German Field Kitchen at Collings Foundation "Battle for the Airfield 2013"
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- A tour of the German field kitchen, known as a Gulaschkanone (Goulash Cannon), with World War II re-enactor Peter Speiser. Invented around 1892 by Karl Rudolf Fissler, this all-in-one mobile kitchen provided meals to soldiers very close to the front. Contemporary versions are still in use.
For more informational reenactment videos see our channel.
/ syzygymediaworks
A man with a real passion for his hobby and a great interest in keeping part of history alive.
Very interesting, this showed up in my recommended shortly after the American field kitchen video. The German version is very compact and efficient. The allied version required a lot of setup and ran on gasoline, while the German version runs on wood and it's all built into a convenient little trailer.
Great point!
Was the same to me, watched the american one first.
I guess the fuel shortage did force the germans to rely on wood rather than gasoline.
Both were made to suit the supply availability. Gasoline was in plentiful supply on the allied side. Meanwhile the Germans had to use coal which was plentiful and later charcoal. The American setup was not on wheels but it was more compact and multi-role. So you could cook soups, steaks, or mashed potatoes if you had the appropriate pots. The built in stations make sense but much of that space goes to waste if you're done cooking that item and cleaning looks like it would have been a pain. If the German version only had stove tops then they would beat out the allies easily. Too bad that there was no water heater like you see with the American mess/cook setup.
I think it reflected the material available and allocation ability of the quartermaster corps
A well fed soldier can accomplish their mission. The cooks are the heros behind the lines. Salute to them!
An army marches on its stomach
My grandfather served as a cook during the Korean War.
14 years in the British army, are cooks were the Fith column!!!! 😉 😂 "🇬🇧 🇺🇸
stfu dictator
Very true.
You can lead an Army on a full stomach and a hot meal.
I have studied WWII for a lot of years. Somehow, I always missed the kitchen. This is fascinating.
Very strange i'm the same way. Stumbled across the u.s field kitchen video too and im like 'wait what'
Same home slice
A combat soldier needs about 3500 calories per day! You got to reliably supply these to him,and his 1 million fellows!Not an easy task!
@@pebo8306 not to mention, a logistics nightmare
I just love the logistic in a war, just imagine transporting food to the soldiers. Flour, water, meat, vegetables, fruits. It was a tremendous task to keep every soldier well fed. Too bad it doesnt get too many attention since its more of a "silent heroes"
This is great stuff! Armies run on their stomachs. I had the privilege of serving with company level cooks of the Bundeswehr during the '80s. I never ate so well "in the woods" as when these fine cooks served us!
I had a German-American fiance from Munich who was in the U.S. Army when I was. She always lamented on how much better chow was in her home country versus U.S. chow. Her cooking tasted awesome, but it made me sleepy with how heavy it was so I don't know how combat effective I would be after a German meal. Cheers!🍻
There's an old saying around here that says "the best spice is hunger"
@feelings Are Not Arguments Cold War Bundeswehr did a lot of things right.
During field exercises at Bitburg Air Base I got to eat several meals with the Bundeswehr. Winter, with snow / sleet. We were served pea soup w/ham and brown bread. Best (!) winter field meals I ever had.
@@AsheramK I don't like that I'm sorry God bless you
That was pretty cool. I just saw a video on, the U.S. Army field kitchens... A rather little studied part of history. If, you ever read the book, All Quiet on the Western Front, the first scene, takes place when the soldiers go to their company field kitchens, to get fed.
I saw that video, too.
Maybe this should be a topic for a history book: "Military Field Kitchens Through the Ages."
absolutely believable movie.
In All quiet on the western front, there were so many casualties. That everyone ate very well
This kitchen is a postwar field kitchen but hats off to you for dragging it to shows! From a fellow kuchenbulle also towing a field kitchen to shows
If this man was a history teacher I would sit for that class and never get bored
In Finland is same type "Soppatykki". In winter war it had game changer role. In early days of war, in battle soviet catch it, full of sausage soup. Finns get agry and took it back. It was first finnish victory in that war. It was good for moral.
A very interesting video about a little known area of military history.
