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Food
Food despatched to the front was wrapped in a protective canvas, although its quality was often poor. Fish was sometimes not adequately salted or the bread that arrived was stale. A soldier was supposed to have at least one solid hot meal each day served from a company mobile kitchen, but not only were many of these defective, whether a soldier had the opportunity to pause to have something to eat or drink depended more on the enemy’s action. When a major attack was in progress soldiers would have to live on tins of corned beef (referred to as singe or monkey) or sardines and biscuits. Other time the poilus had to content themselves with a cold thick stew or soup brought to them by the hommes soupes in open containers that often let in mud or earth. Each soldier carried with him a two-litre flask into which he could pour wine or coffee. Wine, “le consolateur supreme” in the words of one private soldier, was as important as food for purposes of morale.