Post by Chris AllenWe've just watched 8 episodes about wartime farming in Britain.
It certainly helped to point out the conduct of the war was much more than
"traditional" battles.
What was really missing was a comparison with other countries at the time.
There was only a breif mention (near the end) that some POW's clamed to be
eating better in Britan than "at home". They also showed a loaf of German
"black bread" a depressing substitue for the real thing
Generally, we hear a lot about how Britain's "life blood" of maritime
trade was nearly throttled with the potential of starving the nation to
surrender.
What about the European countries? Presumably they also lossed their
normal maritime trade. How did that affect their situation. Did they
start the war with better food production? Were they forced onto rations
as quickly?.
Most European countries had better food self sufficiency than Britain,
Denmark had a surplus, I think Norway was acceptable provided it
could fish, Poland had a small surplus, but the rest of western
Europe needed at least some food imports.
Countries went onto rationing shortly after they went to war or were
invaded. Germany charged occupied countries a fee to maintain
the occupying army, paid in kind including food. Worse the number
of people available to the farming sector tended to go down and
routine maintenance of things like irrigation systems was neglected.
Think of all the men made PoWs. German occupied areas had little
fuel for agricultural machinery.
Europe did manage some food imports to the end of 1942.
In 1941 the French Mediterranean ports imported some 3,811,732
metric tons of goods, including 1,155,697 tons of fertilizer, in the
January to August 1942 period it was 3,194,766 tons of which
1,207,755 tons were fertilizer. Most of the rest was food and
drink or animal food. The imports came from Algeria, Tunisia and
Morocco.
Then add imports from Africa to Italy.
In addition the Germans imported a million tons of food and
edible oils from the USSR and Japan in 1940.
Essentially as the war went on the food situation in Europe became
more insecure, no major improvements in food production were
done and in fact the opposite was slowly happening.
A thing to note is how little of Germany's pasture was
put under the plough, the shift in the UK was significant, in Germany
things stayed the same. Pasture is inefficient when it comes to
growing food for humans, it is important for a horse based army
and a high meat diet.
In short the Nazis made no real changes to German agriculture
and replied on exporting food shortages.
Also after 1939 Germany never equaled it's
pre war grain harvests, hovering between 84 and 92% in
the 1940-43 time period, down to 78% in 1944. Potatoes
did well for a while, but the figures for 1943 at 75% and
1944 at 80% were not good. Germany was importing an
extra 2,400,000 tons of grain by 1942/43 compared with
the 1938/39 time period. The Nazis created a food shortage
in Germany and "solved" it by taking food from the rest of
Europe and caused shortages there as well, by things like
laying minefields and scorched earth. Then add the diversion
of food stocks into alcohol for fuel and all those people the
Nazis put on starvation rations who had their rations restored
upon liberation. The army in the USSR drew much of its
food from local sources.
As for local requisitions, the Germans took grain from where ever
it could be obtained, either for Germany or to feed the occupation
troops, in the 1940 to 1944 period 3.8 million tons from France
and in the period 17 July 1941 to 31 March 1944 1.76 million
tons from the USSR to Germany, a further 4.05 million tons from the
USSR to feed German troops and an additional 3.34 million tons
requisitioned for the German civil administration in the USSR which
at least fed locals working for the administration. Apparently the
grains taken from the USSR represented around 10% of the grain
available to the Germans during the time period.
Even Holland and Belgium, which were very food deficient, were
billed 176,000 tons of grains 1940 to 1944.
Also things like taking 100% of the Norwegian fish catch from
sometime in 1944 on, causing malnutrition in Norway as an example.
The was a wartime famine in Greece, the allies sent relief
supplies. Add the 1944/45 hunger winter in Holland.
The Dutch under German occupation were on 500 calories
a day in December 1944.
The USSR received just under 4,500,000 tons of US food
as a start, it was 25% of all the US shipments to the USSR,
ignoring the aircraft. The commonwealth apparently received
between 4.3 and 5.4 percent of the US food harvest under
lend lease in the 1942-44 time period, plus between 4.3 and
5.6 percent of the "other agricultural produce." In dollar terms
12.2% of lend lease to the commonwealth was food, it is
number three on the dollar table, behind aircraft and vehicles,
it becomes number 2 when you add in other agricultural
produce.
The fact the allies ended up with a major Belgian margarine
factory in 1944 helped the Belgians, margins were really
that tight.
