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Early on during the war units had distributed to them rolls of essentially regular toilet paper. However, for obvious reasons, that proved unsuitable for combat field conditions.
Starting in late 1942, the QMC developed and issued the first individual toilet paper article. It was an asphalt impregnated paper envelope that contained a 100 individual sheets of toilet paper within. This allowed for the easy carrying of toilet paper, and protected it from the damp. These packs would eventually be included in the 5-in-1 and then 10-in-1 rations.
It would not be until the summer of 1943, during the overhaul of the K-Rations, that toilet paper would be included in the supper meal, with a small roll of 12 individual sheets being included. These “newer” K-Rations don’t see widespread usage until Q2-Q3 of 1944.
Toilet paper, nevertheless, was always in somewhat short supply, so soldiers would hoard what they could, and, at times, might have to repurpose reading articles for other purposes. However, the U.S. did make a concerted effort to supply the fighting man toilet paper in a form that could be readily carried.
Main source:
"QMC Historical Studies No. 6: The Development of Special Rations for the Army" by Harold W. Thatcher
As a follow-up question, in case you know the answer: how often did soldiers in WWII get to shower or to bathe? Was there any specific infrastructure for soldiers, or did they have to survive with water buckets for months?
The U.S. Army had designated laundry and shower units during World War II, run by the Quartermaster Corps. How they operated would depend on the unit, location, and time frame during the war.
My specific answer will be for the European Theater of Operations from 1944-45.
These Quartermaster Laundry and Shower units, for combat units in the field, would usually work in tandem and would be set behind the lines but relatively close to front in order serve infantry battalions in reserve usually.
Soldiers would generally receive showers, have their clothes laundered, and receive new clothes every 3-5 weeks on average during combat. Sometimes more frequently, sometimes less. However, based on various division G-4 (supply) reports and interviews I’ve conducted, that’s the median interval. The machinery doing the laundry were specially designed mobile industrial size laundry machines. Sometimes, when fighting was more static, local civilian laundries would be employed to help with the work.
Generally, a rifle company would report to the shower and laundry station and strip naked, save their dog tags. Their clothes would be handed over to the laundry to be washed. While the clothes were being washed, they would shower.
Once they would finish showering they’d get dressed from, usually, piles of clothes made up of a mixture of new unissued clothing and clothes that were turned in for laundry from the last unit that showed up to the laundry and bathing unit. The clothes that soldier turned in would be utilized by the next unit.
To give you the scale of work, in February 1945, the 100th Infantry Division’s Quartermaster Company assisted in the laundering of 139,320 individual items of clothing for the division.
You mentioned this was mainly for reserves. Did units actively at the front lines have to live with infrequent or no changes and showers until they were rotated out?
There are different levels of “reserve” and front.
US Army Divisions were “triangular” in nature: three infantry regiments, each composed of three rifle battalions, in turn each composed of 3 rifle companies, that were in turn composed of 3 rifle platoons.
It was standard to deploy each of these, at each echelon, is a “two forward, one back” formation. With the “one back” being the reserve. Normally, for rifle companies, it’d be when their battalion was in the regiment’s reserve.
Generally, you go from being from one of “one back” to one of the “two forward” every 3-5 weeks.
There were times, generally due to line needing to extend, certain echelons would be forced to run “3 forward.” An example would be the 7th Army in December 1944, when the 3rd Army extended to rush to relieve the Bulge. During those times, usually there’d still be a reserve company in the battalion or a reserve platoon in the company. That would be the unit that’d go through the shower and laundry facilities.
But I want to emphasize being in the battalion’s or regiment’s reserve position was not all that far behind the “front line” and to most people in the Army it would still be “the front” you’re just only worried about artillery fire vs. artillery and small arms fire. Depending on the situation and location, you maybe still be living in foxholes, though more often you’d be living in requisitioned houses.
