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Hershey 2 oz. Chocolate Bars packed inside a Life Raft Ration can


rambob
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Everyone, I recently bought a sealed can of LIFE BOAT AND LIFE RAFT RATIONS that was packed on 7/12/1945. I have opened a couple of these rations and inside I find the normal 7 rolls of malted milk tablets, a box of Type 1 Biscuit Bread and two bloated cans of pemmican packed inside. But the chocolate bars packed inside are a bit of a wild card. The last ration I opened had chocolate that resembled D ration bars, but unfortunately the were all bloated, the wrappers torn and the chocolate was dust. But when I opened up this ration, I saw something I had not personally seen before, 2 ounce Hersey, Tropical Chocolate bars. There were four of these bars inside the ration can that were in remarkably good condition for their age. Has anyone else seen the 2 ounce Hersey Tropical chocolate bars separate or packed inside a ration like this?? I have only ever seen the 1 ounce versions of these bars.

 

Bob

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Bob, seeing these two ounce bars on their own are a bit unusual but very typical for this type of ration. This ration derives from the D ration which was produced in both 4 oz. and 2 ounce bars available in various packaging methods. For example the Bailout Ration developed in 1942 included a 2 ounce bar but we have to go back further than that to the predecessor to the D ration the Logan Bar. In the late 1930's this new formula of a ration was introduced named the Logan Bar and upon adoption by the QM it was re-designated as the D ration which for most is standard knowledge. The Logan Bar was adopted by many services utilized as a Life Boat ration by 1940, these were packaged in a wax carton and placed obviously as provisions on life boats on vessels. Several years later, the enter war years, the ration was improved adopting primarily the Navy's Abandon Ship Ration for inclusion on Merchant Marine or other maritime service vessel life boats which included biscuits, malted milk tablets and luncheon meat. This combination proved to be inefficient which led to the improvement of emergency rations across the board for almost all services and activities. To keep on topic we will stay with Merchant Marine and commercial maritime in which the original ration posted here was intended for. The USCG also used these rations and the Navy Abandon Ship Ration as well. In 1942 a new life boat ration was adopted for use for the USCG and Merchant marine that loosely copied the Naval Aeronautical emergency ration M-539 morphed with the Abandon Ship Ration to include pemmican, biscuits, malted milk tablets and chocolate bars. In early 1944 a new type of "sweet chocolate" bar was being introduced to replaced the Logan/D bars in use for emergency rations. The Hersheys bar is considered sweet chocolate. The original production of these new rations were tin plated later changing to the can as you pictured. A complete "survival" ration would include 6 cans of water(which is a sister can) and 2 cans food unit and one can opener, so to complete the "ration" you need 6 waters and one more food ration. As illustrated in the pictures the bars included in these types of rations have always been a 2 ounce bar

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There was a wide variety of ration bars packed in these kits. Some time back one of the members (maybe K Ration?) started or contributed to a forum topic regarding those rations. He or someone had apparently come across a large number of those cans and they had opened a number up to show the different contents. The topic originally might of had to do with whether or not the Hershey Tropical bars with the blue printing were wartime or not. Might still be found on the forum with a little work. I am also pretty sure some of these rations had one ounce bars rather then two ounce bars. Probably due to a lack of availability of the standard two ounce version at the time of production.

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  • 6 years later...

The components, note two variations of the 2ounce Logan Bar

I dont want to talk about what it cost but I just picked one of these up and yours is the only picture of the contents that I could find anywhere

 

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Also, I bought a grey and red version packed 12/5/1944 that was swelled up like a football so I cracked it open

 

Inside was all the regular stuff but with malted milk tablets that Ive never seen. Here is a package along with the C biscuits

 

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Good pick up!

I havn't seen very many of this variant before, an uncommon type for sure.

 

That is an odd malted tablet packing, new one on me. If I seen that floating around I'd think some reproduction concoction.

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