My wife Catherine who is a lovely lady and very quietly spoken called down the packed supermarket isle to me "darling do want a babies head for old times" and suddenly found 20+ appalled people staring at her lmao. Cheese process tinned tasted like hard dairy lea and fruit AB biscuits or dead fly biscuits some of which I still have after I found them in my old Para smock. Tiny packets of Rolos which were always a moral booster. On training the Platoon Sergeant went around all of us individually and scrounged Mars bars off us which we'd bought from the NAAFI then sold them back to us for a pound each after about three days in the field as a lesson to not be gullible I think lol. Great to see you doing so well Keith, keep it up mate. 🏴🇬🇧
The smell of Hexamine burning takes me straight back to memories of harbour positions on Woodbury and Dartmoor when in RM Cdo training back in the late 90's.
WTF!? I would have swapped them, as I don't remember them!? Saying that, the first time I got R.M.E. was in a tin! 😂 We used to put them in cealable bags to carry in the Kiddny Pouches. That was before I was issued 98 Patt and continued my Service until 1998. The largest R.M.E I was Issued was a 72 Hour Ration Pack. O.P., near Charlie X.M.G. The effing Cows were the ultimate test. So nosey animals. I did Opps on the Slab Murphy Complex.
Yep late 80s/early 90s. Apple flakes, or apricot flakes if I remember rightly, each in kind of shiny foil pouches. You could add them to the rolled oats, some added their drinking chocolate too, and one of those big sachets of sugar.
Yesremember processed cheese and hard tack biscuits, and a diner called mutton scotch style in the 50's and 60's. The yanks loved the cheese and we used to trade with them biscuits for fresh bread or eggs. The other breakfast I remember was egg and bacon which was like shreaded bacon with scambled egg, (not as delicious as it sounds )
Biscuits Brown AB. Hard as rocks! Don't forget the tins of cheese processed. Babies heads were great as was the chicken curry. Always carried curry powder or Tabasco sauce to liven things up. Keep up the good work.
Biscuits fruit used to be banging, like proper huge garibaldi biscuits. Then they changed it to a hard tack type biscuit like the biscuit brown and they were crap. Tinned mix veg: who decided to put that in the rations?! Good for an all in tho, something that never occurred with the boil in the bag.
Remember in the '80s, whilst on my Staff Sergeant's course, we were knackered, soaking wet and freezing cold. We were harboured up by an old farmhouse and told we had about 30 minutes to get some fodder down our necks. Me and my oppo decided to go for broke, so we pooled our 24hr packs and just threw the lot into two mess tins and cooked them up. When I say "the lot", I mean the lot - all of the tins (pudding and main), the boiled sweets, the lot (we hadn't stopped long enough during the day to eat any-bloody-thing). Delicious! Mind the boiled sweets nearly choked me a couple of times, lol. It's amazing how good that stuff tasted when you were starving and burning off calories like crazy. As I recall, there wasn't much call for toilet paper for at least two days if you were on Compo 😂 Once again, a shed load of memories - Thank You, Sir
I remember compo rations in the 60s. My dad worked at altcar training camp and when a regiment was in residence, because there was a mess on-site,they usually ditched the unused compo packs on him. As a kid I always got the tiffin bars - lush, my grandad loved the oatmeal blocks - yuk. My favourite was the apple dumpling dessert, suet pastry filled with stewed apples. Stodgy and delicious. Loved hearing about those old packs brought back memories. Thank you x
COMPO what a treat. A nice mixture was a sachete of porridge with an oatmeal block mixed in......so much sugar in it, it would give you energy all day. Remember the screech, the lemonade powder? Bulldog chewing a wasp had nothing on it! Rich fruit pudding, like Harrods Christmas pudding. I remember when we were emptying my parent's house five years ago, still tucked away in the kitchen cupboard was the old blue plastic salt shaker from the ten man rat pack, that I had brought home on leave in the early 80s, and several tins of compo, dated from the 50s. Im pretty certain my brother took it to his house, so its still going strong.
I didn't mind the tinned ration pack! I was on selection in 84, one of the hottest summers on record, and they issued us with Artic Ration Packs that were dehydrated, not a lot of use when all the streams had dried up in the Brecon Becons, So I was carrying extra water, which was a extra 10 lbs on top of a 55 Ilb Bergen, and belt kit and Rifle, Just to add I used the Colman Peak 1 Stove, what was all the fashion in the 80s .
Compo sausages in the large tin (about 6 or 7), lovely!! and not forgetting the 1/2 size tin of processed (or 'possessed') cheese. 🙂 Used teabags for cleaning mess tins.
My favourites were the chicken curry, the snake and pygmy pudding, the rich currant puddings, bacon grill. I also remember Germans loved Cheese Possessed. We used to play rounders with the tins of margarine and a pick helve.
I remember on an exercise abroad in the early 90’s the squadron (R Sigs) chef was using mostly compo with a bit of fresh. One night he did pizza! He had the fresh flour and stuff to make the base, had some peppers, but the “pepperoni” was bacon grill sliced up! He used what he had, and it was bloody lovely. Bacon grill pizza! Good effort!
Aye up Lets Tab, watch on my xbox so jumped onto my laptop to Subscribe, me and my mates are all 70,s and 80,s BAOR ex Toms loving the vids, many memories! Loved the tinned compo.... superb breakfast, sausage and beans.... Baby's heads mmm brill and all the choc to keep you going. I have to say having MRE i still prefare our old tined gear, yes this is easier to store away but liked the tastes in the old Rat Pack,Lovely jubbly keep it up "carry on tabbing!"
Legend! Cheers James, thank you so much for subscribing, that is so much appreciated. I'll Tab on for as long as I can on here mate, your support helps a lot , keeps me going just like the Rat Packs did 😂😂😂
Agree 100% the old compo was great stuff. Like a stocking at Christmas. Where else could you open a can and have chocolate bars, boiled sweets and matches all in one lol, great stuff.
Cheered me today up thanks pal for this film.. remembering retired firefighter fred rolf of herts fire and rescue who died this week rest easy me old mucker bravest bloke I ever met...thanks 🙏
In my day, very professional Cordon Blu trained Regimental cooks. On a freezing day in Germany, I was the picquet Sgt with picquet officer on pre-breakfast inspection. Quick thinking Guardsman cook, trays of hot bacon inside the cooker, with the guardsman's tabs inside the cooker next to the bacon!
I still keep the can opener on my keyring, one day a while back the keys were in my back pocket i sat down and the little blade part must have opened and my language surprised my work colleagues.😮
(BAOR 1978 - 1981) I remember the 'Aztec' bars in the 24 hour ration packs, (JLRRA 1977). I loved the 'Chicken supreme and the Bacon grill! Also the sausages were brilliant too! 😁 Love this channel, we are a unique generation..
