According to the American technical manual on the subject from 1945, soldiers and civilian workers were divided into classes based on their caloric needs. The highest priority was given to soldiers on active duty, recuperating from combat, or station above 66 Degrees North latitude in Norway (where it would be freezing cold). The lowest priority was given to office workers and nurses within Germany. The ration was quite completed and included rye bread, meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, pudding powder, and other items. Bread was the largest portion of the ration, with everyone getting over a pound a day. The amount of meat available ranged from 5.8 ounces per day for the soldiers in the most combat to 3 ounces for those working in German offices, including both red meat and fish.

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The German combat ration was nominally 300 grams of bread (in the form of hard crackers, 200 grams of canned meat, 150 grams of preserved or dehydrated vegetables or erbswurst ("pea sausage", a sausage based on peas and pork that can be sliced and made into pea soup by throwing in a pot of boiling water), 25 grams of real or ersatz coffee, and 25 grams of salt. This was a very simple ration with relatively little standardization beyond packaging; the meat could be anything from pork to beef to horse. The Germans also suffered increasing supply line issues as the war went on, making it harder and harder for them to be consistently supplied with complete rations. This was exacerbated by an intention for soldiers to live off the land (read: forage and steal from civilians).