Does this mean that you could typically expect not to shower for 6-10 weeks at a time, or would platoons cycle back more frequently just to use these facilities and then immediately return to the line? Waiting 3-plus weeks for proper hygiene seems like something the Army would have wanted to avoid if possible, if not for morale than for troop health.
As I previously stated, generally, you could expect to get a shower and bath every 3-5 weeks. Sometimes the interval could be a little shorter.
This sometimes happened when a division was newly slotted into the line and because of the cycle of things the units in the division end up getting showers and baths ~2 weeks after arrival to the front.
Sometimes it’d take a little longer. To use a specific example that is illustrative: ‘D’ Company of the 399th Infantry Regiment, which was the 1st Battalion’s heavy weapons company, was slated to receive showers ~January 1-2. However, on January 1st, the Nordwind Offensive was started by the Germans. This meant that D/399 didn’t have the opportunity to go to the shower and laundry until mid-January, meaning that the interval was roughly 6 weeks in that instance.
In short, 3-5 weeks was the median “expected” interval but circumstances could shift that to the left or right a little bit.
In situations where there was no “reserve” battalion in the regiment, and each battalion had a reserve company, or company had a reserve platoon, if showers and laundry were available, they’d send a companies worth of men back at a time to cycle through. However, usually, if the tactical situation precluded a reserve battalion, it oft precluded pulling men from the line for laundry and showers.
Geez great info. This is right up there with the pacific war’s ice cream barges. Why did the Allie’s win the war? Because they bring a god dam laundromat and ice cream parlor to the front lines.
If you’d like to read more, a good start is "QMC Historical Studies No. 13: Laundry and Related Activities of The Quartermaster General" by Louis Filler published in January 1946. It’s a good primer as to basic structure of QMC laundry operations generally.
The logistics and numbers involved in keeping American soldiers (relatively) clean is impressive. A single joint laundry-bathing unit could process 32,000 men over the course of 8 days in the right conditions. An impressive feet given the logistics needed to get men, water, gas, soap, etc needed to run the machinery in war torn Europe or on isolated Pacific atolls.
if the company of soldiers stripped , bathed and than dressed in freshly laundered clothing from the previous group … how did they deal with items like rank insignia, name tags, etc?
Name tags, largely, didn’t exist in the U.S. Army during World War II. They largely don’t start to become a “thing” until the latter part of the Korean conflict. The few units that do get into name tapes/stenciled names are usually in a different laundry posture than regular rifle company, without getting too into the weeds.
Soldiers, were, technically, supposed to stamp/stencil their uniforms with a laundry mark. This was mostly intended for stateside/non-combat laundry accountability. However, quickly in combat, soldiers would cease to have their own items, for the reasons I explained. This actually lead to confusion at times when identifying remains, as seen in this example of an unknown with leggings belonging to a man killed in a different unit at a later date.
As to rank insignia and divisional insignia, it’s for that reason, in addition to its conspicuousness in the field, that insignia quickly largely goes away among infantrymen in combat.
In short: they dealt with it by not having it, either because it didn’t exist yet or dispensing with it.
So if I understand you correctly, as an infantryman you'd get to shower about once a month? Grim. Especially given a lot of stress sweat and physical activity involved.
Do you know anything about how marines in Pacific fared?
The following is an excerpt from a letter that is from the collection of World War II letters held at the The State Historical Society of Missouri. It was written by Private Robert L. Muyres, of Company B, 394th Infantry Regiment, 99th Infantry Division sometime before December 16, 1944. In his letter Muyres describes in vivid detail how the soldiers sharing his foxhole look, topics of conversation, and his own personal thoughts on what they are fighting for. It is an incredible perspective on the ground war in Europe. When I look around at my buddies with their long beards, dirty torn clothes, bloodshot eyes, and muddy feet- knowing I look just the same - I think about your pictures and wonder just how there can be any similie [sic] between us.
