"...not for the soldiers, who were much too busy for tea."

Can't be talking about British soldiers there!
............

By coincidence, I was in the Museum of Brands in Notting Hill in London(splendid little museum) yesterday, and noticed there a pottery teapot dating from the War with an inscription on it saying it had been produced as a replacement for aluminium teapots which had been handed in as part of the war effort.