Ahh, the momeries. I remember this one sunny and scorching August afternoon on a training camp back in the 90's, when an M/29 Soup Cannon almost burned the flesh off from my forearm. 200 liters worth of boiling steam got suddenly released almost straight to my face, because I was so tired from all the cooking, working and not being able to sleep, that I forgot the proper way to open the damn lid. It btw takes only one bean to make the whole cooker explode. We simulated the situation in base training, the thing becomes an instant soup volcano. Goulash Cannon and the M/29 Soup Cannon are very similar devices, german version is only significantly smaller.
The ultimate friendly fire incident.
Imagine spending two hours or more cooking a meal while artillery, machine guns, and rifles are firing just 2 miles / 3.2 km away.
ako tairi thermostats?
Cooks: "So uncivilized..." *Continued making the food*
Just heard his part about the horse meat. My Polish born parents went through WWII. Father spent the majority of the war in German POW camps. I remember his story of finding a big rubbery hairy horse nostril in his stew. He was hungry, so he ate it!
My mother was in forced labor camps. She never had anything too bad to say about the Germans. She worked at a library and a bakery
We eat 🐎 meat all the time here in Italy . The finest restaurants serve it. Exceptionally lean and delicate taste.
Want to know where Europe gets most of it's horse meat ?
Texas and Oklahoma.
@feelings Are Not Arguments
Export laws are complicated things.
Many times they are not broadcast to the public due to cultural norms and sensitivities.
Horse meat is common in Germany and not because people don't have alternatives. There are special butcher shops for it. Even more so 80 years ago, I imagine.
@@rofl0rblades - "common" is quite an overstatement. It's really a rare thing today, and also I think it's a bit regional. Only once in my life did I see a food stand selling horse sausage, and maybe once or twice on a restaurant menu. Most Germans would refuse to eat horse. A few years ago there was a big scandal when horse meat was passed off as beef in processed foods.
I love horse meat, especially horse meat sausage
I have read that at one point in the Russian/Finnish "Winter War", the Russians, thinking it would be a short campaign, fed their men tea with jam and bread. The Finns were feeding their men hot, sausage soup. The difference in the rations seemed to really make a difference in that icy, snowy climate.
It was also likely a difference in supply capacity. It's generally easier to feed a much smaller defending army well while everything behind them is home ground. I have also read somewhere the lessons of that war were part of why Soviet troops in Stalingrad were fed much better. By the time of Stalingrad they also had army doctors seriously studying nutrition to a point where death from re-feeding syndrome (Being fed the wrong foods at the wrong quantity after a period of prolonged hunger leading to the body dying from something close to sudden shock to a vastly slowed metabolism) was far less common for the Red Army than it was for the Wermacht.
@@KaoVamp Interesting. Thanks for the comment. As someone who experienced a three day period with nothing to eat while in Vietnam (this would have been close to the norm for Joseph Plumb Martin and his fellow Continentals) I have a real interest in military rations. (And if you are given the choice between water and chow, take the water. I currently have a four quart, a two quart, two forty ounce canteens in the trunk and floor board of my car, and one East German 24 oz canteen hanging over the floor shiftier. Experiencing thirst makes for a lasting impression. I also carry, in my car, three different ways to purify water. And jerky, potted meat, ramen noodles, and nabs-sandwich crackers and dried fruit and granola bars. I rotate them every six months.)
Watched a documentary on the winter war and a Russian advance was stopped by the feild kitchen as the Russians wher that hungry they headed for the feild kitchen when they smelt the food cooking, battle of the sausges or something it was called
excellent video, very imformative speaker clearly knows his kitchen.
Wish i could share a beer with this guy. I bet he has awesome stories and lot of knowledge to share about the logistic part of the war.
The us military calls issued glasses "birth control glasses " those must be "mother will disown you "glasses
Called "birth control glasses" probably because you won't have much success with the ladies if you wear them.
I had a similar pair of glasses issues in the Canadian army in the '80s. They are designed to fit on under a gas mask and enable a seal between the gas mask and your face.
Dienstbrille.