Dear Keith & Fellow Muckers, I also had a 44' pattern water bottle & carrier attached to my CEFO. This included a hexi stove container. It was a bugger to get out!
mate, your vlogs bring back all the memories and slang of back in the day, makes me smile every time. Keep Tabbing ! Although those f-ing boiled sweets dissolved a few of my back teeth !!!
Early sixties, my dad brought home Fleet Air Arm rations and I was hooked on tubes of condensed milk, biscuits AB and tubes of damson jam. I was gutted when I opened my first rat pack and found none of those 🥲 Then I had a wise arse instructor that showed us the "enlisted" rat pack and the "officers" rat pack. Of course the officers pack had a miniature bottle of spirits and comfy bum in it. A few guys actually believed the tale. I guess some people are naturally gullible, because we only had miniature bottles of wine in our packs, never spirits! 😉 Well done Keith, love it.
I'm just looking at a DOS Form 493 (1971) Menu Sheet 24 Hour Ration SAS Menu A,B or C (Curry, Mutton or Beef Granules), from 1975. It wasn't too bad. Actually, there's quite a few videos on YT on compo rations through the years. 😉
The tin Can Openers in a minute size .. Better than the modern Can Openers ! bloody brilliant. I still use today on difficult cans. Even the Hexi fuels and cookers to fire up to boil up some water on the canteens with the foldaway cook kits, And the tins of Spam.
I always tried to take a couple of fresh onions and some curry powder with me on exercise..... Loved the Cheese Processed, Hard Tack and Greengage Jam in the tube 👍
Hahaha a Sgt in training would eat biscuits brown with processed cheese and jam. He said he didn't want to get his mess tins dirty and he got plenty of calories from it 😅
First met compo in the late 60's when on cadet annual camps at Cultybraggan and Warcop. As teenage lads we were especiallt thrilled to open the little cans to find sweets, ciggies and matches inside. 'Cheese Processed', 'Chicken Supreme' and 'Hard Tack' were faves. Later, in TAVR and then regulars I enjoyed compo rations, in NI on detachment to little shitholes but I can honestly say ... give an ACC cook a load of compo and a few bob to buy locally and they could produce a feast. Yeah, those little gold coloured tins were treasure. Remember that we weren't brung up on today's grub and didn't hanker for it. The sad bit was that there was no grog included- but we all had ways of sorting that out.
We were at the Portugease Parachute school in 1990, We spent the evening downtown in Tancos, so we gave away our new boil-in- bags, the loved them, in fact most foreign soldiers love our Ration Packs, I always thought the French Ration Packs better
We once bumped into some yanks after coming off the ranges at Hohne washdown point with the vehicles and exchanged some rations with them, theirs was a lot more spicy and they had dried beef jerk which was like chewing shoe leather. 😅
When in Guards Depot in 1974 I watched the staff to see what they do for ration and eating in the field. 1st thing I learned in Thetford in Norfolk was the staff are not doing what they want you to be doing “THATS A BAD SIGN” stop for lunch you got 30 minutes, we are starting to get lunch set up, I happened to look at the instructors, doing nothing?, once I saw them pulling thunder flashes and smoke grenades from there 58 webbing, all my stuff went back in my gear, webbing on weapon ready then all hell let loose, they ran us for miles before going all clear. Watching the staff breaking down there meals let me know we could have ours. Not sure why I thought to watch the staff, but it work out for me. The other thing I noticed we had old heximen tabs, staff had “calor gas BLUE propane stoves. First leave I got me a “BLUEY’ as we called the stove. Our mess tins were where our boot cleaners and rations were kept. Large mess time had your rations, small mess tin ha boot brushes, polish, face camo. We had one ration issue prior to going to the field then it was daily resupply with whatever got dropped in your lap at breakfast. No Bergen in the old days 58 pattern webbing didn’t give you much room for extras.💂♂️🪖⛑️🏴🇨🇦
Just opened a case of Canadian IMP (MRE) to lazy to do long form on IMP 😂. Total not impressed 2 beef patties (I us the term loosely) no bun/bread? A pop tart kind of thing? The Usually tea/coffee/sugar stuff. No chocolate/candy items. Just had a thought maybe it’s a vegan type meal?, have to check when I get home. All in all disappointed, but glad I didn’t pay for the case if you know what I mean. 😂. There was a Truck with a tailgate and it may have fallen off?💂♂️🪖⛑️🏴🇨🇦
Oat meal block with jam and cheese posest, a slice cut out the tin... ... remember the Arctic rations and the bloody water needed for them. I had an old bandolier with a mix of accoutrements to help make it taste better. The beautiful purple packet of biscuits fruit 😋 ... love it mate keep it coming
Back in the '60s during my trade training in the RAF we had to spend a week pretending to be soldiers on various exercises in the field. The compo you describe sounds very familiar. However, we (a four-man team) had fun guessing the contents of the 2 tins without labels - both were strawberry jam! Another great video, btw! PS. From this experience I gained respect for the real soldiers who take this in their stride. 👍
I can rember the old Compo Rations, I had cut tins which the large 1 day rations in the a RAF mess when the tins where getting to old for service. I loved the boiling sweets and my head RAF Chef said I took boiling sweets to my TA Centre.
We got Artic Compo a few times down around the NI border. A bit different but great for the change. I can’t remember the details though nor why we got them. And don’t forget just carry a spoon!
For years I carried a kiddies set of cutlery, metal with green handles and Mickley mouse on them. Held together with one of my daughters elastic hair bands. Carried them in the breast pocket of my smock. They served me really well, just big enough to be useful and a reminder of home.
That Rorkes Drift pic won me over after listening to the memories of you chatting scoff from my 80's days eating compo as a cadet before joining. Love the content!
Lol I did a video a few months back, a tin of meat paste I've had for 30 odd years, was in the rat pack for my first Cambrian patrol in 92.... open it, tasted it....was absolutely good as the day it was issued !
The chicken curry used to be my favorite, especially when it was nippy out. And the tin of processed cheese was nice on them oat biscuits. Or if you were in a rush, chicken curry, oaty biscuits and cheese in the same feed, mix it up and shovel it in, wash it down with a nice cuppa. that is breakfast sorted now whats for dinner lol.
I remember my first comp one pack when i joined the army in 76. I really like the small s&k pudding and the tub of marg and jam in one tub. The marg one end the jam the other end.
I loved those baby heads! Not keen on the boil in the bags ones now. Compo is a very special diet. Good times. Yes Tesco at Catterick, at the tills all the young lads were buying Tabasco!
