On arms and eggs: GI egg mania on the battlefields of World War II

Abstract

ABSTRACTWorld War II combat memoirs, diaries and first-hand field accounts suggest that American GIs desired fresh eggs perhaps more than any other foodstuff and would go to extreme lengths to procure them, often at exorbitant cost. Highlighting the actual words of the troops and those who observed them, this article explores GI egg craving during the Second World War. It reveals that the widespread passion for fresh whole eggs was both a reflection of their scarcity in government-issued rations and a reaction against the loathsome dehydrated egg products force-fed to American soldiers throughout the war. It also demonstrates that GIs found fresh eggs both physically and psychologically comforting. Filling, easy to cook, easy to digest, usually eaten hot, fresh eggs were a high-protein alternative to the canned hash, pork and beans, soapy cheese, and dismal Spam ubiquitous in American field rations, and one cherished by frontline troops across the theaters of war. Also emphasized is the emblematic significance of eggs. To the GIs on the warfront, fresh eggs embodied the safety and security of faraway civilian life and the tranquility of a prelapsarian innocence. They evoked powerful memories of childhood, of the hearth, and of mother cooking the family breakfast. Fresh eggs, in short, symbolized home.