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Category: War
Don’t let the image fool you — D bars were positively ghastly.
Back when dinosaurs roamed the plains and I flew Army helicopters for Uncle Sam, I was afforded the opportunity to attend the U.S. Air Force Arctic Survival School. The colloquial name was “Cool School.” That sounded pretty awesome. As the big day approached, I actually looked forward to the experience. It seems I was an idiot.
Hard Reality
I discovered later that Cool School was informally called the Air Force Food Appreciation Course. Not only did the average temperature hover around 30 below zero, but there also wasn’t much to eat. The mission was to simulate what it might be like to be a stranded military aviator in the frozen Arctic wastes. We were given the contents of an ejection seat survival kit and a single MRE to last the duration of the course.
After a couple of days, that MRE was but a vague memory. I consumed absolutely everything in that tan plastic pouch. I also ate a boiled rabbit. That was about as awesome as it sounds.
The survival kit included these weird compressed food bars. I would liken them to finely-ground sawdust mixed with a little sugar and pressed into a rock-hard, brick-like cube. It took a little effort to gnaw off the edges. At the end of the exercise, I had licked the cocoa beverage powder and instant coffee clean from my MRE, but I still had two and a half of my three survival food bars intact. Those things were ghastly.
That was most likely by design. If they tasted like Toblerone, you’d be tempted to gobble them up right sharpish. As it was, the consistency and flavor meant you tended to make them last. It turns out there was a WWII-vintage precedent.
The thought of having to survive on a D bar kept troops on full alert.
An Army Marches on Its Stomach
We are all rightfully enamored with the guns, planes, tanks, and ships, but it is really the mundane stuff like food and warm clothing that really drive a combat unit’s success in the field.
U.S. Marine Corps General Robert H. Barrow once famously opined that, “Amateurs study tactics; professionals study logistics.” As such, in 1937, the United States Army approached the Hershey’s Chocolate Company with a most curious request.
Pearl Harbor caught the U.S. military acutely unawares, but there were still plenty of folks who could sense that war was coming. As a result, they began reaching out to American industry to modernize weapons and support gear in anticipation of fielding massive expeditionary armies overseas. As part of that, Uncle Sam needed a new government chocolate bar. However, they wanted it to taste, in the words of the Army Quartermaster, “Only a little better than a boiled potato.”
Before these old heroes could be this awesome, they had to be fed. Public domain.
Origin Story
Hershey’s chief chemist Sam Hinkle and Captain Paul Logan of the U.S. Army Quartermaster General’s office established four criteria for what would eventually become the Field Ration D bar. It had to be energy-dense and weigh no more than four ounces. It had to withstand high temperatures without melting. It also needed to taste bad.
The logic was sound. Like those nasty compressed survival bars in Cool School, if the emergency ration chocolate was tasty, troops would consume it recreationally. They needed to save this thing for actual emergencies. The solution was to make it taste awful.
For starters, the Hershey research team dramatically reduced the sugar. Then they increased the chocolate liquor to make it bitter. After that came oat flour to create a dense, dry texture with a killer aftertaste.
The original concoction was so thick it could not be poured into a mold. Every single bar had to be manually pressed in place. The factory workers at Hershey’s reportedly despised making them. However, the resulting compact bar offered 600 calories in a 4-ounce chunk. Troops claimed it was all but impossible to get into the thing without a knife.
Of course it came with instructions. Troops were supposed to eat the quarter-pound bar slowly over the course of half an hour or dissolve it in water to make a drink. Either way, getting a whole D bar down was a gut check.
Practicalities
The Army ordered the first 90,000-bar lot in 1937 for field testing. Troops predictably despised them, but that was the point. By 1941 Hershey’s was producing D rations at scale. By war’s end, Hersey’s had produced more than three billion of the horrible things.
Troops in theater nicknamed the D bar Germany’s secret weapon. This was partly because of their deleterious effect on the human gut. Additionally, hungry civilians who got the D bars in trade often thought them inedible.
In 1943, Hershey produced a specific version of the D ration for the Pacific Theater called the Tropical Chocolate Bar. This awful comestible was designed to withstand temperatures of up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit without melting. It intentionally tasted slightly better than the standard D ration, but troops nonetheless nicknamed the Tropical Chocolate Bar the “Dysentery Bar.”