And no vegetarian options, Carried instant noodles in my bergen, I used a gas stove in an extra pouch , in South Armagh, got eggs from friendly farmers in the 10 man pack I loved the Cheese processed, and compo sausage's I would love to get a tin , I used to gather up the boiled sweets my wife used to love them
The only time I lived on the 24 hour Ration pack was an advance party on the Senny Bridge ranges and I,m ex RAF seem to remember Greengage Jam in the tube and the sausage and beans for breakfast
Greetings from Canada, really enjoying this bringing great memories back, joined the Paras in 1973. I forgot about the womens tights, broke my leg on a drop once got rushed to a civiy infirmary when they cut my OG's off I'm wearing tights underneath you can imagine the looks. Dave (Trapper)
I go to a cafe with a sea view, they do a great full English. With your breakfast comes a basket of toast and an assortment of jams. I always use the apricot jam. As I munch away it always takes me back to the seventies, sitting in a ditch somewhere in North Yorkshire scoffing my breakfast!
Definitely had tins in 1996 in the army, first exercise as a recruit. We also had crisp packet waterproofs and the older sleeping bags. By December 96 we'd migrated to boil in a bag, goretex and the newer doss bags. I had the tinned compo as an army cadet for a few years haha. The rolos ( leaking white powder) and other various dreadful chocolate pleased nobody.
All of the armed forces. You mention the NAFFI. Yes I was in when there was a NAFFI - now replaced by Spar. Op Granby - the Americans left everything behind - I had a full pallet of MREs arms reach from my bed out the window. I did not need to go to skoff.
Garth like I said to a guy here yesterday on his quest to find a compo tin opener try silvermans surplus London go on line his tin openers cost £2 45 + posting if he went for them ????
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. My favourite meal was Steak and onion grizzle (casserole) I remember having nothing but that for 10 days straight out in an op, when we were picked up in a covert van there were 8 of us who had been on the same menu for 10 days, it was like blazing saddles in the back on the way to camp.
Love the walk about, Canadian RCEME here, did 3 weeks with theBAOR at Vogelsang in the mid 80s,,, we had a breakfast choise that was a mushroom omlet we called the Lung,,, it looked like a green human lung, everyone had a hard time trading it away! Another thing about the hard rats was after 3 or 4 days on them, everyone would fart like a dog, just make your eyes water !! A little tough on the girlfriends when you got home from the field. 😂😂
Oatmeal block was always my favourite - always made my day when I found somebody who did not like it! Chicken Supreme I do remember pretty fondly, but can't remember any I actively disliked - all good. Sweetened condensed milk in tooth paste tube - yum! Do know it bunged you for good - could go forever before needing to "off load." Hexi blocks could make my head spin - time for some fresh air. As a Scaley we nearly always had our vehicles - plenty of room for the extra bits n pieces. Loved the tins, never tried the new stuff.
My favourites were the oatmeal block, the cheese processed, and the babies' heads. There was an in-depth article in Soldier Magazine around 30 years ago. According to the author, tins rejected by MoD were first offered to Marks & Spencer! I always carried a load of Mars Bars too.
They were posh we thought! I remember us chucking everything in the mess tines and cooking it on the hexy stove and wolfing it. It was better than what some lads got to eat at home and although some people didn't like this or that item, they'd just trade with others. Memories - tinned cheese, apple flakes, beef stew, biscuits, Yorkie - I ate the lot and loved it.
Army rations have difficulty inproved over the years I remember tins in the 24 hour ration packs some time ago lol I do enjoy. A US MRE great vid as ever cheers🎉🎉🎉🎉
Chicken curry in tins was great.Apple flakes were yummy.As to Hexi block use on mess tins we found the Tea bag after a brew was good at shifting the black goo left from the burn.
I remember being a mere cadet a little over a decade ago, we had squeezy jam in a green foil tube and was enjoyed with oatmeal biscuits in the field! Really enjoying the channel.
Lot of great memories,cheer mate. Just found your site today, subscribed straight away. Can't believe you forgot the possesed cheese . The only way to get it down was with jam 😂. After 2 days of this you couldn't dump for a week 😅
Back in the early 70's the best things in our ration packs were the thick outmeal biscuits and the cans of steak and kidney pudding, we used to stash a tin sitting on the Land Rovers manifold during a night move, lovely hot meal when you got to the new location, you had to be a bit careful how you opened it, a healthy spurt was not unknown 🤣🤣🤣
We used to get 10 man ration packs of compo on armoured vehicles more often than not. The oatmeal blocks could be crumbled up in your 58 pattern mug, add apple flakes and boiling water, sugar if required, compo apple crumble. Loved chicken supreme, sausages, bacon grill , biscuits AB hard as concrete lol. It wasn't bad stuff at all, oh and stewed steak. One thing not mentioned mucker is the infamous Compo Anaconda! 😂😂😂
I also like the comp cheese and the comp ham and cheese you got in the small tins . after i left the army i joined the TA and came out in 2014 . I still think the compo rations we got in the tins are more better than today yes more heavy but better
Great memories, I was Driver and signaller to c/s 39, we had a good arrangement, he would use the left tool locker I would use the right, the Major and I would sit it the back of the vehicle like children and split up the compo, I always got a good deal as he would have a small selection he fancied, but then just before we left camp, Q would come up to me with a couple more 48 hour packs and say, with compliments to Major ……, we then had to sit and go through it all again, often left till we got to RV. Took a large tin of curry powder home it lasted Months. Keep up the good work Boss… out.
Always took my little bag of "additional's" as advised by my old training Sgt. A little bag of various seasonings, and powders to improve your rations. Such as curry powder, Brown sugar, "Season it", Tobasco, and Worcestershire sauce. When we knew there was no chance of a bug out, we used to have "curried bacon grill" with the tin of mixed veg, then use the biscuits brown, some adhoc brown sugar, and the apple / apple& apricot flakes to make a "crumble". Sausages and "Processed sneeze" from the ten man packs were always favourites. But you could claim a kings ransom for an unopened "Mixed Fruit Pudding".
Xmas 92 down the falklands. Used a 10 man rat pack box to cobble together a tree. The contents were wrapped and put under it . All visitors to our room got a pressy under a touchy/takey rule. Such larks. Was it really 30 years ago?
I still buy bacon grill today. I also always liked the brown AB biscuits with meat paste (I'm not sure if it was an urban ledged but AB stood for Alternative Bread). I vaguely recall the largest tea bag in history with the ration pack but of all the things though I wish I still had was the excellent "tin opener".
G’day mate, thanks for another top video and your time in producing it. I used to enjoy time off site with ration packs, I think I may be a bit odd, but there you go. I remember my first experience with the bog paper, it was grease proof paper and used to have pointy folds in it, ouch. Used to call it John Wayne because it never took shit from any one. Have a good one 👍🇦🇺
I was in the cadets in the early 00s we got the 90s rations. I joined the regs in 06 and left in 17 the rations where far better as the years went on ravioli in mushroom sauce was amazing!
Babies heads, that takes me back. Loved them and sometimes we got them in the mess as part of normal meals on base! And if I recall correctly the one man rat pack had a range card printed on the inside? Also seem to remember the odd tin of salmon, but not common?
