# Did I eat Field Ration D in the early 1970s?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-eat-field-ration-d-in-the-early-1970s/513358>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 11, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-eat-field-ration-d-in-the-early-1970s/513358 "2009-10-11T00:08:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-eat-field-ration-d-in-the-early-1970s/513358/1 "2009-10-11T00:08:43Z")

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I spent about the first three years of the 1970s in Cyprus - my father was stationed out there with the RAF. We were evacuated back to England hurriedly in the middle of the night during the Turkish invasion in 1974 - I was about seven years old.

Anyway, I have a distinct memory of (while we lived out there) being given a piece of ‘survival chocolate’ to taste.  
The piece I was given was an enormous thick cube about an inch on a side that had been broken off a bar that came out of a grey cardboard box with plain text labelling or printing.  
The chocolate was hard and crumbly - like overcooked fudge, dark in colour and tasting like burnt, sugary, gritty chocolate.

From time to time, this memory would surface in my mind (usually when I tasted something reminiscent of the stuff), but I only recently thought to google ‘survival chocolate’ and try to identify it.

My memory bears a striking resemblance to [Ration D](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_chocolate#The_Logan_Bar_or_D_Ration) - the presentation and packaging of the bar match my memory and looking at the ingredients list, the taste and texture sound like they ought to be a reasonable fit too.

BUT… Production of Ration D ceased at the end of WWII - some thirty years prior to my consumption of ‘survival chocolate’.

So what _ **did** _ I eat? A thirty-year-old surplus item? Or was there some other similar product still in production/use by the British forces?

(for the record, I also came across ‘tropical chocolate’ in my researches, but the descriptions do not seem to match the thing I’m remembering)

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2009, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-eat-field-ration-d-in-the-early-1970s/513358/2 "2009-10-11T00:39:07Z")

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In the 1980s, wildland fire fighters in the US regularly ate C-Rats and K-Rats, dating from WWII. Today we have gourmet meals, even on the fireline. It’s needed with a 6,000 calorie a day diet.