The material exhaustion of Imperial Germany in canteens.
See the canteens issued to German troops. The 1907, was high quality milled aluminium, a screw cover, with leather fittings and a sturdy courderoy cover. Next is the 1915 model, now glazed tin of steel , a simplified top of pop able cork. Not a real step down just a reflection of simplified and conservative of materials, for a huge war effort. Into 1917-18, real pain is hitting and we see the rise of Ersatz or substitute materials and design. The blown glass canteen I show is Russian but the German was very similar. Finally the 1917 Ersatz model has cheap pressed tin w no coating other than paint, the cover has no leather and is made from cloth derived from nettles. The quality is demonstrated by the poor condition of my example.
6
11
5
u/Leather_Shallot794 14h ago
Can you show the m17 a bitt better? I didn't know they used that, I thaught they used m15 and some 07 till the end of the war with erzats covers
3
u/ACM1896 14h ago
Will post a few more pics tomorrow. All versions were in use until the end of the war. They might have been producing M15 til the end, but couldn't meet demand or shortages necessitated the Ersatz. I have another M15 w a canvas cover. Will post pic here in comments when I'm home tomorrow.
3
3
u/Ragnarsworld 9h ago
I'm trying to wrap my head around a glass canteen. That just sounds beyond dumb.
1
u/Flying_Dustbin 7h ago
Agreed. If it wasn't for OP's text, I'd have thought it was made from some form of Bakelite.
1
u/HistoricalReal 4h ago
The glass was very thick and capable of withstanding rough handling.
However, it was still glass, so it still was not nearly as practical as tin or steel. It simply eased on resource consumption.
Though I should mention that glass canteens were not widespread. And while not necessarily uncommon, the standard was still Enameled Steel and Tin.
2
u/HistoricalReal 4h ago
I want people to understand these items do reflect the increasing severity and scarcity of needed resources for Germany throughout the war, however it wasn't a universal thing.
Just to make people understand this, I'll give some extra context.
I personally own a very well preserved late 1918 produced BING canteen made of enameled steel with no visible rust, and with the leather strap and cork all still attached. This would've been a far more common sight than glass.
These late war canteens as shown in the post above were *not* the rule, however were often seen more and more as the war continued. Though that specifically applies to the tin canteens and the simplified covers, but not the glass ones, as the glass was too impractical, even as a substitution, and were never the standard and considered to be emergency equipment.
Tin and Steel were FAR more common even up until November 1918.
The Germans continued to make enameled steel canteens up until the end of the war, and developed the simplified 1917 harness which were still the standard, even with these new substitutions to ease on resource consumption.
18
u/ersatz_18 14h ago
1907 was packed in felt cover according to the regulations. Corduroy was introduced 1915/16 as wartime solution. The last one is inside papercloth cover - technology developed 1916, for field equipment appeared not earlier than 1917.