Everyone should just be allowed to have laser surgery with insurance coverage at this point. 21st century and people still need to ruin their face with specs that are inconvenient (fog from temperature change, sliding off when wet, routine cleaning, glare, frames breaking in some way, very painful during a brawl if someone presses your frames into your face, etc) and in many cases make people less attractive. At least in the military, they should provide laser surgery for all enlisted.
@@rixille
this is the military
glasses are considerably cheaper per man than the hospital bill for each man
more pennies saved on the little things means more money for things that go boom
Awesome! Its good that was an honor to cook. Cool little trailer and equipment too cook with.
I read a book on the German infantry divisions in WW2. They were still heavily dependent on horse drawn transport with only about 12 trucks for the entire division of 12,000 troops. Of those 12 trucks 6 went to the Baking and Butcher companies. This might sound odd but the bakers had all they needed to make bread including grinding mills while the butchers could take live cattle and convert them into sausage. So as long as they could capture herds of cattle and graineries on farms they were nearly self sufficient for food, only requiring coffee and sugar when it was available.
Love history,especially the nuts & bolts behind logistics.
I always wondered about the logistics of feeding soldiers in the field. Very informative. Good meals are essential to good morale.
Ha I love this guy! He comes across as quite nervous bit he's extreamly interesting and insightful!
Well done for keeping up an often overlooked, but highly important piece of military history.
Something left out of the usual documentaries and feature films. Fascinating. Great presenter.
I guess field kitchen is one of those unsung workers of war. In Finnish it is called soppatykki. Loosely translated "soup cannon".
It's also extremely effective to attack kitchens behind the lines in winter. No warm food for freezing soldiers
Perkele Suomi Perkele
- Grandpa, did you kill anyone during the war?
- Yes, once i killed a whole platoon.
- But you said you were a cook!
- But i never said i was a good one.
Veli Karppinen
BENIS :DDDD
We in Poland use them to this day ; they are great for Boy/girl scout camps.
It's easy to use, maintain and transport.
I saw a video about American field kitchens in WW2 that was also very interesting. The equipment is different but the function is the same. And let’s not forget that the cooks are just as important in winning battles as the men holding the rifles and we should honor them as well.
It would have been nice to watch them actually prepare and cook something on these field kitchens!! 🤠👍
Looks like an armored stove.
Im sure hot grub was gratefully appreciated by the troops.
Thanks so much for the video! This is the very stuff that is so often lost to history. It is the everyday items that we see and take for granted and never mention that are lost.
Very well presented, and helments off to the narrator! Good job! (And now that it is on CZcams, it should last until such time as civilization as we know it ceases to be.)
Great job at preserving history.Very important part of any field army..
It's interesting to note that variations of this cart-style field kitchen can still be found on the modern market: I guess that if the design ain't broke, don't fix it.
My wife's grandfather was a mess Sergeant in the NW ETO, and was awarded the Bronze Star in 45 for "ingenuity in utilizing enemy (German) stoves to supplement his own damaged equipment under difficult conditions during the German winter offensive". (We have a copy of the citation). Wonder what he thought about these compared to the US equivalent. Sadly he's passed away and no one picked his brain. We know the "difficult conditions" was the battle of the bulge, as his artillery unit was part of the 1st Army and was in the thick of it.
Great work by Collings.
Excellent! Thank you for posting and keeping history alive.
His glasses makes this even better
0:12 didn't miss a meal, not even on June 6th, 1944.
Morbidly obese people kinda take away the significance of a reenactment to me. It just seems so out of place and immediately takes you back to present times. He is completely unfit to serve lol.
@@Gigitygigity24 I guess maybe if he was a chunky general maybe lol.
That's Schultz from Hogan's Heroes! LOL!
Have you never seen Herman Goering
he had extra that day.
"Procured" locally. Sometimes the local Women "helped" out in the kitchen.
"procured locally" assumedly at gunpoint.
@@pantherace1000 procurement of supplies in the field is often done at gunpoint (or in older ages, swordpoint), even by the Allies and Soviets during the War. Hell, Soviet "procurement" also usually involved rape.
