Post
by donaldjcheek » Sat May 26, 2007 9:58 pm
Thought this topic was interesting, but the thread kind of died out. Did a little research, and here's what I found:
Mess kits are issued to military personnel for use in the field, giving the soldier something that serves as both a cooking pot and eating container. Generally the design is an efficient one, consisting of two or three pieces that nest inside one another or fit together in such a fashion as to keep the kit as small and light as possible. Often the pieces have multiple uses; for instance, the lid will almost always be used not only for cooking & eating food, but preparing it as well. Often the lid doubles as a frying pan, while the pot serves as a rather large soup bowl as well. All mess kits are made of metal, usually aluminum, but steel (both enameled & stainless) or tin-plated iron are also common. Rarely, mess kits may be made of copper or bronze. Designs vary, but most nations use one of several generally-accepted models.
Roman Army
The Roman legions used the patera as its basic mess kit. This consisted of a ladle-shaped dish with flat bottom, 4 to 8 inches in diameter, with sloped sides and a long, flat handle with a hole punched in the end. The kit (including the handle) was spun and formed from a single sheet of bronze or brass.
Austria
The Austrian Army of WW1 issued 2 models of mess kits. The official model consisted of 2 pieces, a square enameled steel pan with sloped sides, rounded corners, and flat bottom. A flat metal bail was attached to the sides, allowing the pot to hang by the bail over a fire, or folded to the side when not in use. The lid, which also served as a plate or fry pan, had a folding wire handle which folded to the inside when not in use. Unlike most mess kits, the frying pan/lid fit INSIDE (not on top of) the cook pot, with the indented portion of the lid fitting tightly along the sloped sides of the pot. Small rectangular holding tabs were soldered along two of the sides of the pot, allowing the pot to be secured to the top of the with buckled leather retaining straps specially made for the purpose. This pattern of mess kit was also used be the Hungarians until the end of WW2.
The second model of mess kit, an earlier kind withdrawn from general issue but reissued as the war dragged on, consisted of a round pot with sloping sides, flat bottom, and two folding wire handles on the outside. The lid for this kit resembled a small plate with sloping sides, with a small, flat D-shaped lifting tab riveted to one side. Like the previous kit, this lid fit inside the pot, the indented portion forming a tight seal along the sloping sides of the pot.
Imperial Russia
The Czarist army issued a simple copper bucket with straight sides, flat bottom, rolled lip & wire bail as its mess kit. Generally the bucket was cylindrical, but some manufacturers provided an oval-shaped bucket with straight sides & flat bottom. No lid was provided with either type of mess kit. Although replaced in the mid 1930s with a more modern design, the kit was extensively issued during WW2.
Soviet Union/Russian Federation
Originally the Soviets used the old Czarist copper bucket as their standard mess kit before adopting a two-piece design in the 1930s. This was similar to that used by the Germans, consisting of an oval, kidney-shaped aluminum pot with a smaller saucepan/fry pan which, when inverted, became the lid. The pot, with rolled lip & slightly recessed mouth, had a wire bail handle which folded down when not in use. The pan/lid had a long, flat handle with curved latch at the end; when folded out 90 degrees it became the handle to the pan, or when folded up 180 degrees, it latched the lid onto the pot. The pot was made of thin aluminum or steel plating, painted a dark brown shade of olive.
In the mid 1970s a new design was adopted, resembling the old model but smaller and with an aluminum canteen held in the center. In this case, the folding handle of the smaller sauce pan/fry pan fitted over the base of the larger cookpot, with the handle folded up and clipped over the cookpot and the lip of the water bottle. This mess set was not painted, and was sometimes issued with a pouch, even though many soldiers simply hung it onto their equipment from the wire handle. Officers were usually issued a satchel-type bag for their mess kits.
Both types of mess kit are used by the Russian Federation today.
Germany
Probably the most common style of mess kit, consisting of a deep, oval, kidney-shaped pot with separate sauce pan/frying pan which, when inverted, forms the lid. The pot has a rolled lip, recessed mouth. straight sides, flat bottom, and wire bail handle. The sauce pan/lid has a rolled lip, straight sides, and a long, flat handle that folds down 90 degrees to form the handle of the pan. When the two pieces of the mess kit are stored together, the handle lies at 180 degrees along the side of the pot, locking the two halves securely together by means of a curved latch at the bottom of the handle. Two tabs, one on the outside of the pan/lid handle and one on the body of the pot, were used in conjunction with a buckled leather or webbing strap to secure the mess kit to the field pack or bread bag.
Post WW2 kits have a smaller nesting tray with folding wire handle that fits just inside the mouth of the pot. Kits were made of aluminum or steel, painted or enameled black, olive, or gray. Similar types of mess kits are used by: Belgium, Poland, Spain, Italy, Korea, Sweden (q.v.), Switzerland, Japan (q.v.), Russia/Soviet Union (q.v.), and Bulgaria.
Although not technically a mess kit, the Bundeswehr canteen/cup combination (feldflasche und trinkbecher) may be used in the field as an emergency mess kit. The 850 ml aluminum canteen fits inside a rectangular aluminum holder that can serve as a small cookpot, with a cup that is inverted to fit over the top of the canteen. When not in use, the handle folds up 180 degrees to slide in a slot on the back of the cook pot/holder, and a webbing strap passes around both pieces to lock them together. Unlike mess kits, where the lip of the cook pot is recessed to fit inside the inverted lid/pan, the lips of the canteen-cookpot-cup combination are the same size and meet edge to edge.
