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Remembered Today:

chewing gum?


kebabking

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In a book I bought this afternoon (£1 Charity shop) The British Century / Brian Moynahan which is obviously not specific to WW1 but contains a chapter dedicated to it, it states when discussing trench raids;

"Patrols crawled beyond the parapets at night, to check on enemy positions; chewing gum was issued to stop the men from coughing."

??????

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!!!!!!!!!!

On the other hand, if you might be asking why it would be issued to men on a patrol, then it could be that the act of chewing would produce saliva in the otherwise dry mouths of scared young men, which would reduce coughing.

John

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!!!!!!!!!!

On the other hand, if you might be asking why it would be issued to men on a patrol, then it could be that the act of chewing would produce saliva in the otherwise dry mouths of scared young men, which would reduce coughing.

John

Was the concern of the men coughing that the enemy would hear them? I can't imagine it being that quiet!

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Was the concern of the men coughing that the enemy would hear them?

Yes.

The utmost quiet was needed if a raiding party was to get across No Man's Land and into the enemy trenches without being detected. Coughing would be almost an open invitation for enemy sentries and machine gunners to open up - effectively terminating the mission.

John

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just a thought at this unearthly hour - You would have thought that somewhere in war diaries/personal accounts or such like a mention would have been made of men chewing gum. Has anyone very heard of it before? Did we chew gum then? Did the Canadians bring it with them? :wacko:

stevem

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"...Did we chew gum then? Did the Canadians bring it with them?..."

I'm sure I've seen period British adverts for chewing gum (the introduction into the US has been credited to Santa Anna* in the mid 19th Century, plenty of time to make it across the Atlantic).

Tom t W

* Of 'the Texas Rebellion'/'Alamo' fame.

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I searched all posts on here for"chewing gum" but could only find one reference in context (the one from the rather dishy looking Major general )on June 20th 2004.

It just seems strange to me that a book not specifically about WW1 has space to refer to Chewing Gum when no other that I have read has even mentioned it.

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...ite=chewing+gum

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Commercially-made modern-style mint and flavoured chewing gum seems to have been a well-established product in the USA by 1914, so I would expect it to have crossed the Atlantic some decades before — most probably via seamen and dock workers.

Chewing gum is very compact, relatively stable against damage and deterioration, and easy to slip into odd spaces in a package — so if its use was at all widespread among British troops, you might expect to find soldiers asking for it in their letters home. It's also the sort of minor 'comfort', like cigarettes, soap or tooth powder, that voluntary organisations might dish out to men coming and going from the front line. But this might just be one of those questions, like the one posed a while ago about the prevalence of jazz music among the troops in WW1, where documentary evidence proves difficult to find.

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I do recall one reference to chewing gum. Years ago I read a soldier's account of his service - a junior officer I think - and I remember he said that at some point he had to parade his men before an American VIP visiting the front, and then talk to him afterwards.

The VIP asked if the men had enjoyed the Wrigley's chewing gum which had been donated by the Wrigley company. The officer had to make all the right "thank you" noises but actually knew nothing about it and wondered how many other things had been sent out to them only to vanish en route.

Tom

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I have never yet read anything about British tommies in WW1 using chewing gum! I had always assumed that it was brought over by the Americans from 1917 and then gradually increased in popularity over the next few decades. This was then followed by WW2 GIs based in Britain making it even more obtainable.

Are we now saying that chewing gum could be bought in Edwardian Britain?

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According to this website, http://www.paperlessarchives.com/wwi_newspapers.html the magazine Stars and Stripes boasted that Wrigley's Chewing Gum was a regular advertiser "even before American soldiers and sailors landed, the British, Canadian and French forces had adopted Wrigley's as their wartime sweetmeat" (May 10, 1918, p. 8, col. 5).

From http://www.candyfavorites.com/shop/catalog-gum-history.php

In 1893, the William Wrigley Company, based in Chicago, IL, introduced two new chewing gums, Juicy Fruits and Wrigley's Spearmint, which to this day, remain some of the best selling chewing gums in the world.....The industry, fiercely competitive, saw little change until 1914. That year, following the success of Juicy Fruit and Wrigley's Spearmint, the William Wrigley Jr. Company introduced Doublemint Gum.

See here also: http://www.ehs.org.uk/ehs/conference2004/assets/redclift.doc

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I searched all posts on here for"chewing gum" but could only find one reference in context (the one from the rather dishy looking Major general )on June 20th 2004.

Some mistake.

I've never posted about chewing gum.

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Unfortunately I can't give a source, but you might be able to track it down with the info given...

In WW2, US General Mark Clark went ashore prior to the US landings in Vichy North Africa as a negotiator. They were forced to hide at one point, and a soldier in the group began to cough. He was given a piece of chewing gum to stop it (see, it is relevant!). After chewing for some time, and danger having passed, he complained it had lost its flavour - to be told by the person who gave it to him that it was no wonder, he'd already chewed it for two hours!

