‘I do feel good because my stomach is full of good hotcakes’: Comfort Food, Home and the USAAF in East Anglia during the Second World War

Abstract

This article analyses the important role that food played in providing 'comfort' to the service personnel of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) serving in East Anglia during the Second World War. Current theories on comfort food will be discussed before an examination of letters, diaries, and memoirs held by the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library (2ADML), Norwich, UK. It is clear that food played an important role in maintaining morale. Certain foods had the ability to evoke nostalgic thoughts of home. Not only did the food provide solace, it also reminded the troops of what they were fighting for. This article also demonstrates that USAAF personnel in East Anglia had a wide selection of foods from which they could gain comfort. I The link between the armed forces and food during the Second World War was a fundamental one: without access to sustenance, no military unit could hope to prevail against an enemy. To ensure troops were at their peak physical and mental performance, it was essential that they were supplied with a sufficient quantity of food and water. 1 But supply and quantity were not everything: combat effectiveness was also affected by the quality and nature of the food, with the commander of the British Army's 16th Infantry Brigade, Brigadier Bernard Fergusson, arguing that 'lack of food constitute[d] the single biggest assault upon