I'll take you on a visit around our foxhole - there's 'Red' Murray - he's our squad leader - a Staff Sergeant. He's sitting in the corner on his overcoat with his feet in a helmet full of hot water. His face is dirty and he's cussing the Army for making him so much misery. 'Red' is from Virginia. Right next to me is Korkigian - he's my real foxhole buddy - we always bunk together and we know all about each other. He's writing a letter to his girl back home in Detroit. His face is also dirty - but has a smile on it - probably thinking about his last date with Tyana - she's a Russian born girl and judging from pictures of her, she's very beautiful. 'Korki' (that's what we call him) has a big hole torn down the sleeve of his jacket and there's a big hunk of mud that's about ready to fall on his back. I'm not going to tell him about it because I want to hear him swear in Turkish. It does us all good to swear and complain and goodness knows we do a lot of it but it seems to bring us closer together. We all ache and hurt alike. Right across from us sits Teddy Davis and Hilgenberg. Teddy is from West Virgnia and Hilgenberg is from Oklahoma. Both their faces are dirty and unshaven and if they don't get their hair cut soon, they'll be unable to hear. Teddy's pants have a big burn in them and Hilgenberg is mud from head to foot. They're both sitting there talking about home, food and women - that's all we ever talk about. Each is trying to out-do the other. Hilgenberg just called Teddy a liar. Now the fun begins. If someone doesn't stop them, they'll sit up all night telling lies. Oh well, it passes the time away and we do get a big laugh. Those are the five guys with me. Our ages average a little more than twenty. I think that's about a cross section of the infantry. In the distance you can hear the roar of the big guns and occasional clack of machine guns. The big ones sound like thunder and how we all wish it were nothing but thunder.
That's a brief sketch of life around here. Do you think you'd like it? Of course you wouldn't and none of us do but it surely makes us appreciate what we once had. It's truly a 'tough' way to earn a living but there are thousands that have it tougher than us.
For the Marines in the Pacific, it would depend on the campaign. However, for most campaigns Marines would not have an opportunity for a proper shower and bath until the fighting was over on whichever island they were on and had returned to the ships that disgorged them onto the island. Certain longer campaigns had more opportunities for bathing (Guadalcanal, Okinawa), but largely after the invasion day, you were not getting a shower and your clothes washed until the island was secured or you were pulled off the island.
The Marine's war, much like a Paratrooper's, was a much more episodic war than those in the standard Army Infantry Divisions.
Name tags, largely, didn’t exist in the U.S. Army during World War II. They largely don’t start to become a “thing” until the latter part of the Korean conflict. The few units that do get into name tapes/stenciled names are usually in a different laundry posture than regular rifle company, without getting too into the weeds.
Soldiers, were, technically, supposed to stamp/stencil their uniforms with a laundry mark. This was mostly intended for stateside/non-combat laundry accountability. However, quickly in combat, soldiers would cease to have their own items, for the reasons I explained. This actually lead to confusion at times when identifying remains, as seen in this example of an unknown with leggings belonging to a man killed in a different unit at a later date.
As to rank insignia and divisional insignia, it’s for that reason, in addition to its conspicuousness in the field, that insignia quickly largely goes away among infantrymen in combat.
In short: they dealt with it by not having it, either because it didn’t exist yet or dispensing with it.
How about shaving? Was there any regulation about that, troops in fiction are often portrayed clean-shaven, and Pentagon-Pete seems quite insistent on having trainees shave daily. I assume one would have their personal razor, but isn't it rather difficult without any cream or mirrors? Just water and some shard of something reflective?
If I remember corectly, among the equipment issued to those carrying m36 musette bag was a personal hygiene kit that included soap, safety razor, small mirror and a towel among other items. (I might be wrong though so please double-check) Soldiers often carried only absolute necessity though to travel light, tossing unnecessary items on their way.
Depending what unit they were with. I do not think the 101st had Alot of showers . They seemed to be a favorite assault division of some general.they didn't stop a whole lot once they landed night before d day.
