Indian 37 pat water bottle, tinned.

[ILH]

Here's a waterbottle i bought on a punt at £5.
Since there have been a few posts about waterbottles lately, and having seen Warspite's blog with a similar example, I stripped the felt to look for markings and thought i'd post it here.
marks on the base say "METAL BOX, CALCUT, 1942"

[Warspite]

Very interesting example. Apart from being tinned rather than painted, looks the same design as mine. Nice to see another example and jealous that you have the original cover and cork

[karkee]

Oh man...

I would love to find one of those bottles to finish off my Indian webbing set!

[karkee]

As luck would have it, I found this waterbottle from a seller in eBay. Although I'm not entirely certain it is of WWII vintage, it is certainly Indian and it appears to be made from a galvanized or tinned steel. The cover is made of wool covered with khaki drill material. I'd still love to find an example made by the Metal Box Co. though.

[Warspite]

That's a lovely waterbottle, and yet another slight variation. The idea of uniform kit kind of goes out the window with India!

[karkee]

Given the size of the Indian Subcontinent, it's amazing we don't see more wartime variation and makers! This bottle came in a postwar Bengali P37 waterbottle carrier, which is so cheap and poorly constructed that it makes wartime Indian carriers look like the finest English quality!! lol

[Warspite]

I came across this rather splendid photo of Indian Artillerymen on the range in 1939. The waterbottles are clearly visible, but the method of carrying them is a new one on me. It looks like a webbing other services water bottle carrier, but I was under the impression they were a British piece of webbing and only introduced in about 1943 to replace the old leather version:

[karkee]

That is a neat photo! The carriers look like they are made of buff leather or something. Artillerymen would most likely have been issued with bandolier equipment in 1939, especially in India, where older patterns prevailed. The method of wearing the bottles is interesting as well, though it looks uncomfortable!

I recently found this excellent picture on the Facebook page 'WWII British Empire & Commonwealth Forces in the Far East-SE Asia 1940-1946' (An incredible resource for those interested in Commonwealth forces in the Pacific).

https://www.facebook.com/pages/WWII-...96587907285169

It shows An Indian 3-inch mortar platoon supporting Sherman tanks in Burma, 1944 and clearly shows the Indian waterbottle that you and ILH have...

[Warspite]

You might be right about them being the leather other services waterbottle carrierss, I guess we are so used to seeing them with 70+ years of wear that we forget they were once undyed plain leather like the repro ones from Laurence Ordnance!
Nice photo, I like the Indian machete the central chap sitting down is wearing as well.

[karkee]

You might be right about them being the leather other services waterbottle carrierss, I guess we are so used to seeing them with 70+ years of wear that we forget they were once undyed plain leather like the repro ones from Laurence Ordnance!
Nice photo, I like the Indian machete the central chap sitting down is wearing as well.

Yeah, leather doesn't hold up well over the years. In stark contrast to webbing, which can look brand new even today!

The picture below also shows the Indian machete nicely, as well as an entrenching tool carrier (assumed to be Indian-made...I have only ever seen one)


"Disarmed Japanese soldiers leave the city of Singapore for prisoner of war camps as men of the 5th Indian Division arrive by lorry. Singapore, Sept 1945. (IWM)"