Not to be outdone, the American Army Quartermaster Corps solicited donations of 20-pound blocks of chocolate from confectioners back home, which they then cut down and wrapped by hand.

The Mayor of York sent a tin of hometown confectioner Rowntree’s chocolates to residents in uniform, and in 1915, every U.K., soldier abroad received a “ King George Chocolate Tin.” In World War I, the British military gave soldiers chocolate to boost morale and energy. Two soldiers of the 351st Field Artillery which returned on the 'Louisville' receive candy from the Salvation Army women that welcome every troopship arriving in port, 1919. While the first chocolate bar was created by Joseph Fry in Great Britain in 1847, and Cadbury began selling individual boxes of chocolate candies there as early as 1868, it would take the outbreak of war on a global scale for the chocolate candy bar to really take off. Candy also played a role in the Civil War, used as “a provision with quick energy and lots of sugar,” says Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak: A Journey through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. It was prized for its combined kick of caffeine and sugar it even served as occasional payment to American troops in lieu of money. During the Revolutionary War, chocolate, a favorite treat of George Washington, became part of his soldier’s rations.

In the earliest decades of the United States, candy was quickly recognized not just as a sweet treat, but as a valuable way to fuel troops. story of chocolate has strong military associations. While the history of chocolate consumption stretches back 4,000 years to ancient cultures in what is today Mexico and Central America, the U.S. Watch now The Military History of Chocolate

Candy bars with numbers in their names