Tag #156904 - Interview #78231 (yakov voloshyn)

There was a mobile kitchen in every unit: two huge tubs on wheels. Those kitchen facilities were moved with horses, tractors or tanks. There were regular food supplies, but in winter there were delays. Those kitchen facilities failed to catch up with us at times and occasionally the only food we had was moldy dry bread. Although they say salt is not good; it was impossible to eat food without salt. Our cooks boiled pork or horsemeat. Colt meat was good if properly cooked. However, much depended on the cooks. We didn't always get bread, salt or tobacco. Lack of tobacco was more painful than lack of bread.

There were a few girls in our regiment: radio operators and nurses. They received chocolate and the girls who smoked used to exchange their chocolate for tobacco. When we had no tobacco supplies we smoked horse manure. We dried and smoked it. We had horses and there was no lack of manure. We exchanged it for things in a neighboring unit. This was our currency: a bobbin of cable for two buckets of manure. At times there was poor insulation on cables. It is important for the quality of communication: with poor insulation the current flows into the ground. Once we got lucky: we discovered huge three-meter high bobbins of German barbed wire. We used this wire throughout the winter. The current didn't flow into frozen ground though there was no insulation on the wire. This wire was also tough and didn't tear easily.