What did officers eat for lunch?
 

Some of my earliest proper memories are of my dad attaching collars to his RAF shirts after towelling condensation from the bedroom windows before heading off to work, leaving an aroma of grilled breakfast kippers in his wake. This may not actually have been all that regular, but to a 6 year-old in the early ’70s, it’s the apparent daily truth.

So if officers ate kippers for breakfast in 1970, what did they do for lunch? I don’t suppose they nipped out for a Pret, and I don’t recall a Gregg’s in Coningsby or even Tattershall during my teens, so what did they do for lunch in those days. And if it’s not impertinent, what do they do nowadays?

Same as they did for dinner.

Every now and then they tried food. And I don't think these days many people have tried impertinent for lunch...

Lunch in the 70s? Flying later, steak and chips aircrew feeder. Not flying later: pie and pint officer’s mess. Really!

Salute!

Well, for lunch, try "Joe's sloppy" as our Thai servers said in 60's and 70's. Or Cheeseburgers except when cheese was scarce, then it was " hambuger hab, cheebuger no hab".

Dinner at Korat Club was awesome, and one night each week we had "Mongolian BBQ" where a local would get what looked like manhole covers up to a thousand degrees and we could go around and provide the cook our collection of various meats and veggies for a quick. sizzling dinner.

Sorry if I regress to Yank eateries of a long time ago, and never really ate at a RAF mess.

Gums sends...

Usually lunch was something from the travelling Roach Coach (or Chew and Spew), such as a ham'n'salad sandwich or a rat coffin (meat pie). Very occasionally go to the mess for a Blunties' Lunch, 3-course meal, no booze though. The Blunties could drink if they wanted, as all they did was sit on their blunt backsides and think up ways to make a pilot's life more difficult.

I remember once being detached to RAE Farnborough about 1981/82. At dinner one weekday evening the mess steward asked me if I was staying for the weekend (I was) and if so, what would I like for my Sunday lunch. I aasked him what was on the menu and he replied that it was anything they had in the kitchen. So I went for the traditional Roast beef, yorkshire pudding etc. I seem to recall the chef also made an excellent rhubarb crumble with custard for dessert.

Happy days.

Timelord, spot on, but occasionally to the H&J to be well looked after by Lou.

I'd hate to think standards were slipping.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....576099010d.jpg

Absolutely, if you weren't flying the junior officers snooker club used to convene at 1100 in the Mess prior to a couple of pints and a pie at lunchtime then back to the crewroom for a game of Uckers! Career officers would make sure that the Flt Cdr had seen them in the Sqn with a file under their arm before the 1100 meeting ;-)

The cardboard box that held the in-flight meal. It was more nutritious than the contents.

Officers took luncheon, not lunch, while other ranks had dinner. After luncheon, a competent NCO took my lab for a walk while I played polo......

My 1st tour as a shift-working ATCO at Strubby, lunch in the Mess at Manby was not an option. The shift pattern in the GCA truck meant I had to go to work before lunch started, or return after lunch had finished. However, 2 meals a day is quite sufficient, and to this day I don't eat lunch. :cool:

Teufelsburg, Berlin - early 1980s. 26 SU shared top of a rubble mountain with the US military . Catering supplied by US Army - not renowned for Michelin-starred cuisine. One lunchtime, stood in queue at servery, wondering which delicacy should grace OB's lips. One item was colloquially known as "Sh*t on a Shingle", which was largely minced beef (?) on a hamburger bun. When my turn came, I asked whether I could have the beef, but not the bun. Locally employed Turkish man behind the counter says no. Menu item is beef on bun, so cannot have one without the other. Me - "But I don't want the bun, it will be wasted". Him - "No bun, no beef". Helpful american next in queue - "I'll have his bun". Him - "No way. Menu says beef on bun. You can't have 2 buns". End of conversation. Beef taken with bun, passed to american once we were out of sight of Him. Allied cooperation in action.
Once a year the RAF and Army chefs would take over the US catering facility on one day for lunch and produce the best of British cooking for both UK and US. Most popular day of the year - US military who were off-shift or even on local leave would flood the place to ear "proper".

One of my earliest memories was of RAF Thorney Island when we had our ULAS Summer Camp there in 1970. Normally we would have a packed lunch in the crewroom, but one one occasion a couple of us went to the Officers' Mess for a proper luncheon...