Dehydrated, I lived on them for three months when I was in Greenland near the arctic circle back in 1980. Along with extra hardtack biscuits, primula cheese and small boxes of raisins. So curry for breakfast and evening meal and hardtack to fill in, yum. Or when I was an MFC in the early 70's, cheese possessed, tube jam, tube milk and hardtack, brilliant for forward obs.
Great vid. I remember it all and I’m still using a lot of it as a ghillie! Oatmeal block with condensed milk in the tube 👍🏻 but can any remember tipping the chocolate drink packet into the porridge oats packet? Delicious. When the first wife was in BMH Hannover having our second kiddie I fed the first son (2 years old) on Arctic compo rations. We cooked it up on the kitchen floor on a Hexe in our pad!😖 He loved the rice peas and mince. (I’d proffed the Arctic rats from the QMs on a stores detail. Sorry. Hope there are no Monkeys reading! 🤣🤣🤣)
My memory of compo is 1960's ration Pom mash powder, tinned sausage's (chunks of wood) cigarette ration always pilfered before arriving in the field, same with the hexy stoves ( when you got a stove you hung on to it as along as poss ) loose tea in a tin useing triange bandage to put tea leaves in tied with string to dunk in boiling water for group brew. happy days though😂😂
🤣🤣.. cheers mate .. you took me back a bit with the compo rations .. and my favourites were the BABIES HEADS AND THE SAUSAGES .. quality food and would always eat the sausages cold covered in that white lard stuff ..but boy they were tasty .. do remember about them hex blocks... CARCINOGENIC ..! If you didn't catch a round you caught cancer 🥴 .. what goes IN must come OUT ..🤣 and with me I'd do the bark n leaf trick .. very effective and no sharp metal things 🤣. Till next time my friend ✌️💯🇬🇧🍻👍
My first OC didn't like compo so on small taskings , him plus 1, he took a picnic, in a hamper, which he always shared with the plus 1. When I got to a less independent outfit in the real world the chicken submarine with oatmeal blocks and squeezy jam did the job.
I remember the all-in curries we made when we laagered up - just about anything can be curried! Best part about being in tanks was that you don't have to carry the compo yourself.
The versatility of the oatmeal block in the 70s . Eat as biscuit or turn it into porridge. Always a favourite.
Definitely
The '24 hour' part refers to how long you would spend sat on the bog after End Ex!
😫😫😫
The epic 'third day'.. Compo was supposed to not need you to empty your bowels for three days. But when you did....
My wife Catherine who is a lovely lady and very quietly spoken called down the packed supermarket isle to me "darling do want a babies head for old times" and suddenly found 20+ appalled people staring at her lmao.
Cheese process tinned tasted like hard dairy lea and fruit AB biscuits or dead fly biscuits some of which I still have after I found them in my old Para smock. Tiny packets of Rolos which were always a moral booster.
On training the Platoon Sergeant went around all of us individually and scrounged Mars bars off us which we'd bought from the NAAFI then sold them back to us for a pound each after about three days in the field as a lesson to not be gullible I think lol.
Great to see you doing so well Keith, keep it up mate. 🏴🇬🇧
asked for babys heads in my chip shop got some strange looks
Thank you my friend
The smell of Hexamine burning takes me straight back to memories of harbour positions on Woodbury and Dartmoor when in RM Cdo training back in the late 90's.
And me😂😂😂
Hexi blocks , great bits of kit
Who remembers apple flakes
My least favourite item.
I remember apricot ones.
Didn’t they come in the Arctic Ration?
I quite liked them
WTF!? I would have swapped them, as I don't remember them!?
Saying that, the first time I got R.M.E. was in a tin! 😂
We used to put them in cealable bags to carry in the Kiddny Pouches. That was before I was issued 98 Patt and continued my Service until 1998.
The largest R.M.E I was Issued was a 72 Hour Ration Pack.
O.P., near Charlie X.M.G.
The effing Cows were the ultimate test. So nosey animals.
I did Opps on the Slab Murphy Complex.
Yep late 80s/early 90s. Apple flakes, or apricot flakes if I remember rightly, each in kind of shiny foil pouches. You could add them to the rolled oats, some added their drinking chocolate too, and one of those big sachets of sugar.
Yorkie -" not for civis ". Whoever had that idea deserves a medal.
I remember seeing that on the wrapping, brilliant
Bloody good admin & drills (LoL)
I’ve got an unopened one on my home office wall!@@LetsTab59-bd4fd
cheese possessed! loved making sandwiches with jam and condensed milk in tubes and oat biscuits
The oatmeal biscuits 😋
Yesremember processed cheese and hard tack biscuits, and a diner called mutton scotch style in the 50's and 60's. The yanks loved the cheese and we used to trade with them biscuits for fresh bread or eggs. The other breakfast I remember was egg and bacon which was like shreaded bacon with scambled egg, (not as delicious as it sounds )
Biscuits Brown AB. Hard as rocks! Don't forget the tins of cheese processed. Babies heads were great as was the chicken curry. Always carried curry powder or Tabasco sauce to liven things up. Keep up the good work.
Bacon grill and bacon burgers 👌🏻
Biscuits AB used to call them biscuits Ard Bastards;😂.
Biscuits fruit used to be banging, like proper huge garibaldi biscuits. Then they changed it to a hard tack type biscuit like the biscuit brown and they were crap. Tinned mix veg: who decided to put that in the rations?! Good for an all in tho, something that never occurred with the boil in the bag.
@@meme4oneThe best
@@Admiral_Pumpout the squashed fly biccies were the highlight for me!..
Remember in the '80s, whilst on my Staff Sergeant's course, we were knackered, soaking wet and freezing cold. We were harboured up by an old farmhouse and told we had about 30 minutes to get some fodder down our necks. Me and my oppo decided to go for broke, so we pooled our 24hr packs and just threw the lot into two mess tins and cooked them up. When I say "the lot", I mean the lot - all of the tins (pudding and main), the boiled sweets, the lot (we hadn't stopped long enough during the day to eat any-bloody-thing). Delicious! Mind the boiled sweets nearly choked me a couple of times, lol. It's amazing how good that stuff tasted when you were starving and burning off calories like crazy. As I recall, there wasn't much call for toilet paper for at least two days if you were on Compo 😂 Once again, a shed load of memories - Thank You, Sir
Neil cheers mate. I remember chucking all our rations in together the way you mentioned, fantastic 👏
Well if you were a Gunner like me on the M109 you got cordite in the mix too.
Cordite farts & cordite turds.😅
@@Stanly-Stud 🤣
I remember laying the longest cables ever post exercise...
I swear I lost weight immediately..😊😊
The infamous " all in stew" cooked up in the 120 conbat gun pit, glory days!
