Afrika Butterdose!!!

[sean weber]

HI All
anyone have any info regarding the "Afrika"type butter dish. Ive been told that the dish was not intended for shmaltz or fat but was infact a salt dispencer because low body salt in hot places can be dangerous so instead of the daily fat ration the troops serving in North Africa and other hot places got a salt ration as a suppliment to food.
I must agree that looking at the item it does look a bit like a pepper pot so it sounds likley.
Are they any keen DAK collectors that can say for sure?

Cheers in advance

Sean.

[sean weber]

Looking inside

When you think about it fat would melt in sahara type heat so salt would be more practical

[Karol98k]

What's the value of these? I have an identical one, but unfortunately has two hairline cracks on lid. Mine is marked amh i believe. It served my family as a needle container until I mentioned that it had a very "german WWII" look...

[sean weber]

Afrika dish value?

Hi Karol
Its strange how these things have became household items my own has been used as a spices dispencer "you can still smell it"
As regards value I cannot say but they are pretty rare ,far more so than the European butter dish and a nice bit of field gear. My dish is marked the same as yours too ! I wonder if they were the sole manufacturer

Regards

Sean

[SMP]

Hi,
I have a similar one. Mine has a fine thread for the main lid and a course thread ( half turn to open ) for the small cap. Is this the same for the two that have been mentioned ?
Regards
Steve

[sean weber]

Fine thread heavy thread-

Hi SMP
Yep my dish has both fine and heavy threads I dont know if this confirms the theory that both types are right but it looks good to me.
Heres a picture from Signal showing a couple of landsers with an Africa dose peeping out of a bread bag.

Regards
Sean

[Karol98k]

My dose is exactly same - the same code stands for same manufacture. indeed, fine threads are correct on wartime butterdose, unlike someone think. For example I have a well used, attic find of one of these found among the large threaded. The problem of genuity ismuch more compex...

[Porsche]

Hi,
I've got one of these salt containers. It's marked 1942 and is made of a brown bakelite material. Were these only tropical issue? Were they issued in addition to the standard Butterdose or did they replace it?
I have a listing of standard DAK equipment which lists the Butterdose, but as far as I can see, no Salzdoze. Is anyone else aware of any other photo's of these in use?

[WaA257]

Butter dishes

I have two butterdishes in orange. One regular model and one with the "salt-shaker" top. They are both made by the same manufacturer as the one in the photos. The only difference I see is that the one without the saltshaker is dated 1941 while the one with it has no date but both have the exact same manufacturers markings. Bill Shea said he was told that the ones without the year markings may have been manufactured postwar by the same company but he could not confirm it at that time.

[Gran Sasso]

How much salt should a soldier eat a day? With a box that size filled up he will die soon...
The small opening is meant to get the air-presure out after a flight or so to manage to open the conteiner.

[derspiess63]

Afrika?????????

I'd pay the word to know who first said that these fat containers are "Afrika";I've been told they were issued to the famous "Pizza Erprobung Abteilungen" who had the difficult task to taste and endorse Quattro Stagioni pizzas which would have been dropped by the thousands over Allied tank crews while the latter were sleeping under their tanks,in order to make them grow fat and be unable to get back into their mounts!The idea was dropped when the Germans discovered that the US tank crews were on a diet in order to allow ten of them inside a Sherman tank instead of five!
Joking apart,imo before labeling something "tropical","WSS","FJ"aso I reckon that a description found on a WH period "blatt" would be more useful than mere hearsay,ditto for a picture,or else we'd label all the Pz I,II,III,IV and stuff "tropical",since they also appear on pictures taken in Africa!Gran Sasso' description definitely makes sense though,and yes...they're less common than "European" ones!
My two cents
Manny

[Laurent]

Tout à fait ...

I totally agree with you Manny !

Amicalement

Laurent

[sean weber]

Hi Lads
Hope you noticed I did label this item an "Africa" dose

[Porsche]

My questions still stand. Are these for Salt? Are these tropical issue? Are they replacements for the standard butterdose? Are they private purchase?
Sorry, but does anyone have any facts or references or do we only have heresay and opinions? The only 'fact' that I've got so far is the photo of one laying in a DAK Rucksac. I know that most of the dealers who have got these refer to them as salt containers, but for most of the dealers, I would take this with a pinch of salt (excuse the pun) .

[sean weber]

Gran Sasso
I do not agree with you as regards the holes being used to equalise pressure to help opening the item ,One hole maybe but all those holes in that type of pattern, it looks like some kind of dispencer to me. Also the fact that this feature is absent from regular fat dishes would IMO lean towards the dish having a different purpose. And it still seems unpractical to be using fat in African climates where it would be 100% melted surely it would be bottled, I have just tried some olive oil in my "tropen" dish and it pissed out everywhere, the soldat would be covered in the stuff and most fats would be like olive oil in sahara type heat.

just my rant
Sean