Description
The M1915 Feldflasche was introduced as a wartime replacement for earlier aluminum canteens as strategic materials became increasingly difficult to obtain. Early examples were produced from tinned steel, but because the tin coating wore easily and exposed the steel beneath to rust, production increasingly shifted to enameled steel. The familiar flattened oval body retained the basic form of earlier German field bottles, while the closure system used a cork stopper fitted with a stamped metal cap. Covers were produced in several materials over the course of the war, including Feldgrau and Steingrau wool, brown corduroy and, as shortages became increasingly severe, ersatz papercloth. These late-war papercloth covers represent one of the more distinctive material substitutions of the German wartime economy and are closely associated with 1917–1918 production.