I remember compo rations in the 60s. My dad worked at altcar training camp and when a regiment was in residence, because there was a mess on-site,they usually ditched the unused compo packs on him. As a kid I always got the tiffin bars - lush, my grandad loved the oatmeal blocks - yuk. My favourite was the apple dumpling dessert, suet pastry filled with stewed apples. Stodgy and delicious. Loved hearing about those old packs brought back memories. Thank you x
Brilliant stuff, thanks for your support 🙏
COMPO what a treat. A nice mixture was a sachete of porridge with an oatmeal block mixed in......so much sugar in it, it would give you energy all day. Remember the screech, the lemonade powder? Bulldog chewing a wasp had nothing on it! Rich fruit pudding, like Harrods Christmas pudding. I remember when we were emptying my parent's house five years ago, still tucked away in the kitchen cupboard was the old blue plastic salt shaker from the ten man rat pack, that I had brought home on leave in the early 80s, and several tins of compo, dated from the 50s. Im pretty certain my brother took it to his house, so its still going strong.
👍👍
Ha ha! Been trying to get hold of one of those blue plastic pots for years! Must be 100's buried in old trenches!
@@davymac3882 indeed, very useful kit.
Oatmeal block!!!!!!!!!! Fruit pud mixed with 'non dairy whitener' to put a little moisture into the thing.
I didn't mind the tinned ration pack! I was on selection in 84, one of the hottest summers on record, and they issued us with Artic Ration Packs that were dehydrated, not a lot of use when all the streams had dried up in the Brecon Becons, So I was carrying extra water, which was a extra 10 lbs on top of a 55 Ilb Bergen, and belt kit and Rifle, Just to add I used the Colman Peak 1 Stove, what was all the fashion in the 80s .
That was a Gucci bit of kit that Coleman Peak, had one for years, think it finally gave up and died on me. All the best.
So did you pass ?
The Optimus Climber (the SVEA) was a lighter and simpler option…
Still got my Colman peak in the garage, think there may even be a bag with oriyissue hexame blocks and stoves
Yes I remember those times, when arctic rats were the only ones available for UK training. All as a result of the Atlantic Conveyor in 82.
Compo sausages in the large tin (about 6 or 7), lovely!! and not forgetting the 1/2 size tin of processed (or 'possessed') cheese. 🙂 Used teabags for cleaning mess tins.
Sausages awesome
Was the joke about taking the middle sausage out ...never tried it myself but I was told it was a good tight fit 😂
Keep it clean. Do love your avatar NICE 😮😊. Have a good one.
Compo sausages, bloody lovely! Best thing in the pack, next was chicken curry.
My favourites were the chicken curry, the snake and pygmy pudding, the rich currant puddings, bacon grill.
I also remember Germans loved Cheese Possessed.
We used to play rounders with the tins of margarine and a pick helve.
James that made me smile mate thank you
I remember on an exercise abroad in the early 90’s the squadron (R Sigs) chef was using mostly compo with a bit of fresh. One night he did pizza! He had the fresh flour and stuff to make the base, had some peppers, but the “pepperoni” was bacon grill sliced up! He used what he had, and it was bloody lovely. Bacon grill pizza! Good effort!
What a star he must have been
Aye up Lets Tab, watch on my xbox so jumped onto my laptop to Subscribe, me and my mates are all 70,s and 80,s BAOR ex Toms loving the vids, many memories! Loved the tinned compo.... superb breakfast, sausage and beans.... Baby's heads mmm brill and all the choc to keep you going. I have to say having MRE i still prefare our old tined gear, yes this is easier to store away but liked the tastes in the old Rat Pack,Lovely jubbly keep it up "carry on tabbing!"
Legend! Cheers James, thank you so much for subscribing, that is so much appreciated. I'll Tab on for as long as I can on here mate, your support helps a lot , keeps me going just like the Rat Packs did 😂😂😂
Agree 100% the old compo was great stuff. Like a stocking at Christmas. Where else could you open a can and have chocolate bars, boiled sweets and matches all in one lol, great stuff.
@@gunner678 And the tins could be used for all sorts of things - booby traps, alarms, etc
Cheered me today up thanks pal for this film.. remembering retired firefighter fred rolf of herts fire and rescue who died this week rest easy me old mucker bravest bloke I ever met...thanks 🙏
God bless you m8 ♥
@roberthewer2268 thanks pal
God Bless your Brave mate never to be forgotten 🙏
Sorry to hear of the loss of your pal. Rest easy, sir. Sapper Veteran.
Another one bits dust (my hat is of for you Sir) we a fell your loss 😢. Take care my friend, from all of us.
Baby's Heads. Bring 'em on!
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I loved compo rations sausage beans great plum pudding,remember the married blokes used to take loads home feed the family.
😋😋👍
Yep I remember in the 80s married folk doing this because they had to. Brings a memory how shite the pay was.
In my day, very professional Cordon Blu trained Regimental cooks. On a freezing day in Germany, I was the picquet Sgt with picquet officer on pre-breakfast inspection. Quick thinking Guardsman cook, trays of hot bacon inside the cooker, with the guardsman's tabs inside the cooker next to the bacon!
Awesome 👌
Bacon grill, Babys head. Gorgeous. Then the first boil in the bags. Loved the compo.
😋😋
Anyone remember the orange powder, we called it screech as it was very sweet and bitter! You mix it with water like squash.
Good god m8 memories with that concoction 😂😂😂
Was strong stuff, I'm sure it was capable of striping paint 😆
We used to use it to clean kitchen tables and yes it was like paint stripper😂
Drinking that stuff was like a test off character 😮.
O yes I remember, it turned your face inside out! Had to be desperate to drink it, but that was SOP.
I still keep the can opener on my keyring, one day a while back the keys were in my back pocket i sat down and the little blade part must have opened and my language surprised my work colleagues.😮
I still have a compo can opener, but I don't keep it on my keyring. Very useful in emergency.
😕😆
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd A small o ring keeps the blade nicely closed when not in use.
(BAOR 1978 - 1981) I remember the 'Aztec' bars in the 24 hour ration packs, (JLRRA 1977). I loved the 'Chicken supreme and the Bacon grill! Also the sausages were brilliant too! 😁 Love this channel, we are a unique generation..
Good old Aztec bars. Glad you liked my silly little videos and thanks for your support 👍
To be honest, we preferred fresh chicken stew pilfered from a farm the night before.
Dear Keith & Fellow Muckers, I also had a 44' pattern water bottle & carrier attached to my CEFO. This included a hexi stove container. It was a bugger to get out!
Cool idea Johnny cheers mate 👍
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd I forgot to mention, it also had its metal mug too
Oatmeal Blocks. Cheese Possesed, oxo cube, pkt soup. Lemon or orange screech.
mate, your vlogs bring back all the memories and slang of back in the day, makes me smile every time. Keep Tabbing !
Although those f-ing boiled sweets dissolved a few of my back teeth !!!