Performance
D ration bars were standard issue in aircrew survival kits. In 1943, Army Air Corps Lieutenant Louis Zamperini, the Olympic distance runner featured in Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 book Unbroken, survived 47 days adrift in a life raft in the Pacific Ocean after his B24 Liberator crashed. He survived in part thanks to the D bars he had on board.
Hershey eventually earned five Army-Navy Excellence in Production awards. Before WWII, chocolate was considered a luxury in post-Depression American society. When the 16 million GIs who deployed to fight WWII returned home, they were all addicted to the stuff.
This seismic shift in American culinary tastes drove the explosion of products like candy bars and Coca-Cola in the 1950s. That’s one of several reasons Americans are so blasted fat today.
I do love me some M&M’s. They resulted from WWII-era research into shelf stable chocolate.
Spin-Off Tech
Not all military chocolate was supposed to be nasty. The confections intended for standard rations needed to be as tasty as possible. This was the stuff American GIs handed out to starving kids in liberated war zones.
When Forest Mars needed a snack that could survive high temperatures in transit, he took little gobbets of chocolate and coated them in hard candy. The result was M&M’s. Mr. Mars secured an exclusive military contract, and M&M’s went to war before they were sold to the general public. GIs came home rabid for the things.
A surprising lot of the modern candy offerings tempting you at the Walmart checkout had their genesis during World War II. Environmental stability and the necessity for maximum caloric density often drove that train. In the case of the ghastly D bar, however, it was also engineered to be gross.
The Ukraine was one the first country to be bullied by Russia!
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WW1: Hidden Traces
Berlin was collapsing, the Reich was finished, and Georg Diers still had one terrifying steel monster left to fight with. This is the brutal, strange, and curiously compelling story of Germany’s last operational Tiger tank and the man who rode it into the end of the world.
Villains, Warfighters, and Why This Story Still Grabs You by the Throat
The Nazis are nature’s perfect villains. These original jack-booted thugs murdered entire people groups simply because they found them to be inconvenient. It is literally impossible to get away with saying anything positive about World War 2-vintage National Socialists in modern woke America. This is quite understandable. The Nazis were objectively horrible in every conceivable way.
After the war, there were actually strikingly few Nazis. Most everyone, from little old lady civilians to recently demobilized combat veterans, said they were all just following orders and that they had no idea that the atrocities were taking place. Some of that might be true. Most of it probably was not. What is incontrovertible, however, is that the Germans during World War 2 produced some exceptionally effective soldiers.
The War Savants Who Rewired Modern Combat
In addition to being really snappy dressers, these guys literally wrote the book on modern combat tactics. Guderian’s blitzkrieg inspired the Air-Land Battle doctrine I was taught when I was in uniform. It drives whatever they are calling it these days as well.
The Germans showed us that audacity and flexibility were the keys to success in modern war, and that the ability to reorganize badly attritted combat units on the fly seriously enhanced their effectiveness.
German tactical decision-making was pushed down to the lowest possible level. Initiative was both encouraged and rewarded. We see that demonstrated in spades in the US Army today. That all really blossomed with the Heer and the Waffen SS during the Second World War.
With the world crumbling around them in 1945 and the Allies advancing on all fronts, ravaged German combat units coalesced for a desperate yet futile last stand. A core of what remained of the German war machine fell back to Berlin to defend der Führer in his final days, desperately hoping for some kind of dark miracle. Arguably the most compelling example of this most compelling time was Georg Diers and Germany’s very last operational Tiger tank.
The Tiger I, The Machine That Terrified Allied Troops
The Tiger tank was a masterstroke of marketing genius. While it was an undeniably impressive war machine, it was hardly invulnerable. However, Allied troops the world over were rightfully terrified of the thing.
The Tiger came in two broad flavors. The Tiger I had its origins in the 1937-vintage Durchbruchwagen or “breakthrough vehicle.” The proposal for this machine stipulated that it weigh between 30 and 33 tons and be sufficiently swarthy as to crush all comers. The actual weight ended up being roughly twice that. This concept vehicle eventually evolved into the Panzerkampfwagen VI, which was the definitive first Tiger tank.
