German WWI Equipment

[Fred Green]

Greetings All,

I am a WWI German reenactor and I am looking for information on the following items that were carried in the tornister:

Fleischbuechse
Zweibachsaeckchen
KaffeeBuechsen
Salzbeutel
Gemusekonserve

Juergen Kraus' book,DIE FELDGRAUE UNIFORMIERUNG DES DEUTSCHEN HEERES 1907-1918" references these items and gives the weight of each item but does not give a good description. I am looking for dimensions, descriptions, line drawings or photos of the above items. I am also looking for a clean copy of the label that went in the bottom of the gasmask can and a clean copy of the spare lense packet.

Any help in the above endevour would be greatly appreciated.Thank you.

Fred Green

[Fred Green]

Greetings,

Is there anybody out there that collects WWI field gear? I had posted a similar request on the Imperial Forum and there were no takers there. Maybe the Wehrmacht Equipment forum next. I hope somebody out there could even stear me in the right direction of a WWI web site that might help.

Fred Green

[david stone]

Take a look in the "equipment" section...I can't remember under what thread it is, but make a search for rations. There is a photo, I think, of a Zwiebackbeutel as well as cans of meat used in the iron ration. Apparently these cans were about an 8 ounce size, coated with something like orange shellac...most likely the same as in WWI. Of course, no meat is to be had in the perfect size can....a cylndrical oyster can is the closest in size that I've found.
I've never seen any reference or photo of a Kaffeebuchse, I use an empty old RWS musket cap tin when I reenact. A fellow collector friend saw it and thought it was a real one...yet he never saw one he knew was original.
I've no clue about the salt bags.
As to the Gemuse-conserve - as far as I can figure, based on what I've gathered from Imperial reenactors from Germany, this was most likely the famous Knorr "Erbswurst" , a dried pea soup. Knorr carefully makes sure that no shop in North America carries it...but sometimes it can be found from reenactor suppliers...or mailed from good friends in Germany.
"Der Erste Zug", a WWII website has some excellent info in iron rations. Most of the "repro" rations I've seen are laughable, vietnam era inspired garbage.
While you are on an impossible task, how about finding some photos of WWI cleaning kits for the rifle?

Good luck,

Dave

[Fred Green]

Dave,

Thanks for the reply. I posted in the Imperial section a while back and there were no takers.I will check out the equipment forum. I had looked through there earlier but I don't remember seeing anything.

I am also looking for very clean original or new reproductions of the round label that goes in the bottom of the gasmask can and the packaging for the spare lenses. I have originals of the lense packaging but it is so yellowed I am unablr to copy it. I don't have the capability(skill) to use a art program or wordprocessing program to reconfigure it. Any help in this is greatly appreciated.

Fred Green

[david stone]

I do have a pretty good label in the bottom of mine...except for where the filter had scrubbed on it, of course. It defies my best efforts to remove it in one piece. Else I'd copy it. I thought somebody used to repro them...I'll see if I can remember who.
My Klarscheiben envelope is too warped to try to copy. I have a friend who is a master at creating paper things, I'd get him to make me some but there are other things higher on the list.

[FritzHoffmann]

I found this label at another site:




I currently reproduce WWI German Soldbuchs, and I do intend to repro the carry can instructions, but there is only a small market for the books, but not for the instructions or the lense wrapping. When I do get around to it, I will try and post a blurb about it here.

[Fred Green]

Greetings,
Thanks Fritz! That is about as clear as mine is. Great War used to repro the can label but I didn't see any on their site. Thanks again.
Fred Green

[FritzHoffmann]

Did some looking through my books and I found this original scan, and then I made the repop label. The scan in my previous post was for the Gummimaske, this one in for the Lederschutzemaske. Due to limitations of photo size, the image is not clear. When printed from the source program it is much nicer.



Randall

[Fred Green]

Can Labels

Fritz,

Thank you ! I will see what I can do with this. It looks perfect. Also thank for the info on which label came with which mask. A friend of mine had both labels in his can! Different!

Fred Green