Cheers Richard glad you're enjoying them mate 👍 thanks for your support 🙏
Them fox's glacier sweets were a nightmare getting the wrappers off and you ended up swallowing half the wrapper. 😢
OMG! the oatmeal block! My favourite thing and fruit and nut chocolate ( circa 1978)
😋🍺
Early sixties, my dad brought home Fleet Air Arm rations and I was hooked on tubes of condensed milk, biscuits AB and tubes of damson jam. I was gutted when I opened my first rat pack and found none of those 🥲 Then I had a wise arse instructor that showed us the "enlisted" rat pack and the "officers" rat pack. Of course the officers pack had a miniature bottle of spirits and comfy bum in it. A few guys actually believed the tale. I guess some people are naturally gullible, because we only had miniature bottles of wine in our packs, never spirits! 😉
Well done Keith, love it.
Brilliant Nigel, heard of the miniature wine bottles once before. Hilarious 😂
I'm just looking at a DOS Form 493 (1971) Menu Sheet 24 Hour Ration SAS Menu A,B or C (Curry, Mutton or Beef Granules), from 1975. It wasn't too bad.
Actually, there's quite a few videos on YT on compo rations through the years. 😉
Bacon grill and beans, luxury. I'm old enough to remember ciggies in the pack but that didn't last too long. Tube of milk etc.
I only once came across the small tube containers of ciggies
my dad was in the reme in the 70,s and when he came home from exersice he would always bring compo back and i loved it
Lots of us did that, but maybe not all the chocolate made it home lol 😆
The tin Can Openers in a minute size .. Better than the modern Can Openers ! bloody brilliant. I still use today on difficult cans. Even the Hexi fuels and cookers to fire up to boil up some water on the canteens with the foldaway cook kits, And the tins of Spam.
👌
I always tried to take a couple of fresh onions and some curry powder with me on exercise..... Loved the Cheese Processed, Hard Tack and Greengage Jam in the tube 👍
That cheese was smashing ❤
Cheese possessed if you don't mind😂. Great stuff, my mouth is watering thinking about it.
Hahaha a Sgt in training would eat biscuits brown with processed cheese and jam. He said he didn't want to get his mess tins dirty and he got plenty of calories from it 😅
First met compo in the late 60's when on cadet annual camps at Cultybraggan and Warcop. As teenage lads we were especiallt thrilled to open the little cans to find sweets, ciggies and matches inside. 'Cheese Processed', 'Chicken Supreme' and 'Hard Tack' were faves. Later, in TAVR and then regulars I enjoyed compo rations, in NI on detachment to little shitholes but I can honestly say ... give an ACC cook a load of compo and a few bob to buy locally and they could produce a feast. Yeah, those little gold coloured tins were treasure. Remember that we weren't brung up on today's grub and didn't hanker for it. The sad bit was that there was no grog included- but we all had ways of sorting that out.
You're right there regarding our chefs working with compo and fresh
We were at the Portugease Parachute school in 1990, We spent the evening downtown in Tancos, so we gave away our new boil-in- bags, the loved them, in fact most foreign soldiers love our Ration Packs, I always thought the French Ration Packs better
We once bumped into some yanks after coming off the ranges at Hohne washdown point with the vehicles and exchanged some rations with them, theirs was a lot more spicy and they had dried beef jerk which was like chewing shoe leather. 😅
That beef jerky lasts far too long 😩
When in Guards Depot in 1974 I watched the staff to see what they do for ration and eating in the field. 1st thing I learned in Thetford in Norfolk was the staff are not doing what they want you to be doing “THATS A BAD SIGN” stop for lunch you got 30 minutes, we are starting to get lunch set up, I happened to look at the instructors, doing nothing?, once I saw them pulling thunder flashes and smoke grenades from there 58 webbing, all my stuff went back in my gear, webbing on weapon ready then all hell let loose, they ran us for miles before going all clear. Watching the staff breaking down there meals let me know we could have ours. Not sure why I thought to watch the staff, but it work out for me. The other thing I noticed we had old heximen tabs, staff had “calor gas BLUE propane stoves. First leave I got me a “BLUEY’ as we called the stove. Our mess tins were where our boot cleaners and rations were kept. Large mess time had your rations, small mess tin ha boot brushes, polish, face camo. We had one ration issue prior to going to the field then it was daily resupply with whatever got dropped in your lap at breakfast. No Bergen in the old days 58 pattern webbing didn’t give you much room for extras.💂♂️🪖⛑️🏴🇨🇦
Loved Thetford ,Frog Hill. Oh by the way we had an exercise cancelled because it got too cold FOR THE DS. Wimps!
Compo sausages! Perfect! Tin of those beaties toblerone shaped, set up my day!
Just opened a case of Canadian IMP (MRE) to lazy to do long form on IMP 😂. Total not impressed 2 beef patties (I us the term loosely) no bun/bread? A pop tart kind of thing? The Usually tea/coffee/sugar stuff. No chocolate/candy items. Just had a thought maybe it’s a vegan type meal?, have to check when I get home. All in all disappointed, but glad I didn’t pay for the case if you know what I mean. 😂. There was a Truck with a tailgate and it may have fallen off?💂♂️🪖⛑️🏴🇨🇦
Cracking memories 👌
Oat meal block with jam and cheese posest, a slice cut out the tin... ... remember the Arctic rations and the bloody water needed for them. I had an old bandolier with a mix of accoutrements to help make it taste better. The beautiful purple packet of biscuits fruit 😋 ... love it mate keep it coming
I loved oatmeal blocks and when crushed and made into a porridge 😋
@@LetsTab59-bd4fd delicious on a cold rainy night after 2 hours sleep lol all the young lads used to swap them out silly buggers .... lol 😆
Spangals, cheese possessed, chicken submarine, what’s not to like!
Lol exactly
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Yes as armoured regiment we always got the 10 man packs but always had a crew whip round and naafi run for fresh rations and beer before we left camp.
Good drills
Back in the '60s during my trade training in the RAF we had to spend a week pretending to be soldiers on various exercises in the field. The compo you describe sounds very familiar. However, we (a four-man team) had fun guessing the contents of the 2 tins without labels - both were strawberry jam!
Another great video, btw!
PS. From this experience I gained respect for the real soldiers who take this in their stride. 👍
Thank you Steve much appreciated mate 👍
I can rember the old Compo Rations, I had cut tins which the large 1 day rations in the a RAF mess when the tins where getting to old for service. I loved the boiling sweets and my head RAF Chef said I took boiling sweets to my TA Centre.
We got Artic Compo a few times down around the NI border.
A bit different but great for the change. I can’t remember the details though nor why we got them.
And don’t forget just carry a spoon!
For years I carried a kiddies set of cutlery, metal with green handles and Mickley mouse on them. Held together with one of my daughters elastic hair bands. Carried them in the breast pocket of my smock. They served me really well, just big enough to be useful and a reminder of home.
A racing spoon
@@gunner678 Sorry, only saw your reply now!
That’s was a great idea. Keeping her close to you. I like that idea😊👍🏼
That Rorkes Drift pic won me over after listening to the memories of you chatting scoff from my 80's days eating compo as a cadet before joining. Love the content!