@@alexporter7379 The basic laws of society are not always considered by armies at war, it is up to the military itself to govern its own soldiers from committing such acts against the civilian population. I could imagine even the most principled of officers struggled to control their own soldiers who were war weary and looking to comfort themselves, exploiting the lack of law and order. One thing overlooked is how in history of armies and war; the common soldiery definitely would invite themselves (not in a good way) or pay prostitutes. This was not exclusive to the Germans.
@@alexporter7379 The Germans called it "organizing" a meal.
Very informative. Well done!
I love these videos! I've always had a curiosity of how soldiers were able to eat during wartime. Movies and few documentaries never really explain this. Somebody needs to make a war movie that is based on logistics. Many people don't understand that there is more to war than killing. Your army has to survive and travel, and that takes a lot of coordination. Great video!
I wanted to see it in action.
Napoleon stated that an army moves on its stomach
A Excellent Video.. Highly Recommended.. Thank You Very Much For Sharing..
When I was in the infantry in the 90s, our cooks worked 20 hour days in the field. Kudos!
I've read a favorite meal that German field kitchens excelled in was beef and noodles-although many times it was horse and noodles. The glycerin filled double cooker must have made the cook's life infinitely easier as it drastically reduced the amount of stirring required, and using wood for heat meant a readily available fuel source that saved all important fuel for combat.
There are two field kitchens in St Louis one complete and one being restored.
This is fascinating! I haven't really looked into field kitchens before. Definitely a blind spot in my knowledge I need to better explore.
They still use these in Europe.Germany,Austria,Switzerland;and actually it is an art to cook with them! They are expensive,and you easily can burn the glycerin,thereby ruining the kitchen.
I like the German setup. However my gripe with it is that none of the heaters have an alumium insert.
Thank you, very informative and entertaining.
The Victory and Liberty 44 association would be happy to welcome you to France!!
Hmmm... Too many luftwaffles for many of these fighting men.
Maybe... But WWII german paratroopers (The Green Devils), belonged to the Luftwaffe. As easily to be compared with the status of the US Marines who are still a department of the Navy.
@@ulrichpeschen8587 he was making a joke about how some of them are fat.
@@TDR85 If the cook was overweight that was a good sign:,he obviously knew his business and knew how to "acquire"("organize" in German) groceries! Like:Forget the enemy!Grasp the fucking chicken!(cow,pig) LOL
That’s funny
That's a cool field kitchen
Really enjoyable viewing this, thank you. I have seen the German kitchen on the back of a truck, which looked well made, and it had me wondering what other armies did for their kitchen and cooking. But I think, so far anyway, that the German kitchens look the best thought out that I have seen.
They still use these nowadays,but actually it is an art to cook with them,without ruining them!But there is no better goulasch,then from a "goulasch-cannon"
@@pebo8306 That's interesting. Thank you.
As a former cook in the US Army National Guard I find this fascinating.
Excellence video, can only imagine all the work to head to go into doing this on the Eastern Front
Especially in places like stalingrad during winter time when there was mass starvation and they would tell u to put wood shavings in the stew and bread ect ans to guard it with ur life against ur own men form stealing
I have Dutch friends who said there was one of these in their front yard.
I would love to visit Germany and see the sights, also eat some of their cuisine.
"the living of the land" XD that's very true! my grandfather told me he had to eat sauerkraut for 3 weeks because there was nothing else available! After the war, he hated sauerkraut and didn't eat it ever again!
Very interesting, thanks to the folks who did this.
I was at the Collings foundation in 2013...or was it the year before? Now I dont remember. But it was around that time. Someday I will return to that place but this time in uniform.
Thank you! I've been very interested in these kitchens and how the men were fed.
Jan. 28, 2023---Tamiya has a 1/35 scale kit of this German field kitchen.
Russian bear recipe? talk about a morale boost
Excellent quality video thank you !
Just wish they let him speak german and stick some subs to it, he would be much more comfortable and we would learn more
His accent suggests that he is probably a real German
@@michaelrizea3108 Yes very good accent but definitely German speaker.He must have learned from a teacher who spoke in the American style.
This explains the logistics and power of US .