1,347 copies were eventually produced. Despite weighing sixty tons, the Tiger I was relatively fast with a top speed of 28 mph on a smooth surface. The Tiger’s armor protection was legendary, and its KwK 36 L/56 88mm main gun would kill any armored vehicle on Planet Earth at any reasonable range. The real beast, however, was the subsequent Königstiger or King Tiger.
Tiger II: Bigger, Meaner, and Far Less Forgiving
We call it the Tiger II. The Germans actually designated the vehicle the Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B. This literally translates to Tiger B. Aside from sharing a common Maybach HL 230 P30 V-12 petrol engine, the Tiger I and Tiger II were otherwise completely dissimilar.
Introduced in 1944, the Tiger II weighed 69 tons and sported a longer, meaner 88mm main gun than did the Tiger I. When it worked, the Tiger II did about 25 mph on the road. However, the Tiger II was plagued with mechanical gremlins from the very outset.
492 copies saw service by war’s end. The Tiger II figured prominently in Operation Watch on the Rhine, the late 1944 German offensive through the Ardennes that we christened the Battle of the Bulge. The tale of the last operational Tiger II to see action drips with both drama and pathos.
Georg Diers, The Forgotten Soldier Behind Germany’s Last Tiger
SS-Unterscharfüher Georg Diers was a noncommissioned officer in the Waffen SS in 1945. With the war winding down, he found himself in command of Königstiger 314 with SS Panzerabteilung 503. Diers and his mates were tasked with the hopeless mission of defending Berlin against the inevitable Russian onslaught.
Georg Diers was born in 1921 in Niedersachsen, Germany. He originally worked on a farm but also trained as an apprentice butcher. In 1939, Diers volunteered for the Waffen-SS. He first saw combat with the Wiking Division on the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1942. He was badly wounded while fighting in Grozny.
From Farm Kid to Tank Man: How Diers Landed in a Königstiger
After an extensive convalescence, Diers was again ready for action in the summer of 1943. He was then assigned to III SS Panzer Korps under the command of Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner. In this capacity, Diers served in Yugoslavia fighting against Tito’s partisans. While in Yugoslavia, he was transferred to the Panzerwaffe. Georg Diers was now a tank man.
Diers completed training on the Königstiger in January of 1945. He immediately deployed to the Eastern Front as part of a massive force of forty-two Mk VII Tiger II tanks. Once there, they aggressively attacked, rupturing the Soviet lines.
Despite these local successes, German units found themselves in various stages of annihilation by April of 1945. Diers’ Tiger 314 and Königstiger 100 were therefore task organized as part of a Kampfgruppe alongside the 33rd SS Division Charlemagne. The 33rd SS was comprised of French expats fighting for the Nazi cause.
The war was clearly lost, and, thanks to some epically poor judgment, these unfortunate Frogs were royally screwed. They had clearly picked the wrong team. With little left to lose, the Charlemagne Division fought like lions. Curiously, these misguided Frenchmen found themselves at war’s end tasked with the defense of Berlin. Diers served under an SS battalion commander named SS Sturmbannführer Fritz Herzig.
Berlin 1945: A Hopeless Last Stand Inside a Steel Beast
Please cut me some slack on the details. Several sources disagreed on the particulars. It was a chaotic time.
The Königstiger was indeed a formidable weapon, but the Russians blanketed the area with a seemingly endless deluge of artillery shells. They also made widespread use of flamethrowers. These weapons took a toll on even the vaunted Tigers. However, despite these impediments, Diers and his wingman cut the attacking Russians to pieces.
Diers and his sister tank, Tiger 100, were directed to attack from Potsdamer Station to Anhalter Station, several blocks away in the heart of Berlin. These two massive German juggernauts engaged in a running fight with numerous Russian T34 and JS2 tanks. Tiger 100 was eventually shot to pieces and abandoned.
After a frenetic gun battle, Diers’ track and another tank regrouped at the Reich Chancellery. At 11 o’clock on 30 April, these two armored vehicles refueled and rearmed at Goebbels’ nearby villa in preparation for occupying battle positions near the Reichstag.
Over the course of about 45 minutes, Diers and his wingman engaged large numbers of Soviet tanks across the River Spree. Along the way, Diers’ Tiger took twelve hits to the turret, none of which penetrated. During the battle for Berlin, SS-Unterscharfüher Diers and his crew purportedly accounted for an extraordinary thirty-nine Soviet tanks destroyed.
