My canteens

[oldpewter]

Hello everyone!
I'm new to this forum and without any longer introduction I'll present my small collection of different German Feldflaschen.
...
Beautyful near-mint coco (HRE42)


Near mint late war RFI43. The green cup (MN43) is my own addition to the combo, found in the attic in Southern Estonia


Strange colours, unmarked alu cup and late war bottle


1l medical canteen, cup and screw ESB40, bottle itself VDNS39. Missing the long strap


Our next baby is the real weirdo: huge (I think it's 2 litres) unmarked, mint colossus (compared to the regular coco). The neck and corc brings to mind the WWI bottles, but I think it belongs to the era between two wars and is for hikers or smth.



Two paramilitary canteens, both in mint condition


My latest catch so far: beatiful "been-there", all parts marked KCL36. Unfortunately the cup is missing

"Naked" BDM canteen ESB40 (screw ESB41) and the veteran of WWI (note the stamp on fabric!). Both missing a lot of parts

The red cross of attic finds. You can see deifferent necks, the felt has a war time repairs on it

One of the "reds" has a soldier's name on the screw: it's Estonian name Valdam

Some ground dugged canteens that I've kept for the inscriptions on them. Left one is regular German M31, the one on the right is a bit larger and has no markings on it

The left one belonged to Estonian soldier Hein

The right one belonged to another Estonian soldier Jaak Põldver. I've been in contact with his relative and the short biography is as follows: Jaak Põldver was born in 1916. Served his time in Estonian army in 1937 (coastal artillery). Was forced to join the Red army in 1941. When German troops arrived to Estonia in 1941, he joined them (the relatives have a picture of Jaak in WH uniform, rank: Gefreiter). In Autumn 1944, when the Soviets came back and Germans left, Jaak became the so-called forest brother (metsavend in Estonian, basically the partisan). He was arrested in 1950 and the Soviet tribunal gave him 30 yrs of prison (luckily Stalin died in 53 and Jaak was released soon after that). The man died in 1988. So that's one helluva piece of history:


An example of Estonian made canteen (screw is my own addition, it's German), marked TAV40 (Tartu Alumiiniumi Vabrik or Aluminium Factory in Tartu). I have two of these, sadly both are ground dug

Soviet glass and early Finnish canteen (Peltiteos O/Y INT40). I've kept them because in WWII some Estonians were also in Red Army and in Finnish Army

And the big mystery for me: nicely splinter-hit cup from Kurland. But it's taller than regular cups and has a marking on the bottom MD or DM. Does anybody know something about it?

.

[oldpewter]

Sorry, I initally posted in the wrong place.

When working in Nuernberg in the early 1970's I visited the Saturday morning 'Flomarkt' and purchased a brand new canteen similar to the grey-brown cloth covered paramilitary version in your photo. The flask was made of unpainted aluminium covered in 'feldgrau' fabric with a vertical black leather retaining strap, reddish-orange rubber seal inside the screwcap and complete with an aluminium folding handle cup. The seller had a large box full of them, all brand new and unused. Where did where he find them?
Reading the recent translated blog on uniforms, I wonder if they were obtained from a former officially appointed retailer who was having their cellar or lockup cleared?
Those who are unfamiliar with German homes should relish the thought that the vast majority of houses in Germany have large cellars, and apartment buidings their basement lockups or cages, storing many old boxes with fading labels.
One wonders what will appear next at the flea market. Keep looking.

[gnadenlose]

Sorry, I initally posted in the wrong place.

When working in Nuernberg in the early 1970's I visited the Saturday morning 'Flomarkt' and purchased a brand new canteen similar to the grey-brown cloth covered paramilitary version in your photo. The flask was made of unpainted aluminium covered in 'feldgrau' fabric with a vertical black leather retaining strap, reddish-orange rubber seal inside the screwcap and complete with an aluminium folding handle cup. The seller had a large box full of them, all brand new and unused. Where did where he find them?
Reading the recent translated blog on uniforms, I wonder if they were obtained from a former officially appointed retailer who was having their cellar or lockup cleared?
Those who are unfamiliar with German homes should relish the thought that the vast majority of houses in Germany have large cellars, and apartment buidings their basement lockups or cages, storing many old boxes with fading labels.
One wonders what will appear next at the flea market. Keep looking.

Nice story! I've heard of such fantastic finds several times, the most recent were these two: the first pile of 1200 canteens was found in Austrian horsestable 2004, the other pile of untouched mint canteens (most of them wrapped in paper and packed in cardboard) was found in Spain 2011 (sold @ Weitze)

[don_kihotis7]

Wow

[gnadenlose]

From yesterdays Antiques Fair: battledamaged stuff mostly- Sardines tin, mess tin, two bottles and lot of drinking cups. Plus late war canteen cover, mystery canvas holster (probably French WW 1) and really rare bird- Estonian made TAV40 canteen with cover! I have had these TAV bottles around 10 plus some drinking cups, but no-one could ever show me one with original cover. This one was found this summer in suburb of Pärnu (south-west of Estonia) together with mess tin, both were hidden in the floor of a vacant house. The engravings on the mess tin consist mostly of the list of different POW camps, some Latin and German sentences ("Gott mit uns, ich mit dir" i.e.) and the owner's name- Martin Eeland (you can see E also on the canteen cap). I have not seen the mess kit myself, but hopefully I'll get some photos of it in near future, so I'm not sure when and in which army this Estonian man served. Also I don't know if TAV canteens were originally completed like this one, because as said- no-one has seen one! The strap and hook look much like ones seen on German para-canteens to me, the cover material is almost identic with German great coat fabric and is certainly machine sewn. Let the pictures talk and I really hope Dimas would see and comment this piece

[gnadenlose]

I've been quite inactive for a while, but today I re-activated my engines with this beautiful example of Estonian made Drinkbecher. All TAV bottles and cups are dated only 1940

[gnadenlose]

L-R:
1) pre-war CFL37
2) mid-war RFI43
3) this is put together post-war, using unmarked canteen body, MN40 screw-cap and it possibly manipulated cover (that of the so-called Gebirgsjägern-canteen) and straps.
Two of the bakelite cups are repros, unfortunately including the orange one.

[don_kihotis7]

Nice to see your collection growing mate

[gnadenlose]

Not much to write home about, but still some nice Estonian relics. The 5 litres water canister is the first of it's kind in my collection, too bad that the cap is missing. The drinking cup has two names engraved on it, one of them is unreadable (at least for me).

[gnadenlose]

Some of this stuff was shown in previous post (sellers' pics), here again together with some more I've got in last two weeks.