- A soldier’s sketch of British troops “brewing up” (making tea) on a fire of sand and petrol in the Libyan desert, 1940 to 1943
- A British soldier with the 2/7th Middlesex Regiment shares a cup of tea with an American infantryman in the Anzio bridgehead, Feb. 10, 1944
- The British Army in Normandy 1944 – Tea is being served to German prisoners in the Falaise pocket, Aug. 22, 1944.
Tea was important to the British soldiers. One good reason was because water was transported to the front lines mostly in old oil cans, so to mask the flavor, soldiers would drink tea instead.
To make the tea, soldiers would build a stove (Benghazi burner) from a four-gallon empty steel fuel can . The top side of the can was pierced to allow oxygen and the bottom half was filled with sand. Then gasoline would be poured onto the sand, which was stirred and finally ignited. a second can of the same size was placed on top to be used as a cooking vessel. Occasionally the hot sand would explode when lit or it would burn the petrol too quickly, making it fairly unpredictable.
An interesting story ...
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/06/02/during-wwii-the-british-government-bought-the-worlds-entire-supply-of-tea/
