Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent original late-WWII U.S. Army C-Ration Accessory Packet, manufactured and packed by Chaard Incorporated of Lansing, Michigan, and retaining an unusually complete selection of its original contents. The packet has been opened but still contains a sealed package of Lucky Strikes, wrapped toilet tissue, a sealed package of Chiclets chewing gum, a vial containing four salt tablets, and an unused book of matches.

An accessory kit that could be issued with the ration was suggested early 1944. By the summer of 1944 a sealed asphalt paper laminated to a metallic foil envelope was developed that contained a small package of 12 sheets of toilet paper –the same as used in the K Ration–, a package with two tablets of sugar coated chewing gum, a small bottle with 12 water purification tablets (Halazone), and a small matchbook with two rows of five matches each.

The small bottle with Halazone tablets was soon replaced with a small plastic vial holding 4 salt tablets.

This is a very nice opened Accessory Packet in the later style, with the front label reading:

ACCESSORY PACKET
CIGARETTES MATCHES TOILET PAPER
GUM SALT TABLETS
PACKED BY CHAARD, INCORPORATED, LANSING, MICHIGAN

The contents include a sealed pack of Lucky Strikes, a wrapped bundle of tissue paper, a sealed box of chiclets gum, a small bottle of four salt tablets, and an unused pack of matches.

The combination of the late-war salt-tablet configuration, clearly marked Chaard Incorporated wrapper, Lucky Strikes, Chiclets gum, toilet tissue, four-tablet salt vial, and unused matches makes this a particularly informative example of the final wartime development of the U.S. C-Ration. Its printed contents also capture a brief transitional stage before cigarettes and matches were separated into their own dedicated packet.