THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT SECRET THE PROBLEM OF MAINTAINING BREAD SUPPLIES IN GERMAN EUROPE. Memorandum by the Minister of Economic Warfare. At the outbreak of war Germany was faced with the problem of maintaining adequate bread supplies for her own people. As each country of Europe in turn was occupied, the same problem occurred, save only in the normally surplus Danubian countries. Before the war Germany was self-sufficient in bread grain (wheat and rye) but imported about one-fifth of her fodder grain, most of which went to maintain her pigs, and only a small quantity to dairy cattle.