A typical Hershey’s chocolate bar, pictured above, is 210 calories — and mostly empty ones at that. Hershey bars are a treat, no doubt about it, and few people if any would think otherwise. And if you were an American soldier during World War II, finding a chocolate bar in your rations would probably be cause for a minor celebration — a bit of tastebuds-driven escapism from the theater of war. Until you tried to bite into it, at least. Then you realized that war could even make chocolate taste terrible.

In 1937, a colonel in the Quartermaster’s Corp named Paul Logan approached the Hershey Corporation with a strange request — a specially-formulated chocolate bar for the troops. But beyond the brand and the “chocolate” moniker, Logan’s request and the tasty confection pictured above had very little in common. Logan wanted four-ounce (112 g) bars which had 600 calories and, most importantly, could withstand very high temperatures — 120 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 49 degrees Celsius) or more. The reason: as a Quartermaster, it was his unit’s job to find appropriate food and sustenance for troops, and he needed something that could serve as an emergency ration. A soldier carrying three of Colonel Logan’s chocolate bars, called “D Rations,” would have an easy way to get the suggested 1,800 calories even in emergency situations.

Read the article “The Wartime Chocolate Bar You Don’t Want to Eat” on nowiknow.com.