compo

Was trawling through ebay, when i saw some of this for sale, im just wondering who made the stuff?? I know some tins such as pilchards had a label of who made it.

Im wondering who made the other stuff, cheese possessed, baby heads, chicken supreme?? Were they a major company or one man and a dog, which is who i suspect supplied the sausages!! (the dog not the man)

 

I know that the boil in the bag stuff was made by Wilsons in Kilwinning as my Aunite and cousin worked in the factory was surprised when I told them that we thought the stuff was great as it was the "sh1te" they had left from other stuff that went into it. I dont know who makes it now as the factory has closed you used to be able to buy the boil in bag meals from the factory

 

Hmm an interesting quest.

We know that maconackie made tinned meat and veg stew for the Great War soldiers and that Ticklers of Liverpool (?) made the jam. But they werent the only people with army contracts then. We have all heard of the supermarkets but they rely on suppliers with non brtand names names like "meat pack" or Tiptree jams.

Its a damn good question- who makes compo?

 

So did my auntie!!

The cans were made there too. Great stuff it was!

 

BAOR in 1967: I remember someone made a mistake and issued us some 10-man packs of what I think was Menu 'H'...

...Or some such letter, never heard of before or since!

The rumour went round that it was war reserve stock but the amazing thing about it was that it contained tins of REAL bacon rashers!

They were fried up into sarnies and down our gullets before you could say 'Spam!'

The poor old Colour- Bundle came round to withdraw them and issue the wretched A,B,C, or D that we usually got and recovered a load of empty tins instead!

 

The compo of my era was great.
Stewed steak, Babies Yeds, and above all those tinned Skinless Sausages, which I have see SNCO's fighting over on who got the extras, at Mess breakfast.
Who made them No Idea but Bloody well done Sah.
john

 

Funnily enough, found an article on the 'new' compo rations in a Soldier Mag dated 1946, going on how the tinned bread was still soft and fresh after being tinned the year before, but why did they get rid of the Cigarettes, now that would have cheered me up on exercise.

 

Cyprus 1974. Turks decided that they wanted a bit(quite a large bit) of the island.

We were stationed at Episkopi and the families were in Limassol. The invasion happened overnight but we all went to work as normal, working day starting at sparrow-fart but finishing at lunchtime. Consequently we were in barracks at Epi when the news of the invasion finally reached HQ MELF. We were confined to barracks (or rather sent out to patrol a huge area). The families were told to stay indoors for their safety. It was then realised that they still needed to eat, strange as that may seem to the army machinery. So trucks were sent down loaded with 10 man rat boxes. Each quarter(hiring) was visited and asked how many were living there. My Mrs (now ex thank fcuk) said just her and the baby - 18 months old. She got a 10 man rat box and was told it would be replened after 2 days unless the situation calmed down.

A 10 man rat pack for 1 woman and baby and free - she thought this was brill. Lots of chocolate and boiled sweets, which, as an 18 year old gal she loved, as did the baby.

When I got home 3 days later (a slightly different angle on the 'should I volunteer for ops' thread) she kept going on about how great the rations were and asking why I did not write home more often as they had supplied writing paper as well - how thoughtful the army were. When I pointed out the real purpose of the sheets of white paper she was somewhat taken aback .

She also discovered the reason I spent so much time on my first visit to the loo after returning from a scheme. \'