that is the most bizarre / beautiful trench art canteen that I for one have ever saw!! the work & detail that went into it is phenomenal!!! I hope that you get reply's on it? where did you acquire it ?
Wow! That is really a beautiful canteen; a real artist did that. I don't know anything about Italian canteens, but the large portrait on the front looks to me like Mussolini, and it looks like a fascist eagle on his helmet. Are those fasces on the upper left and right sides in the first picture? The flags shown on the canteen are Kingdom of Italy flags, so I would assume the period is when the fascists were in power, and before they parted from the Kingdom of Italy to form the Italian Socialist Republic in September 1943. Please let us know if you find out more about it.
Morning everyone,
it is what remains of an Italian canteen for infantry troops called Mod.1926, used in the second half of the 1930s, until it was replaced by the following Mod.1930 and Mod.1933 with screw cap; but it was also widely used in the following years until stocks were exhausted.
Its owner may have been:
S.Ten. Amedeo Gandolfi
born in Montese (Modena) on February 14, 1916
missing on the Russian front on January 13, 1943
I'm not sure, but considering the enlistment area I think it belonged to the Alpine Troops.
If it can be useful to learn more, here is my thread on this topic:
Italian WW2 Canteens
Regards
Roberto
As I had thought, it is confirmed that the S. Ten Amedeo Gandolfi belonged to the Alpine Troops.
The IX Mixed Engineers Battalion for Alpine Army Corps was a specialized unit of the Alpine Engineers that dealt with communications, after having fought on the French and Greek Albanian front it was deployed on the Russian front along the Don river, from September 1942.
The telegraph and radio operator companies will ensure the connections between the Alpine Corps Command in Rossosch and the units on the front line.
In January 1943 the Alpine contingents will be encircled by the Russian army and, after the defensive battle of Nikolajewka, a dramatic retreat will begin.
Only a few survivors of the IX Mixed Engineer Battalion will return to Italy and the unit will therefore be definitively discharged.
Regards
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