It was magnificent! A white coated chef carved ham off the bone with a sideboard groaning with all kinds of salad, new potatoes etc. Those who chose from the menu were served by mess stewards; the whole experience was very upmarket, but was probably at the end of traditional mess dining as Military Salary kicked in.

Roll forward 20 odd years and my lunch as a ULAS QFI was often 2 x small pork pies and a couple of tomatoes 'on the hoof' between trips.

Ah Beagle, I seem to remember @ St Athan as a UWAS cadet that lunch was a waitress affair and orders taken by them most meticulously.
I can remember going to Locking once and eating in the airmens mess, where the food was rather good.
I was on a trip out of Lossie on a detachment, the aircrew were supplied with 2 platters of lunchtime sandwiches, which were so delicious and apparently not the norm,
that the Nav wrote to the catering bod there to thank them.
Whatever lunch was @ St Athan it must have been good, as several of us snoozed in the ante room afterwards and occasionally missed transport back to the squadron.

Odihams airmans mess in the 70's was pretty poor, but somehow chucking them in a field kitchen in the back of beyond, the food was superb. I could never figure that.

One thing post RAF I couldn't face steak for years as in the RAF you could have it for breakfast, luncheon and dinner at Brize due to the 24 hour messing.. It was also mixed ranks messing, as night shifts would all eat in the airmans mess.

Even in the early 1970s at our wooden hutted Officers' Mess at White Waltham, food orders were taken by waitresses and served at the table. Haraka will doubtless recall one of these 'ladies' who, it is alleged, was wont to 'entertain' construction workers who were extending the M4 nearby...

The standard of food wasn't particularly good though. 'Beefbrugers' (sic) featured often but how much was actually beef was open to doubt. There was also the mysterious 'flying centipede' - chicken which had lots of gristly legs and wings, but no breast...

Probably a relation of the Ethiopian Chicken legs that used to frequent Odiham butty boxes in the 70's

Steak was one of the things we cadets would pilfer ( I am ashamed to say) from the OM kitchen for a late night nibble.
We used to chuck into the microwave,which were fairly new then, 5 mins and it was done.
Didn't taste that good, but did the job.
We once got caught by a RM Major and a couple of Naval Lieutenants, who were on a driving course ( yes driving. St Athan did a lot of service driving instruction).
We were let off providing we supplied them each with a steak, which we did.
It all ended soon after when a W/C Engineering was told there was no steak, again, for lunch.
The OM mess kitchen door was then locked permanently, so we broke in through the roof.
Only did that once, then they put a huge chain and padlock on the fridge!.

I do remember that the bar was always open.

***Thread Drift***

Reminds me of one of my late father's stories; as recently arrived young man at a shore establishment shortly after the end of WW2, a few weeks in he noticed his portions had suddenly increased, on enquiring he was told until they had seen his medal ribbons they didn't realise he was a 'real sailor'. Clearly the cooks were prejudiced against national servicemen.

Fillet of swan (in season, of course) or osprey nuggets.

In my Army, Officers ate after the Troops and got exactly the same fare as the Troops.

Whenever we differed from that we saw leadership problems.

Often times the supported unit cooks would send out hot meals to the helicopter crews... and as the standard Huey crew was four people and the Chinook standard crew was five people....it was not unusual to only get four hot meals and I always ate canned C Rations while my crew got the Hot Meals.

I believe in leading by example....and living up to admonition an Officer looks out for the welfare of his assigned Troops.

if you think yourself above eating with your troops....you are not much of a Leader and become a mere commander in an empty suit.

Exactly so SASless. Like the old cavalry order of priorities: "Horse to bed; man to bed; self to bed". Substitute airframe for horse and it still worked for me - and I hope still does......

When NCO aircrew allowances were dropped to 75% of the officer rate, a Herc crew took the Station Commander flying. The predictable S1 boxes were handed out, then there was an explosion of outrage from the Stn Cdr "Someone has already eaten some of this!".

But in fact every item had been trimmed to 75% of the normal size! "Sorry Sir", said the ALM, "That's an NCO's box!".

Point made and IIRC, things soon returned to normal!

Rather like the Akrotiri racing chicken!

