canteen with engineer property tag on cloth back and black sprayed cup

[DerKerl]

You guys ever seen one like that? I'm thinking that the two are related by waffenfarbe. Doug

[bigmacglenn]

I'm not clear as to what you're referring to, Doug...have a photo? By the way, I live in Lower Queen Anne, Seattle...
cheers, Glenn

[DerKerl]

Most German Army enlistees got a bunch of cloth tags to sew into their issue items for laundry and ownership purposes. Never seen one on a canteen cover before. I wonder if some units got their canteen cups resprayed in the units waffenfarbe? Doug

[bigmacglenn]

I've come across canteen-covers with the black & white tags before...I've never heard of re-painting cups...pink for Panzer, white-infantry, red/artillery...
Glenn

[JPhilip]

Hello,
These cloth tags (sometimes paper tags) were to be sewn or glued to all components of the soldier's impedimenta. This theorically stopped when the german army entered war in 1939. I have never seen or heard about a canteen cup repainted like the Waffenfarbe of its owner branch of service (except if you consider than an Infanterist repainting his cup in white in front of Leningrad during winter does it to refer to his Waffenfarbe...rather than because of the snow all around...

There are cups that have been produced in weird colors like some bakelite ones. You can find light green, orange, Brown cups...some metal cups were produced covered only with the red primer or with light blue enamel, some were repainted in the field in light or dark green, in white, tan or were even two tone or three tone camouflaged...as it is most often worn on the outside, the cup was mostly repainted according to the theater of operations.....when it was repainted, which was far from being the norm if you consider the amount of canteens produced and used...
Thanks

[DerKerl]

Thanks, guys. I had just never seen a black cup before and connected the tag to the cup in my little head. Thanks again, Doug

[JPhilip]

Hello Doug,
All aluminium cups produced between 1931 and 1942/43 were factory painted in black...
Thanks