Before Einstein and Oppenheimer started working with uranium on the Manhattanville project in 1939, the U.S. government had already approached a different company with a different chemical challenge. In 1937, Captain Paul P. Logan, of the Quartermaster Corps in Washington, traveled to Hershey, Pennsylvania, to meet with the Hershey Chocolate Corporation’s president William Murrie and its head chemist Samuel Hinkle. The group talked about preliminary experimentation to create a chocolate bar that could be used as an emergency ration by stranded troops and those on the front lines.
During this pre-war period, the federal government restricted the amount of sugar that companies used to make products for the civilian community. However, sugar used to fulfill government contracts remained unrestricted. Therefore, while the Hershey Corporation was unable to meet the domestic demand for chocolate, accepting government contracts was a loophole that it could exploit in order to continue producing large quantities of chocolate products. Hershey therefore accepted the government’s challenge to develop a ration chocolate bar.
Hinkle, who had been at Hershey since 1924 creating brand classics such as Krakle, Quick Mix, and Mr. Goodbar, took the lead on this assignment. He later commented that the project, which took place in the laboratory on the second floor of the Hershey engineering building, “wasn’t any great task.”1 Captain Logan had requested that Hinkle create a chocolate bar that tasted “about like a boiled potato” so that soldiers would only use it in emergency situations. 2 What resulted was a product called the Field Ration D Bar, which Hinkle later described as “pretty tough to take because we didn’t use too much sugar.”3
*
In 1943, the Procurement Division of the United States Army once again turned to the Hershey Corporation with a challenge. This time, instead of creating a rather tough tasting product, the goal was to make a confectionery chocolate bar as a treat for soldiers fighting in places where the company’s existing chocolate products would quickly melt. What Hinkle and his team created was a bar that he said “would withstand the heat of the tropics and the cold of the Arctic.”4 It could keep “its shape after one hour in 120 degrees Fahrenheit.”5
Named Hershey’s Tropical Chocolate, this bar was meant to boost morale among soldiers and was certainly more of a treat than the Field Ration D Bars. As Hinkle later explained, “the demand for chocolate… almost seems to grow somehow in intense times. In wartime there’s a great demand for sweets and for chocolate, especially a nourishing product like milk chocolate.”6 The Tropical Chocolate Bar filled this psychological need for soldiers as they fought in some of the most intense conditions.
*
The Tropical Bar was made out of chocolate liquor, skim milk powder, cocoa butter, powdered sugar, vanillin, Vitamin B-1, and oat flour.7 Although this bar was more flavorful than the Field Ration D Bar, its ingredients show that it, like the Field Ration D Bar, served a function beyond taste. Specific directions that the Army gave to the Hershey Corporation highlight how important is was that the bars also provide other functional benefits.
Ingredient specifications from that Army were very detailed. In making the Field Ration D Bars the “army called for 160 parts plain chocolate adjusted to 54 percent [cocoa] fat, 160 parts sucrose, 70 parts milk, 30 parts added [cocoa] fat, 20 parts raw oat flour, ½ part vanillin crystals, and thiamin hydrochloride at the equivalent of 333,000 international units per gram.”8 Similar ingredients were used to create the Tropical Bar. One ingredient that both bars shared was Vitamin B-1 (found in the Tropical Bar) and thiamin hydrochloride, a source of Vitamin B-1 (found in the Field Ration D Bar). This particular ingredient shows the Tropical Bar’s multi-functionality because it prevented beriberi, a disease that threatened soldiers in the tropics. The purpose of the Tropical Bar is plainly outlined in a 1944 pamphlet published by Hershey: “High in food energy value, this item is being produced in response to the requests of our boys for the kind of chocolate they knew at home.”9 The Tropical Bar therefore met the taste preferences of the soldiers and the functionality purposes demanded by the Army.
*
The Tropical Bars came in two different sizes: 1-ounce bars and 2-ounce bars. The bars were packaged in a type of glassine paper, which is very thin and is air- and water-resistant. All of the text and coloring was either white and or tan and was “printed with brown ink with the exception of the word ‘Tropical.’”10 “Tropical” was printed in red on the 2-ounce bars and in blue on the 1-ounce bars.
