Coca-Cola And Ice Cream: The American Taste Of Home In Wartime Calcutta

For an American serviceman stationed thousands of miles from home during the Second World War, a bottle of Coca-Cola could be more than a soft drink. In 1941, Coca-Cola president Robert Woodruff pledged that every man in uniform should be able to get a bottle for five cents, “wherever he is and whatever it costs the Company.” As the war expanded, that promise became part of an extraordinary military supply operation. Coca-Cola employees travelled with U.S. forces, bottling equipment was moved overseas, and the Army’s Post Exchange system distributed the drink to servicemen. In India, shortages of glass bottles eventually led to an “honour system,” under which each U.S. service member was entitled to one bottle of Coca-Cola a day. By the beginning of 1944, Coca-Cola’s wartime bottling network in India included facilities in Calcutta, Delhi, Chabua and Ledo in Assam.

Calcutta became an important part of this effort because the city was a major American military base and supply centre in the China-Burma-India theatre. The intention was not simply to sell American products in India. Coca-Cola was supplied through a military system designed to provide American troops with familiar foods and drinks while they were stationed overseas. Ice cream was treated in much the same way, although its story was governed less by a branded corporate network than by the Army’s growing refrigeration and food-distribution infrastructure. Wartime records show that, by 1944, General Depot No. 2 in Calcutta was adding ice cream to the food supplied to American troops and shipping frozen meat and ice cream to forward areas.

Coca-Cola Was A Military Supply Before It Became An Indian Market

Coca-Cola had already become closely associated with American soldiers before the United States entered the Second World War. The company’s 1941 pledge formalised that relationship, while a June 1943 request from General Dwight D. Eisenhower demonstrated how seriously the American military regarded the drink as a supply requirement. Eisenhower asked Coca-Cola for three million filled bottles and equipment for ten bottling plants, along with the materials needed to produce six million additional bottles a month. Within six months, the first of these plants was operating in North Africa, and the wartime system eventually grew to 64 overseas plants. More than five billion bottles were consumed by military personnel during the war, according to Coca-Cola’s own historical records.

The plants were not simply commercial bottling facilities transplanted overseas. Coca-Cola employees were given the military designation of Technical Observers and worked alongside the Army to establish and maintain production close to where American troops were stationed. Their work could involve converting existing food and drink factories, using mobile bottling equipment, finding materials locally and coordinating with Army personnel. Soldiers nicknamed these company representatives “Coca-Cola Colonels.” In the China-Burma-India theatre, the Army Exchange Service worked with Coca-Cola in 1944 to bring modern bottling equipment to the region because local soft-drink bottlers could not always meet the Army’s requirements.

Calcutta was part of this network. A 1945 India-Burma Theatre Roundup report said that a bottling plant in downtown New Delhi was already operating and that another in Calcutta was due to begin producing Coca-Cola that year. Syrup, carbon dioxide and the distinctive Coca-Cola bottles were being shipped from the United States, while technical specialists from the company were brought to India to install and supervise the equipment. A December 1944 military newspaper had similarly reported plans for six plants in eastern India.

Calcutta saw two Coca-Cola plants, one in Kidderpore and another in central Calcutta. An American ice-cream plant was also established in the area that is now Chandni Chowk Market.

Ice Cream Needed A Cold Chain Of Its Own

The Army’s ice-cream story was less about one branded product than about the practical problem of keeping frozen food available in a tropical war area. In September 1944, The Command Post, the newspaper of the U.S. Army’s Base Section 2 headquarters, described General Depot No. 2’s plan to provide American troops in India with more fresh and “home-grown” foods. Fresh eggs, fruit, vegetables and ice cream had been added to the supply by then. The depot’s subsistence officers described American troops in India as among the best-fed American forces in any theatre.

The following month, General Joseph Stilwell commended General Depot No. 2 for shipping frozen meat and ice cream to troops in forward areas. The wartime newspaper specifically credited Sgt Charles D. Baker with ice-cream production and packing and identified other officers and men responsible for obtaining facilities, administrative work and transport co-ordination. The scale of the operation became clearer in an April 1945 India-Burma Theatre Roundup report. It described an Army cold-storage warehouse in Calcutta where thousands of tons of frozen beef, chicken, and ice cream were stored for troops in both the city and forward areas. Workers inside the refrigeration plant dealt with temperatures between 10 and 16 degrees below zero, while temperatures outside approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

A month later, the logistics extended almost 1,000 miles beyond Calcutta. A United Press report dated May 31, 1945, described a shipment of frozen chicken and ice cream flown from Calcutta to Myitkyina in northern Burma. It was the first fresh chicken and ice cream some troops there had eaten during their long campaign. Lieutenant Colonel A. M. O’Dell, commander of General Depot No. 2 in Calcutta, had developed the programme for moving frozen foods by aircraft and rail.

From A GI Comfort To A Calcutta Taste

Coca-Cola and ice cream occupied a particular place within this military system because they were recognisably American comforts rather than merely nutritional necessities. The Army Exchange Service already treated ice cream and soft drinks as standard PX goods in the United States, alongside sweets, newspapers and other recreational supplies. When the exchange system expanded overseas, these products travelled with it. By the summer of 1944, the Army Exchange Service had arranged with Coca-Cola to send modern equipment to the China-Burma-India theatre, where new soft-drink plants were established across the region.

“Calcutta Key,” a guide issued to American military personnel stationed in the city, shows how this supply system intersected with the city’s existing food and leisure landscape. Its advice to servicemen was practical and sometimes blunt. Under “Let’s Eat,” it acknowledged that Calcutta had “some fairly glamorous looking and tasting dishes” but warned that the food was not considered to be at its pre-war standard. American servicemen were encouraged to sample Indian and Chinese food before returning to what the guide called the “good old American style of cooking”. It listed establishments including Christie’s on Park Street, Firpo’s on Chowringhee Road, O.K. Restaurant on Moti Sil Street, the Great Eastern Hotel, American Kitchen opposite the New Empire and the Golden Dragon.

Drinking came with its own set of instructions. Good whisky was reportedly available on the black market, although the guide advised against paying the prices, while Indian whisky, rum and gin were described as alternatives. Beer was available at specific establishments and during specific hours, while enlisted men could order mixed drinks at venues including the Casanova Room, the Princes Room and bar, and the Winter Garden at the Grand Hotel. Officers had access to private clubs and a wider selection of hotel bars and lounges.

The guide’s detailed directions for food, drinks and recreational spaces also place Coca-Cola and ice cream within a larger network of American military consumption in Calcutta. They were not isolated products appearing in an unfamiliar city; they were part of a system that attempted to reproduce elements of the American serviceman’s everyday life overseas.

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