While US used gasoline to heat kitchens , Germans are using wood coz of Oil shortage . This speaks volumes abt US strength
The Germans and Japanese relied very heavily on oil supplies from foreign lands, probably their Achilles heel.
@@rixille It certainly didnt help , US being world's largest supplier
@@aravindc102 Yea, wasn't it like 90% of the oil supply of Japan was from the US? Japan only regained half of that from invading Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) after America put an trade embargo on them.
@@rixille exactly
These reenactors cannot where genuine Wehrmacht uniforms because of the Swaztika being on them. They have cleverly modified the uniforms to give the flavor without being illegal under German law. Very good explanation of the equipment.
If those cooking pots weren't removable they'd be hell to keep clean. You wouldn't lose them but still.
this is awesome; love how you guys preserve this!
Pretty neat. The speaker knows what he is talking about but he needs to calm down and speak relaxingly.
Maybe English is his second language
English is his second language and I thought he did pretty good considering most English speaking Americans can't even speak English properly, much less another language.
Also it was a pretty technical subject that required not only a mastery of the language but a mastery of the subject as well. He did very well.
(English teacher eight years)
@@hamaljay He did great! Love the accent and the work he has put in learning American English; good job!
that lid looks like a surplus tank hatch.
saw this guy today
The U boats cook were some of the best
Good video, I was feeling nervous with the speaker. Lol
+Juggernott111 : He does an excellent job! Very educational video. Makes one appreciate the more mundane, but very important, task of filling the stomachs of the troops.
what part did make you nervous ????
Excellent video! Would have loved to see the cooking action though.
I spoke with WWII cooks that were assigned to my father's rifle company and it had five or more cooks but, his rifle company had 200 soldiers compared to a German rifle company with 100 soldiers. I see that the German stove used anything that would burn and is better than the US Army stove that used gasoline. I know that having good food is extremely important for the morale of the soldiers any my father said that he was were fed during the war and some cooks were chefs before the war.
I wonder what the Russians or Italians had for field kitchens? Because I have found the American and German kitchen videos to be very awesome.
And we thought they were a wonderful new machine when the nz army got them.80's. And the Allies used the N0 1 burner in WW 1. They always have seemed to be a great piece of equipment.
i can imagine them cooking some bratwurst on that field kitchen and adding some potatoes and Sauerkraut
All those laddies look very well fed...
The Germans never had that problem after 1940
no sauerkraut?
Awesome. Keep it up, fellas.
Who won the Tour de France in 1941?
The 7th Panzer Division
The French ran out of Yellow Jerseys, so they gave out White Flags.
I'll just see myself out now.....
More Paris Roubaix than the Tour de France
Cosmic radiation has turned the flags left by the American astronauts white. Anyone who comes across these flags will assume that the first people on the moon were French.
Lmfao
Lmao
That man is a great speaker and knows he's stuff.
Love your BCGs.
Very interesting and informative.
German soldier are very well fed, look at the size of some of that lads
*sees Göring* Oh lawd he comin
An unstoppable army marches on its stomach, and Pervitin also helped.
Great piece of information.
those glasses had to be restrained not with one but with two rubber bands in order to prevent them from attacking people.
Is it too soon to ask about what kind of oven they used for the kosher meals?
Great video!
Fine German engineering here.
My relative was a Sturmbannfuhrer in the 9th SS Panzer Div. Hohenstaufen and his brother Otto was Wehrmacht.
Does chef has the two German Heer Feld Kuche manuals ? If not I can send him the digital copies...
Idk why im interested in this
Those glasses look super uncomfortable... Wrong size? :P
U.S. Army has those today made out of plastic. they wrap around your face with a similar rubber harness. Not as uncomfortable as they look in my opinion. Those aren't the standard ones they issue, still the BCGs but they are in the inventory
Those are glasses for wearing in the field. Anyone with half a brain would know to wear normal glasses when in garrison.
they are issued by the enemy..
what are those crazy glasses he has on?
jM: They are probably for wearing under a gas mask so you can get an air tight seal. I had similar combat glasses in the USN.
The American's had one very similar to this at the start f the war, the troops called them "Bean guns."
The way thru the soldiers heart, is his stomach.