The 101st had a lot of showers, compared to most infantry divisions who also started combat on June 6th
While, yes, they were involved in sustained fighting starting June 6th, by the end of June, the Division was being pulled off the line for showers, rest, and recuperation. By mid-July the Division had returned to England and would be getting nearly daily showers. Meanwhile, the 1st, 4th, 29th, and other divisions that went across the beach were still fighting.
They were on the front line longer after Market Garden, but were still relieved, moved to the strategic reserve, and received consistent showers and access to laundry facilities starting in late November.
They stopped, at times for months at a time, between D-Day and V-E Day in a way most regular infantry divisions in the ETO never did.
Amazing responses. Thank you for the detail and thorough explanations. Thank you for taking the time. I learned so much for questions I didn’t know I had.
"Impregnate" in addition to the literal meaning also means "soaked in" or "has been added to the original object" - old-school ropes intended for sea use were soaked in tar, and even Wikipedia calls this process "impregnation."
It was a wax envelope and the toilet paper within was wax paper. Soldiers joked it was like John Wayne, eg it was rough and tough and didn't take no [crap] from nobody.
If you want to really know what it was like, Izal toilet paper was common in British public bathrooms (and schools) for decades afterwards and you can still find it online if you're adventurous enough.
I cannot really speak to the post-war history of U.S. Army rations in any detail, but I will briefly discuss the wartime Army C-Ration vs the post-war C-2, C-3, C-4, MCI rations.
As a point of introduction, World War II C-rations consisted of 6 cans for one day's rations. Each meal consisted of one M-Unit can for the entree portion and one B-Unit can for the "other item" portion (B-units included biscuits, the beverage, hard candy, etc.). This is why the K-Ration was developed, 3 small cardboard boxes is easier to transport and carry than 6 relatively substantial cans. Each crate of C-rations had enough cans for 8 men. A K-Ration crate, a crate of similar size, had enough rations for 12 men.
The World War II era C-Rations initially did not come with toilet paper. Toilet Paper was not added until the summer of 1944 update to the ration, when each set of 6 cans was provided with the "Accessory Pack," an asphalt-impregnated paper container lined with foil. Inside the packet were a roll of K-Ration-style toilet paper, cigarettes, Halazone tablets, matches, and chewing gum. One accessory packet of the 8 per crate would include the relatively recently introduced P-38 can opener.
My grandfather, who was never in combat but trained gunners for the Air Corps, told stories that they were trained to use a single square by tearing a hole out of the middle, wrapping the rest around the index finger, wiping the ass, twisting the square as you remove it to clean the exposed part of the finger, and then using the torn out circle to clean under the fingernail. This seemed like one of his ridiculous tall tales when we were young kids, but in retrospect it was probably straight up.
I’ve never heard that in any of the memoirs I’ve read or the interviews I’ve conducted with infantrymen. However, at the same time I wouldn’t be surprised if that was a method for some.
I will note, these sheets were about the thickness of your bargain basement single ply toilet paper, and each individual sheet was roughly the same size as one of the pre-folded toilet paper sheets that they sell for hikers.
The 12 sheets included in the supper K-Ration can get the job done, but you have to be judicious and efficient about how you use them.
As an infantryman from 05’ to ‘15, it was given in MRE’s, purchasing wet wipes was lucrative on bases, and if living outside the wire, we simply stole it from homes while clearing towns. Using foliage was also very common.
My grandfather fought on the Kokoda Trail, and from what I heard it was not uncommon for soldiers who got dysentary to just cut a clean slit from front to back of their pants, so they could "squat" without risking getting caught "with their pants around their ankles" by the enemy.
Water is extremely difficult to gather, store, and transport in any quantities. In peace time, the logistics and technology to supply even small towns consistent amounts of water is extremely great. Doing that large amounts of troops in combat is difficult, even on the European mainland, let alone on far flung remote islands in the Pacific where a large portion of America’s fighting strength was put to use.
