A D-ration box for you all to print out (on to cardstock) and fold into a box.. You might need to resize the image though. The top is 6in. and the side is 6.5in.
Directions:
1. Print 1 copy of this (too many copies will use more ink, and computer ink is costly) onto cardstock. *Make sure the cardstock is a brownish color.
2. Take the newly printed ration box (don’t forget to trim it!) along with some cardstock to a copy machine
3. Load the cardstock into the copier and select half-tone (the half-tone worked for us, but you might have to play around with the ink-selector) for your print quality or whatever its called.
4. Print 1 out, and examine it to make sure it looks and printed right
5. When you get a copy that looks right, print out how many you will need.
*Cardstock can be costly, you can either at events, pitch the D-ration box when your finished with it or keep it and reuse it. I would suggest the latter, as it would more-cost-effective to reuse it and NOT to keep re-buying more cardstock.
Assembly:
1. Cut it all out. Make sure you make a TAB at one seam. By doing this it is much easier to fold.
2. Cut and fold, where the cuts and folds should be at
3. Use regular Elmers White glue (in a bottle!). Glue the tab, than glue one side, than place the bars inside. Than glue the open end shut. It is possible to use tape. But I don’t want to mess around with that. Glue is much easier.
The “Ration”
Yes, the ration itself won’t be made to exact WW2 spefications. But until I come across exact directions and ingredients to make a WW2 D-ration this will have to work.
We use Hershey bars. The calorie content in a modern Hershey regular bar is 230. So, roughly 3 bars will equal the 600 calorie content found in a WW2 D-ration.
1. Get 3 Hershey bars (each Hershey bar costs around 50-60 cents each. Or you can buy bulk for your unit, and it would be less expensive per bar)
2. *On each bar, remove 3 of the little squares on one end, and fold the foil over.
3. Stick all three Hershey bars, inside the box. Or you can take 3 Hershey bars and put them all inside 1 foil wrapping.
4. Enjoy!
*By removing the 3 Hershey squares from the top of each bar your your final calorie content in the box is 517.5. Your final net ounce is 3.4875.
FINAL COPY
This is from the top, with the 3 Hershey bars inside
This is from the side.
By: Patrick Costa
88th Infantry Division
10/26/02
V1.1