Adrian

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There's one account i read recently when the soldiers about to go over the top were issued with chewing gum as it stopped their mouths from getting too dry. Not time to sip water when you're attacking! Prior to this i had never read any reference to it being issued at all! Maybe it wasnt as widespread as Wrigleys thought but it seems there definately was chewing gum around then in at least some parts of the front although maybe not on the Home Front. "Does your chewing gum lose it's flavour on the barbed wire post over night? " as the old song (didn't) goes.

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One of the Battalion histories of the Northamptonshire Regiment{6th Bn,IIRC,privately published},states that Gum was issued prior to the opening day of the Somme

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Chewing gum would certainly help to moisten a dry mouth, and also give a man something to do when he could do little else to try and stay calm and focused. Chewing gum is supposed to help you cope with fluctuations in atmospheric pressure, as in an aircraft — so perhaps it also helped men cope with the air pressure variations caused by exploding shells.

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This is an advert for Wrigleys Chewing Gum from the (Edmonton) Morning Bulletin in October, 1917. Notice the mention that "millions" of packages are sent to soldiers at the front every month. I do not yet know whether or not this means that there were promotions as with cigarettes.

Wrigleys was the major brand, but Adams also advertised on a weekly basis.

post-75-1182718441.jpg

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Re chewing gum: Comments about the Americans, who began to arrive at the front in some numbers in mid 1918, are made in Lt-Col GS Hutchison's "History And Memoir Of The 33rd Battalion Machine Gun Corps.." (published in 1919).

Amongst the things about these new arrivals that particularly struck him as novel were their "extremely tight uniforms", their way of speaking and, of at least one individual, a prowess at accurate spitting of tobacco juice. He also described how the first act of an American Captain, upon arrival, "was to unpeel before our eyes a cunningly twisted packet of chewing gum; and on noticing our admiring gaze as he capaciously took it between his jaws, his hand produced sundry other packets which he proceeded to hand round."

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In a letter I have written by my grandfather in September 1916 He thanks my grandmother for the "fags" but asks her to send him Wrigleys gum. He says it helps to moisten his mouth when they are in the trenches. At the end of the letter he again reminds her to send him the gum.

It was obviously more inportant than "fags"

Diane

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.. and towards the end of the month [september 1916] an issue of chewing gum was made, to give staying power in long marches or operations.

History of the 40th Division, - Whitton. - Gale & Polden - 1926- Page 39.

Once assembled, the troops were issued with bombs SAA flares, tools and with the chewing gum designed to ward of thirst during the advance. (Messines)

The History of the 11th [Lewisham Battalion, The Queen's Own RWKR, 1934 Russell, Lewisham News Page 118

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Further to what I wrote yesterday I have checked the two letters I have and in fact it was in the letter that my grandfather wrote to my grandmother on June 3rd 1916 that he mentions the gum and not the September one so even earlier. His exact words are :-

"I was glad you sent me some Wrigley's gum dear when you write me a letter send me some gum in it every time you send a letter open the packet of gum and put it in the letter you know what I mean. Dear I would rather have the gum than the fags as we get so dry and the gum keeps my mouth moist so everytime you write a letter send some in it old dear"

At the end of the letter he writes"If you think there is anything you would like me to me send it, don't forget so now you know what I mean don't forget the gum"

Hope this is of interest

Diane

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  • 15 years later...

A report compiled by Lieutenant Colonel E.A. Fagan into raids by the 1/8th (Irish) Battalion King’s Liverpool Regiment on the nights of 17 and 18 April 1916, filed in the WD of 164th Brigade, contains the following short paragraph:

Chewing Gum

This was found useful during a long wait, and prevented coughing, especially smoker’s cough.

As I had not previously come across any references to chewing gum in WW1, this led me to search the Forum, and I found two main threads, this one and https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/159496-chewing-gum/#comment-1544168 , plus several other references, including a post by @IRC Kevin https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/277132-after-action-reports-is-55th-division-unique/#comment-2825860 to the effect that General Jeudwine of the 55th Division (in which the 164th Brigade was) had included a favourable mention of “the efficacy of issuing chewing gum to those with serious nicotine habits as it helped reduce coughing” in an after-action reports on a daylight raid in June 1916, perhaps based on one of his chats with individual soldiers, and @Stebie9173’s quote from the Northamptonshires’ Regimental History describing an attack by the 2nd Northamptonshires and others on 4th March 1917 towards Bouchavesnes to the effect that “A feature of this attack was that chewing gum was issued to the troops, both to stop coughing during the preliminary wait and to give the men something to occupy their minds.https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/113098-2nd-bn-northamptonshire-regt/#comment-1077711

 

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