Enraged Soviets were swarming into the city like ants. Diers engaged the massed infantry attacks with his machine guns and high-explosive rounds out of his long-barreled 88mm gun. His Tiger was subjected to suffocating artillery fire throughout this merciless fight. The incessant mind-numbing clanging inside the hull must have been unimaginable.
Diers’ two battered tanks were eventually directed to again regroup adjacent to the Reich Chancellery. By this point, Adolf Hitler was already dead. Protracted activity outside their tank was intolerably dangerous due to the overwhelming superiority of Soviet artillery.
Amidst the chaos, Diers was ordered to report directly to Joseph Goebbels himself. There, he supposedly found Martin Bormann along with Generals Burgdorf, Weidling, Krukenberg, and Mohnke. Goebbels briefed Diers on the latest battlefield developments and directed a breakthrough to the north. Hitler’s psychopathic propaganda minister killed himself soon thereafter.
From the vicinity of Weidendammer Bridge, Diers struck out northwards towards Oranienburg. With the war now lost, the ultimate objective was to surrender to British-Canadian forces in Schleswig-Holstein. Entering Soviet captivity was considered tantamount to suicide, particularly for an SS tank commander. No more than five tanks remained operational for this final desperate mission.
At midnight on 2 May, Diers and his small armored contingent attempted to break through Soviet lines. As soon as the Russians realized what they were doing, they cut loose with everything they had. It was only the legendary strength of their machine that allowed Diers and his men to prevail.
Eventually, Diers met Major-General Bärenfänger. Bärenfänger directed them along a new route designed to better facilitate their escape. However, after only about 100 meters, Tiger 314 ran over a German anti-tank mine. Diers reported to Bärenfänger that it would take about two hours to repair the damage. The Königstiger was indeed a rugged machine, but it could not shrug off a Teller mine to the tracks.
Realizing they did not have two hours to spend working on a wounded tank amidst such suffocating Russian artillery, Major-General Bärenfänger pragmatically directed Diers and his crew to blow up their Tiger and attempt a breakout on foot. They subsequently snatched up their personal weapons, destroyed the vehicle, and attempted to reach the British and Canadian lines.
Despite their best efforts, Diers was eventually captured by the Soviets. He was interrogated in the summer of 1945 outside Berlin before being shipped first to Moscow and then on to Minsk.
Diers spent most of the next five years in Soviet labor camps. At Christmas of 1949, the veteran SS tank man was finally repatriated to what was then West Germany. Once there, the commander of Germany’s last operational Tiger tank found work as a butcher.
After the Firestorm: What Became of Georg Diers
Georg Diers eventually built up his own company making and selling hot dogs. In 1983, he sold his business and retired. Afterwards, Diers settled down alongside his wife in his home village of Niedersachsen.
In retirement, Diers enjoyed hunting moose in northern Sweden alongside a Swedish Waffen SS veteran and friend named Ingmar Somberg. The two men hunted together well into the 1970s. He also made time to stalk big game in Africa as well. It was a curious end to the man who commanded Germany’s last operational Tiger tank.
Tiger I and Tiger II Specifications at a Glance
| Machine | Tiger I | Tiger II |
|---|---|---|
| Official Designation | Panzerkampfwagen VI | Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B |
| Origins / Introduction | Origins in the 1937-vintage Durchbruchwagen | Introduced in 1944 |
| Weight | sixty tons | 69 tons |
| Main Gun | KwK 36 L/56 88mm main gun | longer 88mm main gun |
| Top Speed | 28 mph on a smooth surface | about 25 mph on the road |
| Engine | Maybach HL 230 P30 V-12 petrol engine | Maybach HL 230 P30 V-12 petrol engine |
| Production / Service Total | 1,347 copies | 492 copies |
| Notable Characteristic | legendary armor protection | mechanical gremlins from the outset |
Pros and Cons of the Tiger II, According to History
- Pros: Crushing battlefield presence, tremendous armor protection, devastating 88mm gun, terrifying psychological effect, capable of surviving shocking punishment when everything worked.
- Cons: Mechanical unreliability, brutal fuel demands, enormous weight, vulnerable tracks, difficult logistics, and a habit of becoming a very expensive pillbox when something broke.