried prunes and figs, I suppose the army looked upon this as medicine. Bacon was obtained in packs, but no eggs. Rice was good for puddings, made with evaporated milk, almost neat.

On the whole and in the circumstances we lived quite well, most of the food was of American origin.

The cooking facility comprised paraffin burners, which worked similar to flamethrowers, sending out roaring flames 5ft. long. Cooking was usually done in the open, if raining with a canvas sheet over the top.

When the troop was on the move it was a different story. The troop carried standby supplies and before moving off rations were issued to each truck. A supply of tea, sugar and a tin of evaporated milk, maybe small tins of corned beef, baked beans, sardines, and such like. A supply of bread was included until it gave out when it was changed to army biscuits. The latter were similar to the dog variety and had to be soaked before eating. 鈥楢fters鈥� could be a bar of chocolate, a tin of rice pudding or fruit.

I forgot to mention 鈥楳 and V鈥�. This was a tin of meat and vegetables in gravy, similar to Irish Stew, most satisfying.

To make tea and to heat up tins all one had to do was to make a hole in the ground, put petrol down and put a match to it.

It was necessary to feed like this until it was possible for the cook to set up in the evening, and the supply depots in the far rear had come up and were in business.

Another duty was obtaining fuel for the transport, which meant going back to an army dump. It was collected in 鈥榡erry鈥� cans, 5 gallons each. We were always pleased to arrive back with this potentially dangerous load.

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