Posted:
By: Ben Mallon
On: 03/21/2004
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Hello
My name is Ben Mallon. I am the son of Richard William Mallon, who flew (mostly) B-17G Stormy Weather from early October 1943 to May 22 or 23 1944, mostly as co-pilot.
Dad tells me that the stoneware plates were very cold, and the thick, country-sliced bacon was barely cooked (due to the shortage of fuel of all kinds in England in WWII). The bacon would almost immediately congeal to the plate. The rest of the meal wasn't much better. Dad tells me that he was already pretty nervous because of flying combat later the same morning, but he knew he had to eat because it was so cold at altitude- gotta have the calories. He mentioned the powdered eggs being pretty bad, but made no mention of fresh eggs on mornings of a combat mission.
He said one morning one of the crew members at his table took an extra portion of meat (bacon?) leaving one crew member short, and another morning someone used all the cream before the others got their share.
Dad didn't care much for the candy bar in flight, he would give it to another crew member who didn't drink, and then he would get that guy's whiskey ration after they got on the ground. I think he said that this was pretty good stuff, scotch maybe.
He said there was a ration rule that in order to buy one bottle of good whiskey, you had to buy two bottles of really lousy stuff. The label on the lousy stuff said "Colored and flavored with wood chips. Product not more than 90 days old." He and his friends called it "pop-skull" after the horrendous hangover it would cause.
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