The Sutlers Supreme

10 Groschen Worth of NAAFI History

(Part One)

Tucked away in a quieter corner of my collection lies a pair of hexagonal tokens — yellow, plastic, and unassuming. Both are identical: one side bears the NAAFI emblem with its Latin motto, Servitor Servientium; the other is stamped with the value — 10 Groschen.

I’d never given them much thought, assuming they were simply NAAFI tokens used in canteens and clubs. But that, of course, leads to further thought — and questions. What exactly is a Groschen? And why was NAAFI dealing in Austrian currency?

NAAFI token used in Austria in 1945 and onwards.
Author's own collection.

The answer lies not in the token itself, but in the broader context of postwar occupation. The fighting had ended, but NAAFI’s work was far from over. As part of the British military presence in Austria, it had to adapt: shifting from wartime logistics to peacetime service.

That yellow token is a micro-historical clue — a small plastic key to a much larger story. It’s the story of how NAAFI, through the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and the Expeditionary Force Institutes (EFI), found itself embedded in a new kind of mission: one shaped not by battle, but by rebuilding, reassurance, and routine.

The Road to Austria

To understand NAAFI’s role in post-war Austria, it helps to recall where the soldiers themselves had come from. The British Eighth Army had been at war since its formation in 1941 in the Western Desert — fighting across North Africa, from El Alamein to Tunisia, before crossing the Mediterranean to Sicily and then onto the Italian mainland. After years of gruelling campaigning through mountains and mud, they finally pushed north toward the Alps.

“The Spring Offensive, 9 April – 2 May 1945,”
U.S. Army Center of Military History (Public Domain).

Map showing the military situation in Austria at the time of surrender — 2nd May 1945. The British Eighth Army, advancing from Italy, entered Austria from the south, establishing the basis for its postwar occupation zone.

This southern presence explains why NAAFI, via the RASC (Royal Army Service Corps) and EFI (Expeditionary Forces Institute), became embedded in Austria — not as combatants, but as providers of comfort, continuity, and canteen service.

When German forces in Italy and Austria surrendered on 2 May 1945, the men of the Eighth Army earned a rare moment of relief. But peace brought a new and unfamiliar duty. Instead of advancing toward another front, they crossed into Austria as occupiers — charged with maintaining order, rebuilding infrastructure, and caring for thousands of displaced civilians.

British military transport carrying supplies for the Eighth Army, passes the frontier station
on the border between Italy and Austria.
Image: IWM (TR 2861)

For the NAAFI and RASC/EFI personnel who followed, this meant transforming the machinery of wartime supply into one of peacetime service — canteens instead of convoys, recreation instead of rations, and a new mission to sustain morale in an army adjusting to victory.

The Political and Military Settlement

When German resistance collapsed in May 1945, Austria was divided into four Allied zones of occupation — agreed between the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and France. Each power administered its own sector. Vienna, though deep within the Soviet zone, was itself split into four districts under joint Allied control.

Austria: Zones of Occupation (1949) — CIA reference map showing the four Allied zones.
The British zone in the south encompassed Carinthia, East Tyrol, and Styria —
including Klagenfurt, Villach, Spittal and Graz.
Source: Library of Congress (Public Domain).

The British zone encompassed Carinthia, East Tyrol, and Styria — a stretch of mountains and valleys running from the Italian and Yugoslav borders northward to the city of Graz. For the battle-weary formations of the Eighth Army advancing out of Italy, this southern region became their natural line of march — and soon, their responsibility.

EFI’s First Steps in a Volatile Austria

When the British Eighth Army crossed into southern Austria in early May 1945, the war in Europe was all but over. Yet for the men of the Expeditionary Force Institutes (EFI) — NAAFI’s wartime arm attached to the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) — the work was just beginning. Their task was not one of fighting, but of feeding, supplying, and comforting a battle-weary army now turned occupier.

But the transition to peace was anything but smooth. The British zone in southern Austria — particularly Carinthia and Styria — remained volatile in the weeks following the German surrender. Russian troops lingered in Styria, stripping equipment and infrastructure before withdrawing. Meanwhile, Yugoslav partisans and political agitators moved into South Styria and Carinthia, occupying towns, replacing local officials, and forming 'national councils' to assert control.

In Klagenfurt, the capital of Carinthia, a Yugoslav governor briefly took office. British forces responded by deploying emergency teams of officers and administrators to Villach to reassert authority.
It was into this unsettled landscape that EFI personnel arrived — not into a quiet garrison, but into a region still bristling with armed factions and political uncertainty.

