At the start of World War II, equipment issued to troops by the Japanese Army typically was based on European designs. As the war progressed, material shortages became extreme and the Japanese took many measures to minimize the use of metal in any form. Metal features such as buckles on packs, helmets and other equipment were replaced by cloth or rubberized leather.

The Army officer’s frame pack shown here is an early war issue of a German design. It features metal roller buckles and rivets. The interior is lined with canvas and has the previous owner’s name (Hiroshi Zaki) painted inside the flap. The pack’s construction and workmanship is of high quality, in stark contrast to later mass production versions made of thin canvas sewn with cloth tie closures.

The approximate value of this item is $275-$350. Packs and other equipment for officers are of higher quality than equipment for enlisted personnel.

During the First World War, the French soldier was required to carry great deal of equipment inside or attached to his field pack. The type of gear carried by an average soldier today has changed from the equipment carried 90+ years ago. The weight on the other hand has remained about the same at roughly 75 pounds.

During the war years 1914-1918 there was an attempt to make equipment of dual purpose to save weight in the average combat field load. One of these early innovations by the French Army was a combined field mess kit and coffee grinder. These special mess kits were issued about one per company.

The model 1852 mess kit is made of tin-plated steel and is about 6″ in diameter and 3 3/4″ deep with a crank handle and lid. There is a set of grinding teeth inside the small pot container with built in coffee filter and a removeable bottom.

When not used for making the company’s coffee the top would be removed and the chow placed into the pot for the soldier’s meal. I imagine most of his meals tasted like coffee no matter what he was eating.

This mess kit is painted green which was the color used by the French colonial army.

If it is true that an Army marches on its stomach, then the mess kit was the way the Army marches.

The examples of mess kits I have belong to World War I and the Vietnam Era. The first is heavy gauge steel and has some heft to it. Its design survived through the Second World War. The ‘chow’ was added unceremoniously into uncompartmented sections where everything eventually ran together.

The second, is lighter aluminum with sections to handle different foods such as mashed potatoes or vegetables while leaving the second main part of the mess kit for the entree, if there was one.

Every mess kit was issued with its own set of cutlery that when washed went back into the mess kit before closing it up. Tom, a friend of mine, told me that when he was with the 82nd Airborne Division, it was customary to put the clean (I hope) cutlery in a clean (I hope) sock to dampen the noise of clanging metal when on long hikes. Worked well, he said.

What Tom was amazed to hear, though, was that the mess kit has been phased out of the modern U.S. Army. Nope, there are no longer any clanging cutlery inside a metal mess kit. There are only disposable MRE’s, meals ready to eat, with paper napkins and plastic cutlery. Everything is now completely disposable.

And so goes another tradition. The marches will continue, but the stomach will be fed a little differently.