The Yompers by Ian Gardiner

Author:Ian Gardiner [Gardiner, Ian R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781844685677
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2012-10-16T16:00:00+00:00

The rucksacks with our spare rations were flown in at first light so we were not very hungry for very long. However, from now on, men started building up little stockpiles of food against a repetition of the failure of the rations to materialise. We had absolute faith that we would not be allowed to starve, but we knew our logistics system was under severe strain. Moreover, carrying heavy loads in this cold, wet environment we must have been burning up calories in prolific quantities. It is questionable whether the standard ration packs, which were nutritious enough in normal circumstances, would have been sufficient even if we had received our regular issue. Fortunately, again, we were able to draw on our Arctic kit, and the Arctic rations were more appetising and had more calories. Furthermore, with the addition of Tabasco sauce, curry powder and garlic salt, great heights of culinary excellence could be scaled.

Even so, food became an all pervading preoccupation. Brigadier Bernard Fergusson, who commanded a Chindit column in the Burma campaign in World War Two, wrote in his book The Wild Green Earth; ‘Without hesitation, the lack of food is the biggest single assault on morale . . . one is in the dismal condition of having nothing to look forward to. Man is still an animal, and consciously or unconsciously looks forward to the next meal.’ We could certainly testify to the truth of that. As well as feeling giddy and impelled to chain smoke, I found myself becoming jumpy and irritable. It became very difficult to concentrate. In fact I found it difficult to think of anything but my empty belly. Sleep, never easy at the best of times, was not made any easier when the rumblings and grumblings of one’s innards became an incessant clamour for satisfaction. Some men were constantly hungry. It seemed that the fitter the man, the hungrier he was. Marine Leo McDermott, a member of the English national karate team and an international athlete, suffered more than most. Even the cardboard boxes in which the rations didn’t arrive looked tempting to him. The slightly older man, with perhaps half an inch of spare around him, was under no great disadvantage for not having honed his body to too fine an edge.

After the end of the fighting, we discovered that the Stromness had sent enough steak ashore for the whole Commando, thoughtfully cut up into strips so we could cook it in our mess tins. Bread, fruit and even whisky had also been supplied. It also transpired that the good folk of Arbroath and elsewhere in the UK had dispatched all sorts of comforts to us. We never saw any of it, of course. Even if it hadn’t suffered depredations from every thieving hand in the communication link from the UK to the Falklands, it is highly questionable if the logistic chain would have been robust enough to get it the final 40 miles to us for whom it was intended. One

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