Beer
During the Second World War rationing of several items, including foodstuffs, was present in the United States. Meat, sugar, butter and other fats were all rationed, as was gasoline, oil, rubber, and many other products. The nation which had only recently overcome the national insult of prohibition imposed fewer restrictions on alcohol, although whiskey became rationed due to distillery’s shifting production to industrial alcohol for military and medical use. Breweries were required to set aside 15% of their total production for the use of the US military.
Beer was shipped to the troops overseas and to Naval Bases and advanced stations (officially alcohol was banned on US Navy ships). Beer was sent to the troops in both bottles and cans, although cans were easier to handle and ship. Initially beer was shipped in the same containers and labeling as for civilian consumption, by 1943 the military was shipping beer in cans covered with camouflage. Although Prohibition had ended, there was still sufficient temperance influence to limit the alcohol content of beer shipped to the troops to 3.2%.
In the 1940s there were fewer national brands and more local brands of beer produced in the United States, and dozens of smaller breweries provided beer to the troops. Beer was delivered to the front lines shortly after the arrival of troops and the area they were in being deemed secured. Officially it was rationed, but unofficially it was traded and purchased among the men. British aircraft were flying beer into Normandy within days of the landings in 1944, secured in fueling tanks slung beneath the wings, which had the advantage of chilling the beverage during flight.
American breweries found that due to wartime rationing in the UK, American beer – even 3.2 beer – had a higher alcohol content and more flavor than that brewed by their British cousins. Efforts by American brewers to supply British units with beer were blocked by the higher echelons of UK military authority, who insisted that the King’s troops be supplied only by UK producers. British troops in the field were frequently able to obtain American beers however, through the longstanding military practice of barter and trade.
Those concerned about health issues arising from the knowledge that young Americans overseas were supplied with rations of beer on an almost constant basis should consider that the breweries were only required to set aside 15% of their production for distribution to the military. Cigarette producers were required to set aside 30%. Along with beer, cigarettes were freely distributed to the troops, and even included in Red Cross packages shipped to prisoners of war, as a means of ensuring morale remained high, and the troops were aware of the support they were receiving from back home.