First Footsteps in Austria: NAAFI’s Early Challenges

In the summer of 1945, NAAFI’s presence in Austria was still taking shape — not just through military directives, but through the courage and ingenuity of individuals on the ground. Two stories — one from the frontlines of logistics, the other from the quiet corridors of hospitality — reveal the human texture of those early days.

Captain Morris and the Boot Factory Standoff

South Wales Daily Post
19th May 1945

Captain J. W. Morris, the first EFI officer to reach Austria, found himself navigating this volatile terrain almost immediately. 

On 18 May 1945, No. 3 EFI Mobile Depot — newly arrived from Padua and struggling to keep pace with its mobile canteens — was ordered to move into a disused boot and shoe factory near Klagenfurt. However, that same evening, Yugoslav partisans crossed the border and occupied the site, claiming it for themselves. 

Morris rushed to investigate, only to find armed men entrenched among the stores, wielding rifles and sub-machine guns. Tense negotiations followed and agreement was reached that the Yugoslavs would withdraw. When Morris asked for written orders from their leader, the interpreter replied simply: “They can’t read.” Eventually, the factory was returned to British control — but not before much of the stock had vanished in what Morris later described as “a period of organised looting. ”

Captain Morris’s encounter was just one small episode in a wider political storm. As Field-Marshal Alexander warned in the press at the time, Yugoslav territorial ambitions — particularly in regions like Trieste and Carinthia — risked turning postwar peace into a new kind of confrontation. EFI personnel found themselves not only supplying troops, but navigating the fault lines of a fragile settlement.

Miss McNulty: NAAFI’s First Civilian in Vienna

In the summer of 1945, as Austria emerged from the wreckage of war, NAAFI’s presence was shaped not by grand directives but by individuals like Miss M. McNulty — the first NAAFI civilian manageress to arrive in Vienna after the war. Her journey from Forlì, Italy, to Krumpendorf, Austria, was improvised through a series of military lifts and acts of kindness, culminating in her arrival in a city still reeling from conflict.

With no formal transport available, she hitched rides with ENSA and RAF convoys, stayed in temporary hostels, and eventually reached Klagenfurt before moving on to Vienna. Her assignment: to prepare a hostel for civilian staff by September 1945. Housing was scarce, and danger still lingered — Russian troops were breaking into Schönbrunn Palace at night, forcing her to sleep in a NAAFI office armed with a rifle she didn’t know how to use.

Vienna was still a city in recovery — occupied, unsettled, and far from its former grandeur. McNulty’s early accommodation came in an Austrian flat within a police station, modest but safe. She stayed there until the hostel was ready. Outside, the city bore visible scars of battle: graves dotted parks and gardens where the fighting had passed only weeks before. One grave, planted in the middle of a vegetable patch, stayed with her.

By late August 1945, British forces began clearing these makeshift graves. She was told the dead had been buried where they fell, as there had been no transport available to move them at the time.

Miss McNulty remained in Austria until 1947, when NAAFI decided to withdraw from hostel operations in the region. Her time in Vienna — marked by improvisation, resilience, and quiet service — stands as a testament to those who helped shape post-war life through care and courage rather than command.

Consolidation and Expansion of EFI Services

To trace EFI’s rapid expansion, here’s a visual guide to early openings across Carinthia.

🗺️ Mapping NAAFI in Austria, 1945

Early NAAFI and EFI openings in Carinthia (May–Oct 1945). Pins are approximate by town/city. Click a marker for the opening date and details.

Map by The Sutlers Supreme. © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Merthyr Express 4 Aug 1945

Within weeks of the British occupation of Carinthia, EFI opened its first canteen — Jimmy’s Tavern — in the Café Schiberth, Klagenfurt. Staffed partly by local workers, including Hungarian musicians and waitresses, it offered continuity and comfort to troops who only days earlier had been in enemy territory.

By October 1945, EFI had established a network of canteens and supply depots from Villach to Graz. These sites were more than refreshment points — they were hubs of routine and morale. Civilians returned to work, ENSA staged performances, and British forces began to experience the first rhythms of peace.

From beer brewed in Villach to concerts in Krumpendorf, EFI’s reach extended far beyond canteens — shaping daily life for British troops and supporting the transition from combat to occupation. The groundwork was laid for a new chapter: one of consolidation, community, and quiet service.

This marks the end of Part One — tracing EFI’s arrival in Austria and its rapid expansion through the final months of 1945. What began as a wartime service arm had by then become a stabilising presence in the British zone. In Part Two, we’ll follow EFI and the RASC as they support the 46th and 78th Infantry Divisions across Styria and Carinthia, culminating in the demobilisation of military EFI units in 1948. Part Three will explore NAAFI’s civilianisation and its quiet role in Austria’s journey to full sovereignty in 1955