The German field kitchen (Gulaschkanone) was like everything associated with the Wehrmacht carefully studied and thought out.
The objective was to ensure that every German soldier got at least one hot meal every day. The German Gulaschkanone or field kitchen was an efficient means of providing large quantities of nourishing hot meals using the minimum of resources.
Gulaschkanone is a nickname popular with the troops. It as a compound word. Such words are very common in German. "Gulasch" = "Goulash" in English, a Hungarian meat meal with smaller parts of meat in sauce, often called a stew in America. "Kanone" = "cannon" in English comes from the "stovepipe" which is a characteristic feature and looks rather like a cannon.
Meal menus regularly included both potato soup and pea and ham soup as well as all sorts of stews. Meals were accompanied by bread or biscuit ration. The Germans set up a food system that when the campaigns were going right ensured that the soldiers were well fed. The daily ration for each German soldier was determined by OKW, taking into account the soldier's assignment and theater of operations.
