Why did the East German Military go through the effort and expense of making doilies? And why did the Italians have an issued tool to open wine bottles? Was looking at the army surplus store and found some weird stuff.

Question

In addition, I found that the Pakistani rucks were white canvas which would stick out like a sore thumb, and hot countries in North Africa still wear wool for some reason.

In: 4

Answer 1

Morale, probably. Soldiers feel better if they get little luxuries like wine or chocolate. If you have a domestic industry making a product, they might want to offer their product to members of the military. This gives them product sales and good press, and might encourage the soldiers to keep using the product after they leave the military. Pizza became popular in the US partly because soldiers who fought in Italy in World War II developed a taste for it. Hershey got a big boost in their business when they made chocolate for the US military in WWII. Coca Cola got so big partly because they provided Coke for members of the military. Makers of other products would probably love it if this happened to them.