France
From 1852 until the end of WW1, the French army mess kit consisted of a round pot with sloping sides, flat bottom, two ear-like handles, and a tight-fitting round lid attached to the pot by a short chain. This was replaced in the late 20s - early 30s by a more conventional aluminum mess kit which resembled the German design, but not curved into a kidney shape and made of unpainted aluminum. The pot had a wire bail, but the cover/fry pan did not have a folding handle. Shortly after WW2 France adopted a 3-piece rectangular mess kit measuring 5" x 7" x 3" when assembled and resembling the current British model. It consists of 3 rectangular aluminum nesting pans with flat, folding handles for the inner & outer pans, and a smaller insert tray without handles.
Sweden
The Swedish (m/42) mess kit resembles the German design, but is slightly larger, with a distinctive, extruded base that projects a few millimeters from the bottom of the lid/fry pan. The larger, pot-shaped portion has a longer wire bail that folds down when not in use, and also has a separate hook in the center of the bail. The the lid/frypan has a flat, extended handle that locks to the bottom of the pot once the lid is inverted and placed over the mouth of the pot. A pressed metal windscreen fits around the outside of the pot, and can be inverted and placed over a flame for cooking. Included with the mess kit is a small, round Trangia alcohol stove with screw top lid, and a small plastic fuel bottle. Similar mess kits used by Finland, Norway, and Estonia lack the alcohol burner.
Great Britain
During the Napoleonic wars, Great Britain adopted a 2-piece mess kit with D-shaped pot having straight sides, flat bottom, rolled lip, and wire bail. The lid was also D-shaped, with a folding wire handle to one side. The lid was inverted, with the handle folded to the inside, to fight tightly over the mouth of the pot. The kit, made of tinned iron, was issued until the Pattern 37 mess tins were adopted in 1938.
The Pattern 37 mess tins consist of two rectangular tins with folding wire handles at one end, rounded corners, straight sides, and flat bottoms. The tins come in two sizes, one slightly smaller and fitting inside the other, with their wire handles folded to the inside. This means that the handle of the larger tin folds over the bottom of the inverted, smaller tin. Original mess tins were made of tinned steel, but now pressed aluminum is more common. This type is used by most Commonwealth armies (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia, Nigeria, etc), Ireland, South Africa, and by the Dutch & Danish armies as well. A modified 3-piece version of this kit is used by the French.
Japan
The Imperial Japanese Army was unique in issuing two different types of mess kit, one kind for enlisted men and another for officers. The four-piece "Han gou" used by the troops somewhat resembled contemporary German or Soviet models, consisting of a brown-painted oval aluminum kidney-shaped rice cooker, with a slightly longer soup pot fitting inside that and a short side-dish tray nesting inside the soup pot. The cover of the soup pot, when inverted, became another food tray. Both the rice cooker and the soup pot had wire bails, but neither the cover nor the nesting side-dish tray had a handle of any kind. A simplified 3-piece model, the "Ro," was introduced later in the war and lacked the soup pot insert, but retained the nesting side-dish tray and cover.
Officers had a smaller, less complex mess kit consisting of a rectangular aluminum box with a tightly fitting cover which, when inverted, became another food dish; sometimes a short nesting tray was inserted inside the larger box underneath the cover. The larger box had a wire bail, but neither the nesting tray nor the cover/tray had handles of any kind.
Korea
South Korea issues a 2-piece mess kit similar to that used by Germany, but slightly smaller. The olive green painted oval aluminum cookpot has a wire bail, while the lid (which reverses to become a bowl or plate) usually has a flat folding handle that latches underneath the cookpot. Earlier models often lack the folding handle for the lid/bowl.
Vietnam
The PAVN uses a mess kit based on the WW2 French model. Resembling European style mess kits, the 2-piece assemblage consists of an unpainted aluminum cook pot with wire bail and a lid/cover which, once removed and inverted, becomes a bowl or sauce pan. The cover/pan has a folding wire handle with a deep curve at its end that latches underneath the cookpot when the two pieces are stored together. However, unlike European mess kits, the PAVN kit is more rectangular, with straight sides rather than the kidney-shaped curved sides of the European models.
US Army
Consists of a shallow, flat, oval, stainless steel (early models were aluminum) skillet with flat bottom and a foldable handle that curves near the end into a latch. The lid is formed into a two-compartment plate with a center divide wide enough for the folding handle when the plate is inverted and placed over the skillet, with the handle folded and latched in place. The plate/lid also has a secure D-shaped ring held in place by friction. Each piece may be used individually, or by sliding the lid/plate's center divide onto the folding handle and securing it with the ring and latch mechanisms, as a 3 compartment mess tray. Soldiers may also use the skillet to cook raw food, though it is just deep enough for some stew or rice cooking. Typically, the skillet is used to fry food. This type of mess kit has been supplied to many Latin American armies such as Mexico or Argentina, and is also used by Portugal.
"I think," said Christopher Robin, "that we ought to eat all our Provisions now, so that we shan't have so much to carry."