In 1945 the allies invading Germany found the healthiest population
in Europe, clearly they had been receiving enough food. This was correct,
the problem was the food distribution had just broken down to the larger
cities. The Nazis had produced explosives not fertilizers and had taken
food to turn it into fuel, ensuring the situation was going to become worse,
not better.
The fighting, even in France, had its effect on food production,
According to Allied Administration of Italy 1943-45 by C R S
Harris, between July 1943 and September 1945 the allies
imported 2,464,100 tons of food for Italy, plus 3,291,200
tons of coal, in partial return the Italians exported around
2,000,000 pounds sterling of food, about half lemons or
lemon oil. During this period the allied armies bought about
300,000 tons of food from the Italians. A lack of transport
prevented full gathering of the harvest in 1943 and 1944
and distribution of seed in 1945.
Allied civil relief supplies to The European Theatre of Operations, long
tons, by
quarter, excluding liquid fuels,
Q2/44 727 (In other words 6 to 30 June 1944)
Q3/44 157,639
Q4/44 588,968
Q1/45 1,359,657
Q2/45 2,336,556
Q3/45 2,211,080
Total 6,654,627 long tons, in addition a further 6,853,313 long tons was
sent to the Mediterranean in the same time period. Overall the mix was
roughly 50:50 food:coal, with England supplying more coal and the US
more food, all up the US supplied 6,788,765 tons, England 6,098,902 tons
and Canada 620,273 tons.
The next figures are from Civil affairs and Military Government
in North West Europe by F S V Donnison.
By the end of 1944 France was running out of food, and
put down a requirement of 1,000,000 tons of foods and fats
over the next 8 months for the civilian population, along with
2,500,000 tons of coal and 800,000 tons of petroleum products.
Belgium was assessed as needing 80,000 tons of food a
month in early 1945, the situation was in Q1/44 the ration
was 1470 calories (versus 2,000 in Germany), it dropped
to 1,200 calories during 1944, in Q4/44, after liberation
the ration was 1450 calories if coupons were honoured,
and they were often not. By June 1945 the ration was
2,000 calories.
Holland, outside of German occupation followed Belgian
rations. Under German occupation the Dutch starved,
and the situation became so bad a truce was organised
so food could be trucked in and air dropped, even so
many died.
Norway, by raiding German Army stocks only needed
around 66,000 tons of food in the first 6 months of
liberation since they gained their fishing fleet back.
Denmark was a food exporter, once the allies could remove
the German army and put a clamp on weapons, provided
it could receive enough coal.
Britain cut rations in 1945, and while the wartime rationing
actually improved general nutrition the post war rations
were below requirements.
Post by Chris AllenFrom the histories on the fourth republic, pre war France imported
around 10% of its food needs. During the war some 3,000,000
acres had gone out of cultivation. With industry largely not working,
most of the new machine tools had been looted, only 20% of the
necessary spare parts for agricultural machinery were available,
then add fuel shortages. German requisitions had seen the horse
population reduced from 2.2 million to 1.5 million. French industry
was back to pre war levels of production in 1947.
The result was the French had to concentrate on keeping only the
most fertile farms in full operation, leading to resentment amongst
those who missed out. Despite the release of some 1.2 million
PoWS held by the Germans there was a major labour shortage.
Transport was a problem as well, inland waterways 40% capacity,
merchant marine 1/3 capacity, 45% of rail track operational,
along with 1 in 6 locos, 1 in 3 wagons and 1 in 2 carriages, 115 out
of 300 major stations destroyed, plus 24 main marshalling yards,
7,500 bridges down (1,500 had been hastily repaired), major road
repairs needed but these could be delayed since there were few
trucks available anyway, and they had fuel problems.
The population of France sank by over 1 million people between
1936 and 1946, to 40.5 million, the average 14 year old in 1945
was 7 to 9 kg lighter and 7 to 11 cm shorter than their 1935
counterparts. Germany had requisitioned a lot of French food
production.
Vichy had done the usual axis economic management, printed
money, there was 5 times the money in circulation in 1944 than
in 1939, 27% inflation in 1944, 63% in 1945.
There was a severe 1944/45 winter and disastrous frosts, French
1945 grain production was 50% of pre war, down 1/3 on even 1944
the 1946 harvests produced a "precarious balance".
The Japanese occupation had a similar effect on food production
in South East Asia, compounded by the fact pre war Burma had
been a major rice exporter.
Geoffrey Sinclair
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