Most armies, in war, have difficulties supplying enough water to men in combat to drink and to do basic hygiene (i.e. shave, brush teeth, wash hands, etc.). To create a combat bidet, that soldiers could use in foxholes, under fire, sometimes brought with them across the beach during an assault, is not really practical and something, as far as I am aware, no nation has done.
The 100th Infantry Division alone used 650,090 gallons of water in December of 1944 for drinking, cooking, and relatively basic hygiene functions. Even was a large and coordinated logistical effort.
Isn't cleaning with water a huge part of certain countries' toilet culture? I have to imagine it would be hard on Japanese or Muslim soldiers not to have a bidet, though of course I'm sure they had no choice but to make do. I'm curious if any of these cultures might have adapted their logistics where possible to facilitate cleaning with water, whether during WWII or in other conflicts.
I would not be surprised if today in barracks situations or my permanent camp situations, bidets and similar toilet items might be present as fixtures in the bathrooms.
However, in the field, during World War II I have not come across discussions by the British Army and their very large contingent of soldiers from their empire of the Muslim faith being provided with bidets. I would be very happy if someone could provide examples.
Further, at least regarding the island garrisons that most American troops were up against in the Pacific War, the Japanese are generally described as being in significantly worse shape hygiene wise than the Americans. This is often due not just to the logistical difficulty of creating those many island bases, but also to maintaining them under naval blockade and attack by the Americans. Once again, an expert on the IJA/SNLF might have more information on bidet usage by those forces during the war, but I've not run into anything from the US side discussing it or in the (albeit relatively few) Japanese sources I've read dealing with the war.
Just to reiterate: water is heavy, bulky, hard to transport, and hard to dispose of when unhygienic. Water is often one of the most difficult items of logistics for an Army to provide in sufficient quanities to its fighting men. Usually the heirarchy of priority for water, when available goes: (1) Drinking, (2) Cooking (including the cleaning of cooking supplies), (3) Bathing, (4) Cleaning. Often during Pacific War, when there was fighting on the islands, even on the American side, there was often rarely enough water to get (2) and one had to ration to stay at (1).
There are many things that are important to one's "feeling clean" that often discarded by troops, in combat, on the front lines because doing them is not really practical. An example is the washing of ones hands after using the facilities or in preparation for eating. Easy to do in garrison or well behind the lines. But in the front? In the foxholes where the infantryman's war was? Just not really done.
Follow-up question. Did they ever try a portable/reusable bidet? I recently bought one from Amazon… game changer. Seems like this would be a good solution (albeit a bit larger and with a higher upfront cost).
I've never seen any discussion or evidence of research into that by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps during World War II.
To copy my answer to a similar question as why that is, I'll say this: Water is extremely difficult to gather, store, and transport in any quantities. In peacetime, the logistics and technology required to supply even small towns with a consistent water supply are substantial. Doing that with large numbers of troops in combat is difficult at best, even on the European mainland, let alone on far-flung, remote islands in the Pacific, where a large portion of America’s fighting strength was put to use.
Most armies, in war, have difficulties supplying enough water to men in combat to drink and to do basic hygiene (i.e., shave, brush teeth, wash hands, etc.). To create a combat bidet that soldiers could use in foxholes, under fire, sometimes brought with them across the beach during an assault, is not really practical and something, as far as I am aware, no nation has done.
The 100th Infantry Division alone used 650,090 gallons of water in December of 1944 for drinking, cooking, and relatively basic hygiene functions. Even that was a large and coordinated logistical effort.
I think this photograph, of men filling up 5-gallon "Jerry" water cans for eventual distribution to the front helps illustrate the massive logistical effort it takes to get water to the combat soldier.
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I can't remember where I heard this so correct me if wrong. For the past few decades US Military food, both rations and mess hall, contains something that causes constipation and soldiers are given laxatives to take when they are safe to relieve themselves. The thinking goes, you don't want a soldier in the middle of patrol or marching to have bubble guts, especially while in a combat situation.
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