In addition to the Ration D Bars and the Tropical Bars, Hershey also made a number of other wartime products. These included the chocolate components of the U.S. Army Field Ration K packages and the 10 in 1 Ration packages.11 Hershey chocolates were also included in the Aircraft Snack Ration, which provided “extra energy on long flying missions,” the U.S. Navy Life Raft Emergency Ration, which “was developed to sustain life in case of shipwreck,” the Emergency Accessory Kit, which was “prepared for front line use, and the Prisoner of War Package, which was “a gift of the American Red Cross [that was] regularly supplied to those of [the] fighting forces who [had] fallen into enemy hands.”12 Also, the soldier favorite Cocoa Beverage Powder was included in the Field Ration C packages and Hershey’s Breakfast Cocoa was “widely used by all branches of the service.”13 Hershey’s Chocolate Flavored Syrup was also a “favorite in the Ships Service Stores of the Navy, and [was] also supplied for Army and Navy messes and Post Exchanges.”14 Finally, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, Almond Milk Chocolate, and Bittersweet Chocolate, which was “familiar to everyone in [times] of peace,” were “in even greater demand [during] wartime.”15
*
Meeting production demands for the government contracts was a massive undertaking for Hershey. During its first production of Ration D Bars before the war in 1937, Hershey’s made 100,000 bars by hand.16
During the war this handmade production was too slow. New machinery was needed, and with government contracts that allowed the company to “secure high priorities for special machinery and materials,” Hershey transformed into an assembly-line type factory.17 For factory workers this change was not easy. Rose Gasper, a factory worker with Hershey for 50 years, said, “That was a terrible job, because it seemed that the bars would never come out of the molds right, and you had to keep hammering and hammering.”18
Nonetheless, Hershey produced incredible amounts of product for the military. At its peak, in 1945, Hershey had committed three floors of factory space to wartimE production and had weekly outputs of approximately 24 million units of all kinds of chocolate products for military rations, kits and treats.19 Three work shifts kept the factory open 24 hours 7 days a week “producing approximately half a million bars per shift.”20
The Tropical Bar was the most produced out of all of the wartime products. It is estimated that 380 million of these bars were produced while 40.2 million Field Ration D Bars were made.21
*
For its outstanding wartime efforts Hershey Chocolate Corporation received numerous awards from the Army. The first award presented to Hershey’s was the prestigious Army-Navy ‘E’ Production Award, given to companies during WWII for excellence in the production of war-related products. Award winning companies received a flag to fly over their factory, and the factory workers were also given an emblem, which came with a message signed by President Roosevelt that read: “An Army-Navy Production Award emblem is a symbol of outstanding service in the greatest production force in the world today – a united and free army of American workers.” 22
Throughout the war, Hershey’s received a total of five Army-Navy ‘E’ Awards in recognition of its efforts. On August 22, 1942 the first award ceremony honoring the Hershey Corporation took place to recognize the company for its production of the Ration D Bars. At the ceremony, Major General Edmond B. Gregory noted the company’s achievements stating, “The men and women of Hershey Chocolate Corporation have every reason to be proud of their great work in backing up our soldiers on the fighting fronts.”23
- Hinkle, S. (1975, June 30). Interview by K. Bowers. Oral history interview
with Samuel Hinkle. Retrieved from http://media.hersheyarchives.org/oralhistory/Hinkle_91OH01.pdf. - Hinkle, S. (1975, June 30). Interview by K. Bowers. Oral history interview
with Samuel Hinkle. Retrieved from
http://media.hersheyarchives.org/oralhistory/Hinkle_91OH01.pdf. - Hinkle, S. (1975, June 30). Interview by K. Bowers. Oral history interview
with Samuel Hinkle. Retrieved from
http://media.hersheyarchives.org/oralhistory/Hinkle_91OH01.pdf. - Hinkle, S. (1975, June 30). Interview by K. Bowers. Oral history interview
with Samuel Hinkle. Retrieved from
http://media.hersheyarchives.org/oralhistory/Hinkle_91OH01.pdf. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hinkle, S. (1975, June 30). Interview by K. Bowers. Oral history interview
with Samuel Hinkle. Retrieved from
http://media.hersheyarchives.org/oralhistory/Hinkle_91OH01.pdf. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hostetter, C. J. (2004). Sugar allies: How Hershey and Coca-Cola used
government contracts and sugar exemptions to elude sugar rationing regulations. (Unpublished master’s thesis, Graduate School of the University of Maryland) Retrieved from
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/235/1/umi-umd-1341.pdf. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hostetter, C. J. (2004). Sugar allies: How Hershey and Coca-Cola used
government contracts and sugar exemptions to elude sugar rationing regulations. (Unpublished master’s thesis, Graduate School of the University of Maryland) Retrieved from
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/235/1/umi-umd-1341.pdf. - Hostetter, C. J. (2004). Sugar allies: How Hershey and Coca-Cola used
government contracts and sugar exemptions to elude sugar rationing regulations. (Unpublished master’s thesis, Graduate School of the University of Maryland) Retrieved from
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/235/1/umi-umd-1341.pdf. - Burger, T. W. (2007, February). Chocolate! the wars secret weapon. America in
WWII, Retrieved from http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/chocolate-the-wars-secret-weapon/. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org. - Hostetter, C. J. (2004). Sugar allies: How Hershey and Coca-Cola used
government contracts and sugar exemptions to elude sugar rationing regulations. (Unpublished master’s thesis, Graduate School of the University of Maryland) Retrieved from
http://drum.lib.umd.edu/bitstream/1903/235/1/umi-umd-1341.pdf. - Burger, T. W. (2007, February). Chocolate! the wars secret weapon. America in
WWII, Retrieved from http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/chocolate-the-wars-secret-weapon/. - icollector.com. (2010, February 28). Army-Navy Production Award emblem on attached
card signed by F.D.R [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://www.icollector.com/1425-Army-Navy-
Production-Award-emblem-on-attached-card-signed-by-F-D-R_i9266991. - Hershey Community Archives. Retrieved from
http://www.hersheyarchives.org.