ARMY MESS KIT

[connie]

Anyone have a photo of a regulation WWII Army mess kit? I remember the utensils around our house. And, Dad had a mess plate. But, I believe that his was non-regulation. I'm wondering how it differed from the standard regulation plate of the era. His was divided and had a clip on the side, probably for attaching it to a belt if hands were needed while waiting in the chow line(?)

[Carl W.]

Connie, the standard GI mess kit was either the M1932 or M1942,consisting of a pan with a hinged handle plus a lid that fits over the pan and is held together as one unit when the pan handle is folded over. A ring attached to the edge of lid, off center, can be slipped over the pan handle so the two can be dipped in boiling water together.



Officers had, besides their standard issue GI mess kit, special chests with enamel or aluminium plates, which were used to serve meals to officers in the field.



The above is a scan from the Quartermaster-6 Catalog (dated 31 Jan 1944), with list of contents. _{(Courtesy of J. Willaert)}

[srpratt]

Connie,

Think I know where this is going, you may be looking for information about the plate that Pop carried. At one time he told me where that came from but I do not remember. I do rememger that he told me that the spring clip on one side was used to hold a fork so that he could dip in in the dish wash tank to get it clean after use. Do you have the plate?
Stan

[connie]

Thanks, Carl & Stan!

This does give me a picture of the standard mess plate. And, that officer's kit is interesting. Both confirm what Stan said here and earlier to me -- that Dad's plate was a non-regulation plate. I believe it was with him before he was an officer & traveled to the Pacific as well as to the ETO. It was a large heavy gauge aluminum plate divided into 3 segments to separate food -- one large one and two smaller ones. The tableware he carried was regulation, I think. Somewhere over the years one piece of the tableware disappeared. But, I remember as a child seeing all of this. Yes, I do have the plate. (I believe you have a couple of the pieces of silverware, right, Stan?

I guess it is obvious to all that one of my brothers (Stan) has now entered the conversation! As the two oldest in the family, we probably came closest to the stories and the feel of the initial post-war era. Stan, as son and firstborn probably heard more first hand than I did. We now live 3,000 miles apart, but e-mail is a good connection, and it's nice to meet in this space, too!

[engineercutoff44]

This site is very interesting!closed a gap in a question burning me a long time,I found an officers kit platter on hill 697 on the schwarze mann with 3 holes in it 2 small on the top and a .30 cal hole in the middle saw in a time mag what it was used for a pic of hitler etc was placed on the (silver) platter and a nice .30 cal bullet fired between the eyes I would guess a foxhole expansion of the saying,"serving your ass on a silver platter!the 2 small holes have boot laces still in them to hang it up!