German mess kit war time or not

[Dimas]

My friend found in the attic in West Germany about 10 of them, does they continued to produce them postwar or it's a real war time example?

[BlackCat1982]

They look like Bundeswehr kochgeschirr to me, not wkii.

[MP44tom]

Definately not Bundeswehr (BW has a different handle fixation)

Looks like a late war example in mint condition.... but we cant be 100% cause it has no date

Tom

[JPhilip]

Hello,
At first sight, i thought no problem, it's WWII, but the more i look at this messkit, the more i doubt....
In my opinion, there are three slight differences with late war messkits...

1) the edge of the lid is far more folded than on late war aluminium messkits, it should be more vertical...
2) the head of the pin that retains the handle of the lid is thicker than on wartime ones
3 the aluminum is too rich....the quality is too good for a wartime production

and last but not least, if it was a late war aluminium messkit, it should include the inner plate, especially if it's new and still wrapped and boxed...
Thanks

[Dimas]

The paper is old and all of them well packed. Philip, what is the plate you are about?
Too strange if they keep producing them postwar for cilvilians.

[Dav]

Malcolm Wagner had an Unused Mess tin for sale, still in the wrapping. It sold, but was also a late war example. It appears to be packed similarly to yours.

[JPhilip]

Hello Dimas,
Concerning what i call the inner plate, that's an extra aluminium plate that was inserted in the late war aluminium messkits. You can see it below (red arrow). It was generalized but perhaps some manufacturers did not include it in their production, who knows...?!

I checked out all my messkits and did not find any features seen in the messkit shown in this thread.

The edge of the lid : there are only two configurations. Aluminium messkits of early design (1931 to 1943) do have the edge of the lid that touch the body of the lid and is perfectly rounded. Steel and aluminium messkits from 1944 and 1945 do have a lid with short edge folded up. Here the edge of the lid seems to be pinched

The head of the pin : ALL messkits i have in my collection do have the same pin head.....it's quite flat but slightly rounded....here it's thick with sharp edges...

I have found one of my messkits with the same kind of aluminium, not as poor as usually seen...

Dimas, i'm not saying that your friend's messkits are postwar or bad or repros or fakes....i'm just pointing out some difference with late war messkits. Of course, there are perfectly original items that bear no maker's mark.
Perhaps they're original with features unseen to me until now, i haven't seen everything, fortunately i would say as life and collecting would be so boring if so.....
other than for the two difference i pointed out, they're "textbook" in dimensions, paint, width of the handle, size of rivets....
Thanks

[JPhilip]

For you to see exactly what i mean

1 : the edge does not touch the body of the lid and is not perfectly rounded like on early design messkits...it is not as short and vertical as on late war messkits

2 : the head of the pin has sharp edges and is not slightly rounded
Thanks

[JPhilip]

Here the head of the pin found on all my messkits....flat and slightly rounded
here on a CFL44 messkit (with inner plate)

[JPhilip]

Here the edge of the lid as found on all steel and late alu messkits......it's short, folded and ends up vertically...
Here on a DMM44 messkit