I sat in the back of a 4 tonner back in 1981 and ate a tin of rice pudding dated 1960 . The result , I'm still here 😂😂
Lol I did a video a few months back, a tin of meat paste I've had for 30 odd years, was in the rat pack for my first Cambrian patrol in 92.... open it, tasted it....was absolutely good as the day it was issued !
@@GavTatu I have to admit it was a leap of faith , I probably shouldn't have done it , but like I say I'm still here 😂😂
😳👍
Tins last forever - unlike boil in the bag packets.
Oatmeal block. Now that is a proper biscuit! Got issued rat packs one day, when opened it was for the Gurkhas.. 1/2 lb of bloody rice... ?
I can still taste those brown biscuits today.
You and me both!
Well being an ex gunner I am not surprised
Don't worry about it, so many are coming out of the closet these days
The chicken curry used to be my favorite, especially when it was nippy out. And the tin of processed cheese was nice on them oat biscuits. Or if you were in a rush, chicken curry, oaty biscuits and cheese in the same feed, mix it up and shovel it in, wash it down with a nice cuppa. that is breakfast sorted now whats for dinner lol.
Sounds great!
I remember my first comp one pack when i joined the army in 76. I really like the small s&k pudding and the tub of marg and jam in one tub. The marg one end the jam the other end.
Me too
I loved those baby heads! Not keen on the boil in the bags ones now. Compo is a very special diet. Good times. Yes Tesco at Catterick, at the tills all the young lads were buying Tabasco!
Spiced up the rations a treat
Sausage and beans my favourite 😂😂😂
Always the best for a field breakfast
Best check for staples...wise words.
😫🥴
And no vegetarian options,
Carried instant noodles in my bergen, I used a gas stove in an extra pouch , in South Armagh, got eggs from friendly farmers in the 10 man pack I loved the Cheese processed, and compo sausage's I would love to get a tin ,
I used to gather up the boiled sweets my wife used to love them
Great stuff 👏 👍
The only time I lived on the 24 hour Ration pack was an advance party on the Senny Bridge ranges and I,m ex RAF seem to remember Greengage Jam in the tube and the sausage and beans for breakfast
I remember those items, the jam and also the condensed milk in a tube.
Greetings from Canada, really enjoying this bringing great memories back, joined the Paras in 1973. I forgot about the womens tights, broke my leg on a drop once got rushed to a civiy infirmary when they cut my OG's off I'm wearing tights underneath you can imagine the looks. Dave (Trapper)
Cheers Dave great to hear from Canada 🇨🇦 👍
I go to a cafe with a sea view, they do a great full English. With your breakfast comes a basket of toast and an assortment of jams. I always use the apricot jam. As I munch away it always takes me back to the seventies, sitting in a ditch somewhere in North Yorkshire scoffing my breakfast!
It's funny how little things like that just transport you back. Great comment 👍
Definitely had tins in 1996 in the army, first exercise as a recruit. We also had crisp packet waterproofs and the older sleeping bags. By December 96 we'd migrated to boil in a bag, goretex and the newer doss bags. I had the tinned compo as an army cadet for a few years haha. The rolos ( leaking white powder) and other various dreadful chocolate pleased nobody.
👍😆😆
All of the armed forces. You mention the NAFFI. Yes I was in when there was a NAFFI - now replaced by Spar.
Op Granby - the Americans left everything behind - I had a full pallet of MREs arms reach from my bed out the window. I did not need to go to skoff.
Rat pack C loved them. Used to make porridge with oatmeal biscuits and make thick rice pudding. Six boiled sweets . Bring them to ALDI.
Great idea!
The freeze dried Beef curry in the Artic rat pack was my all time favourite. I absolutely loved that stuff.
Wish I could get my hands on one again.
So good!
Garth like I said to a guy here yesterday on his quest to find a compo tin opener try silvermans surplus London go on line his tin openers cost £2 45 + posting if he went for them ????
Silvermans London great kit are they still going.
@@davidkelly8299 very much so david 👍
Might purchase a G10 WATCH 😂
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. My favourite meal was Steak and onion grizzle (casserole) I remember having nothing but that for 10 days straight out in an op, when we were picked up in a covert van there were 8 of us who had been on the same menu for 10 days, it was like blazing saddles in the back on the way to camp.
Can just imagine the fumes 😆 🤣
I loved the raisin bikkies during my time in Catterick..also Yorkie bars from the NAAFI
Did like a yorkie bar mmm
Love the walk about, Canadian RCEME here, did 3 weeks with theBAOR at Vogelsang in the mid 80s,,, we had a breakfast choise that was a mushroom omlet we called the Lung,,, it looked like a green human lung, everyone had a hard time trading it away! Another thing about the hard rats was after 3 or 4 days on them, everyone would fart like a dog, just make your eyes water !! A little tough on the girlfriends when you got home from the field. 😂😂
Hopefully you have seen my videos from Vogelsang?
Oatmeal block was always my favourite - always made my day when I found somebody who did not like it! Chicken Supreme I do remember pretty fondly, but can't remember any I actively disliked - all good. Sweetened condensed milk in tooth paste tube - yum! Do know it bunged you for good - could go forever before needing to "off load." Hexi blocks could make my head spin - time for some fresh air. As a Scaley we nearly always had our vehicles - plenty of room for the extra bits n pieces. Loved the tins, never tried the new stuff.
😋👍
My favourites were the oatmeal block, the cheese processed, and the babies' heads.
There was an in-depth article in Soldier Magazine around 30 years ago. According to the author, tins rejected by MoD were first offered to Marks & Spencer!
I always carried a load of Mars Bars too.
They were posh we thought! I remember us chucking everything in the mess tines and cooking it on the hexy stove and wolfing it. It was better than what some lads got to eat at home and although some people didn't like this or that item, they'd just trade with others. Memories - tinned cheese, apple flakes, beef stew, biscuits, Yorkie - I ate the lot and loved it.
Me too
Army rations have difficulty inproved over the years I remember tins in the 24 hour ration packs some time ago lol I do enjoy. A US MRE great vid as ever cheers🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thank you again for your support 🙏
Chicken curry in tins was great.Apple flakes were yummy.As to Hexi block use on mess tins we found the Tea bag after a brew was good at shifting the black goo left from the burn.
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Spangles with the wrappers welded to them, suck the spangle then spit the wrapper out
🤣🤣
I remember being a mere cadet a little over a decade ago, we had squeezy jam in a green foil tube and was enjoyed with oatmeal biscuits in the field! Really enjoying the channel.