One twist that Harrier Force RICs did on deployment in RAFG was to make the Site caterers Honorary RIC members. We helped them put their tents up etc.etc.
They then joined us in the evenings as active participants in our "self-catering "parties ....... :) :)
Going back to Beags's reminiscences of our ULAS days.
Same lady serving was queried as to why our mutual mate''s "Apple Surprise " looked a bit odd ( no Apple visible) . Apparently it had been wrongly served as the alternative '"Apple Pie." on the menu.. It came back ,dutifully rectified, from the kitchen......Slight apple discolouration , buried in the pastry but served the other way up........

Lunch?
In the increasing earnest 1990s, several Messes in which this civilian lived were nearly deserted at lunch time, because more and more people [blunties if you like] "worked through". Afternoon tea was often the first meal since 0700, and very good too. A lot of people ate 0700, 1630 something on toast and a fancy cake, and dinner as late as possible. That way people could be working 0800 to 1600, and 1730 to 1930, which latter period was mercifully untroubled by silly interruptions.

Seen from the other end of the telescope in my youth, the aroma coming from the aircrew feeder as I walked through the dusk to brief the 1000 bomber raids was very very appetising ...... I would have been on shift for about 7 hours on a "snap tin" and coffee/ tea.

Now I have made myself hungry. Steak, chips, onions, peas and a pint of best bitter please.

Brawdy aircrew feeder early 80's pies, puds, steaks and fry ups. Important to keep the blood sugar level up.

I remember the V Force had pre and post flight meals - presumably organised originally by one of Bing Cross's minions. What the rules didn't seem to specify was 'when'. 'Off route' you could dine post flight at any time. I remember having a post flight in downtown San Francisco, Honolulu and more mundane places (then) such as Dubai,Rule one was don't put any booze on it. I've dined, courtesy of a grateful nation, in many exotic spots gratis !

Barksdale Boy,
Sometimes at H&J looked after by Lou, sometimes at H&J left with keys to lock up while Lou went for a "kip"! That was V-force 69-71 at one certain station! Earlier days (late 50's to 60's) while on fast (?) jets and QFI'ing I think I remember lunch in OM was not that well attended by us aircrew, mainly as you had to change from flying suit to working blue to go to the Mess! OK on "black flag" days (with odd pint!) but otherwise often relied on NAAFI wagon or wife! Hope memory is still reasonable!!
Bill

The last working day before Christmas Air Staff Breakfast at JHQ was, for many, lunch as well. Excellent food, such as scrambled egg with huge chunks of salmon [I think the German is Ratsherren?] and rather a lot of fizz which was not necessarily adulterated with orange. The survivors crawled into "work" for a few hours. Fortunately my UK boss had preceded me in RAFG so knew the score and troubled me not.

I have not had my steak yet .............

Remember Aberporth?
They must have got extra rations in when we showed up for the weekend!

I was at RAF Brawdy when they opened that little feeder in 1976. Brilliant place - and you could get a real Strammer Max with chips for a very reasonable price!

Lots of amusement here, especially the centipede :) . You poor chaps.

Mr WHBM Senior, navigator, RAF Topcliffe, snowy winter 1942, on Halifaxes. Apparently notwithstanding national shortages outside, things for aircrew were maintained notably well. About 2 miles outside the village, but the paper boy from the village shop would bicycle out on the icy lanes each early morning before school with their newspapers. The men, of course, appreciating this, rather took him under their wing. "Would you like to come in past the gate for some bacon and eggs in our mess before going on", along with putting him and bike into base transport to go back along the ice to the village. All irregular, but what the hell. Until one morning when suddenly an unusually early Op was announced. When this was done base was locked in sterile to stop any news of what was going on leaking out. With the paper boy in the mess. A decision for the CO, who happened to be passing. An exception was made ...

Ah the Brawdy aircrew feeder...:ok:

Must admit I mostly remember (late 70s and the 80s, FJ and QFIing ) it being almost always along the lines Beagle describes - flying through lunchtime, food was a case of grabbing a self produced sandwich between debriefs/between debrief and Authorising or duty dog in the tower.

The Finningley Aircrew Feeder in the 80's/90's was quite acceptable to me. Always very busy and the quality of the food was perfectlty ok. Or am I looking back through rose tinted glasses?

Cranwell lunch in the late 50s included a separate fish course. so a free four course meal. Then another for dinner.

No, you are not. Finningly feeder was excellent, especially breakfast following an 0600 met brief and an 0615 scrub.