From the S&S archives:
Vets from Rommel's command testify desert never changes

PIRMASENS, Germany — Swarms of insects and scalding desert temperatures aren't new problems for the U.S. Army. Nearly 50 years ago, U.S. troops, along with German and British soldiers, faced the same heat, sand and bugs that Operation Desert Shield troops are facing today.

At a recent meeting of the Pirmasens Africa Corps Association, more than a dozen former members of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's famed command offered advice and anecdotes for the American troops in Saudi Arabia.

"Sanitation is going to be a big problem," said Karl Brill, who was assigned to the 33rd Panzer Reconnaissance Unit from 1941 to 1943. The soldiers should work hard to maintain sanitary conditions to prevent illness, Brill said.

Several of the soldiers related tales of severe bouts of diarrhea and dysentery caused by unsanitary conditions, bad water and spoiled food. During the first year in Africa, German soldiers who became sick were evacuated to cooler climates, said Frank Miccio, an American member of the association, who qualified for membership because his American unit took part in the African campaign. Soldiers who became sick later, remained in Africa, he added.

Drinking plenty of water is the key to staying healthy in the desert, said Rolf Landau, who was assigned to Panzer Regiment 8 of the 15th Panzer Div. The German troops were provided with only one liter of water each day, according to Landau, or half what each soldier needed to survive. To make up the deficit, Rommel told his army to steal the supplies they needed from the British army.

Water and other beverages weren't the only supplies the Germans acquired from the British. Herbert Schumacher, from Panzer Arty Regt 15, proudly showed photographs of a British cookstove he and his fellow soldiers had "appropriated" from a British unit and raved about the food delicacies they "picked up" along the way. Favorites of the German soldiers. were small peeled potatoes packed in cans of water and tins of milk.

Occasionally, German units bought white bread from the Arabs to replace the hard, moldy black bread in their rations, Miccio said. German rations also included dried fruits, dried vegetables, cheese in tubes and a canned meat. The meat was a combination of beef and mule meat and the cans were labeled with the letters "AM," which the soldiers jokingly called "alt Mann," or "old man."

German rations were wrapped in foil and spoiled soon after they were unwrapped. British rations were prized because they came in tins and stayed fresh.

As today's troops are discovering, whatever the rations and whatever the army, desert flies are a plague.

"You had to pick the flies off as you were putting the food in your mouth," Miccio said, while the others nodded in agreement.

In the middle of nowhere, with no one in sight, there were always flies.