This Thanksgiving Day menu is from the tanker O.M. BERNUTH. Its simplicity says much about the setting–a typed carbon copy. The BERNUTH was five days out from it’s destination of Casablanca and that there was a dinner at all seems remarkable.

For many of the crew, just being alive was reason for giving thanks. In the Mediterranean, in the same month, American forces had successfully landed in North Africa and were advancing on the Germans. The O.M. BERNUTH sailed to Casablanca and Fedala to deliver tens of thousands of barrels of precious gasoline for the offensive. The men may have recognized that they were contributing greatly to the war effort, but always on their mind was the great peril of each convoy crossing. Would the next be one of no return? In 1942, more than 1600 Allied ships had been lost to the enemy.

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