German WWII Pattern Wehrmacht Canteen & Cup, MENESA Mfg
This item is listed for historical interest only. It was listed on our site previously but has been sold and is no longer available for purchase.
Sold for: $95.00

Original period manufacture. A very nice condition canteen, of a pattern used by the German Wehrmacht on all fronts during WWII, displaying the makers name of MENESA on the top of the black painted cup and again on the bottom of the aluminum water bottle itself. in addition, the cup is also marked MN43 on the folding handle bracket. We originally offered this on our site as a WWII example, it sold, and six months later was returned to us as all original except for the water bottle, which was a fake according to the buyer. Doing a little digging online I found a number of questions regarding the age, but not originality of these canteens, several opinions on forums stating that these were possibly produced under contract postwar for the French military as reparations. I would have thought there would have been no problem finding Wehrmacht canteens with the immense amount of captured material which fell into Allied hands in May of 1945. But, stranger things have happened. The French government did continue to produce the P-38 pistol, so why not canteens I suppose. So what we have here is a canteen that if a German soldier was issued it in 1943 he would not have complained. An interesting story if nothing else.