The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I just read this book for my book group.  It is the story of the German occupation during WWII of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of England.  It was wonderful--funny and sad and romantic and about books!  I wanted it to be 300 more pages so I could keep reading.  It was all told through letters, and in one letter, someone writes about the Red Cross boxes the inhabitants of Guernsey received after several years of occupation and lack of food.  The contents were listed and the recipient expressed such gratitude for all the boxes contained.

During the war, my Grandpa DeMartini was shot down over Germany and ended up in a POW camp.  I have copies of notebooks he wrote in while he was incarcerated. They are full of notes about food--foods Grandpa longed for in Kriegieland (as he called Germany), meals he would eat later, including the first breakfast when he gets home (orange juice, oatmeal with sugar and cream, pancakes with butter and syrup, scrambled eggs and ham steak, French fried potatoes, hot biscuits, and coffee--I hope he got it), and all sorts of recipes and menus for the future.

There are also recipes for meals made with food from German rations and contents of American Red Cross parcels, things like pea powder pudding (roasted pea powder, sugar, mashed bread, milk, D-bar, sprinkled cocoa topping), and Kriegie spread (cheese, salmon or sardines, ground K-2 biscuits, butter, and raisins eaten on toast).  From the comfort of the family room couch, those both sound terrible.  But from the discomfort of a POW camp, they may have been somewhat satisfying.

Grandpa also listed the contents of American Red Cross Parcels.  Here is what they contained:

1 can powdered milk (Klim, Milko, Rosemary, Nestle, Beatrice)

1 can meat (Spam, spiced ham, etc.)

1 can C-ration stew or meat and beans (or 1 can corned beef)

1 can salmon or tuna (or 2 cans sardines)

1 can Oleomargine (1 lb.)

1 can jam or peanut butter (cherry, pineapple, grape, strawberry)

1 can cocoa or 2 D-bars or 1 D-bar and M&Ms

1 can coffee, soluable

1 box biscuits or 1 box cereal

1 box raisins or prunes

1 can or box of American cheese (Kraft, etc)

1 can liver or chicken pate

1 box (1/2 lb) sugar (Jack Frost, Domino)

1 packet salt and pepper mixture

2 bars soap

5 packs cigarettes

1 package vitamin pills

Most of the contents had a points value, but I have no idea what the points were for.  Grandpa also received Canadian Red Cross parcels and a POW capture parcel which had clothes and cleaning supplies rather than food.  All these parcels seem sparse, and I wonder how often they were sent and how long they were meant to last.  I don't imagine anything worth having lasted long enough.