Darren appreciate your support mate 👍
Lot of great memories,cheer mate. Just found your site today, subscribed straight away. Can't believe you forgot the possesed cheese . The only way to get it down was with jam 😂. After 2 days of this you couldn't dump for a week 😅
Cheers 🍻 Andrew appreciate the sub mate all the best 👍
great memories - thanks for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it, thank you for commenting 👍
Used to absolutely love the old breakfasts and mains meals when i joined in 02. Bacon and beans, burger and beans, corned beef hash etc
They were my favourite breakfasts
Back in the early 70's the best things in our ration packs were the thick outmeal biscuits and the cans of steak and kidney pudding, we used to stash a tin sitting on the Land Rovers manifold during a night move, lovely hot meal when you got to the new location, you had to be a bit careful how you opened it, a healthy spurt was not unknown 🤣🤣🤣
Oh that's it, I'm fricking hungry now, cheers 😆
We used to get 10 man ration packs of compo on armoured vehicles more often than not. The oatmeal blocks could be crumbled up in your 58 pattern mug, add apple flakes and boiling water, sugar if required, compo apple crumble. Loved chicken supreme, sausages, bacon grill , biscuits AB hard as concrete lol. It wasn't bad stuff at all, oh and stewed steak. One thing not mentioned mucker is the infamous Compo Anaconda! 😂😂😂
🤣🤣🤣
I also like the comp cheese and the comp ham and cheese you got in the small tins . after i left the army i joined the TA and came out in 2014 . I still think the compo rations we got in the tins are more better than today yes more heavy but better
👍
Great memories, I was Driver and signaller to c/s 39, we had a good arrangement, he would use the left tool locker I would use the right, the Major and I would sit it the back of the vehicle like children and split up the compo, I always got a good deal as he would have a small selection he fancied, but then just before we left camp, Q would come up to me with a couple more 48 hour packs and say, with compliments to Major ……, we then had to sit and go through it all again, often left till we got to RV. Took a large tin of curry powder home it lasted Months. Keep up the good work Boss… out.
Cracking memories 👌 thanks for sharing 👍
Always took my little bag of "additional's" as advised by my old training Sgt. A little bag of various seasonings, and powders to improve your rations. Such as curry powder, Brown sugar, "Season it", Tobasco, and Worcestershire sauce. When we knew there was no chance of a bug out, we used to have "curried bacon grill" with the tin of mixed veg, then use the biscuits brown, some adhoc brown sugar, and the apple / apple& apricot flakes to make a "crumble". Sausages and "Processed sneeze" from the ten man packs were always favourites. But you could claim a kings ransom for an unopened "Mixed Fruit Pudding".
😋😋
Xmas 92 down the falklands. Used a 10 man rat pack box to cobble together a tree. The contents were wrapped and put under it . All visitors to our room got a pressy under a touchy/takey rule. Such larks. Was it really 30 years ago?
Time flys
I still buy bacon grill today. I also always liked the brown AB biscuits with meat paste (I'm not sure if it was an urban ledged but AB stood for Alternative Bread). I vaguely recall the largest tea bag in history with the ration pack but of all the things though I wish I still had was the excellent "tin opener".
That tea bag was like a pillow 😳
I was learned by a older Infantry soldier to keep small film caps for spices for the 24 hr Compo rations..
The big roll we called Slip n' Shine. Literally tracing paper. We always took comfy bum on the vehicles.
Slip n shine 😆 🤣
amazing stories thanks
Thank you really enjoy your videos and stories keep on tabbing
15:11
Thank you John
Yes bacongrill is available at Sainsbury’s and is almost the same.
Fried it up and it’s delicious.
Cracking I'll have to have a look
G’day mate, thanks for another top video and your time in producing it. I used to enjoy time off site with ration packs, I think I may be a bit odd, but there you go. I remember my first experience with the bog paper, it was grease proof paper and used to have pointy folds in it, ouch. Used to call it John Wayne because it never took shit from any one. Have a good one 👍🇦🇺
Brilliant Mark thanks mate
I was in the cadets in the early 00s we got the 90s rations. I joined the regs in 06 and left in 17 the rations where far better as the years went on ravioli in mushroom sauce was amazing!
😋👍👌
Oatmeal blocks and compo sausage...❤
😋
Babies heads, that takes me back. Loved them and sometimes we got them in the mess as part of normal meals on base!
And if I recall correctly the one man rat pack had a range card printed on the inside?
Also seem to remember the odd tin of salmon, but not common?
I remember the tinned salmon and you're correct about the Range Card printed on the box.
Loved the compo sausage and the tin fruit cake
Fruit cake was almost like a Christmas cake 🎂
Dehydrated, I lived on them for three months when I was in Greenland near the arctic circle back in 1980. Along with extra hardtack biscuits, primula cheese and small boxes of raisins. So curry for breakfast and evening meal and hardtack to fill in, yum. Or when I was an MFC in the early 70's, cheese possessed, tube jam, tube milk and hardtack, brilliant for forward obs.
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I still have my compo can opener from 1962 issued whith compo in lybya. Basic compo not like the rations issued today.
👍
Great vid. I remember it all and I’m still using a lot of it as a ghillie! Oatmeal block with condensed milk in the tube 👍🏻 but can any remember tipping the chocolate drink packet into the porridge oats packet? Delicious. When the first wife was in BMH Hannover having our second kiddie I fed the first son (2 years old) on Arctic compo rations. We cooked it up on the kitchen floor on a Hexe in our pad!😖 He loved the rice peas and mince. (I’d proffed the Arctic rats from the QMs on a stores detail. Sorry. Hope there are no Monkeys reading! 🤣🤣🤣)
👍🤣
My memory of compo is 1960's ration Pom mash powder, tinned sausage's (chunks of wood) cigarette ration always pilfered before arriving in the field, same with the hexy stoves ( when you got a stove you hung on to it as along as poss ) loose tea in a tin useing triange bandage to put tea leaves in tied with string to dunk in boiling water for group brew. happy days though😂😂
Good old days, great memories
🤣🤣.. cheers mate .. you took me back a bit with the compo rations .. and my favourites were the BABIES HEADS AND THE SAUSAGES .. quality food and would always eat the sausages cold covered in that white lard stuff ..but boy they were tasty .. do remember about them hex blocks... CARCINOGENIC ..! If you didn't catch a round you caught cancer 🥴 .. what goes IN must come OUT ..🤣 and with me I'd do the bark n leaf trick .. very effective and no sharp metal things 🤣. Till next time my friend ✌️💯🇬🇧🍻👍
Cheers George thanks for commenting and your support 👍
Always loved the bacon grill and the processed cheese and those little boiled sweets.
We were lucky if we got any the pads would put them away for there kids when they got back 😊
I actually liked the cheese 😆
Oatmeal biscuits still crave them , and bloody bacon grill 😅
My first OC didn't like compo so on small taskings , him plus 1, he took a picnic, in a hamper, which he always shared with the plus 1. When I got to a less independent outfit in the real world the chicken submarine with oatmeal blocks and squeezy jam did the job.
Oatmeal blocks awesome 👌
I remember the all-in curries we made when we laagered up - just about anything can be curried! Best part about being in tanks was that you don't have to carry the compo yourself.
And your BVs