MODEL 1910 US MARINE CORPS WORLD
WAR ONE CANTEENS – RARE MODIFICATIONS FOR USE BY THE US
NAVY HOSPITAL CORPSMEN SERVING WITH THE MARINES – TWO
VERSIONS – ONE RIMMED EAGLE & ANCHOR SNAP CANTEEN AND
ONE LIFT THE DOT SNAP
CANTEEN – BOTH IN EXCELLENT CONDITION WITH FULL LENGTH
SHOULDER STRAPS - FROM AN OLD SIGNIFICANT WWI US MARINE
CORPS COLLECTION:
This is the sort of wind
fall that happens very rarely. Offered here are two
versions of World War One United States Marine Corps
Canteens – one with the Rimmed Eagle and Anchor Snaps,
and the other with the Lift The Dot Snaps – which were
both modified in France for use by the U.S. Navy
Hospital Corpsmen who accompanied the Marines into the
field to tend to the wounded.
This modification is known and recognized by experienced
World War One USMC collectors, however these modified
canteens in any condition are quite rare, and the two
offered here are the only specimens which are known that
have survived with the complete shoulder strap intact.
This shoulder/neck strap enabled the Hospital Corpsman
to carry several – one estimate is as many as twelve -
canteens forward with the advancing Marines. The
Corpsman could then leave a canteen of water with each
casualty after treating the wounds and continuing on to
other cases needing attention. The specific use of
these shoulder strapped canteens by Corpsmen is further
substantiated by the absence of the standard nested
canteen cup in both of these specimens – as the canteen
of water was specifically intended to be provided to the
wounded at the scene of their wounding, there was no
particular need for the cup and it only represented
unnecessary weight. Eliminating the weight of the cups
from the canteens carried by the Corpsmen represented
perhaps one or two more full canteens that could be
added to the load he carried – a very real and practical
consideration.
This modification, which was fashioned in the same
manner on all of the known specimens, is believed to
have been executed in France after the arrival of the
Marines on the Western Front, perhaps at a front line
depot or field hospital where the Navy Corpsmen were
marshaled and detailed out to the Marine regiments as
they moved into the line.
The modification involved attaching a small loop made of
the cloth strapping material, which captured a wire box
ring, to one side of the cover with two iron rivets. A
black japanned friction adjustment buckle was mounted
with a single iron rivet on one end of a length of the
same strapping material which would serve as the
shoulder strap. The other end of the shoulder strap was
passed through the wire box ring, and through the
friction buckle to form an adjustment loop, and then
that raw end was riveted to the other side of the cover,
again with two iron rivets. So arranged, the length of
the shoulder strap could be adjusted to fit the
Corpsman, but the strap was “captured” on the cover and
could not be removed without unseating the rivets
attaching it to the cover. No other modification was
made to the cover and it is notable that the original
wire belt hook sewn high on the rear of the cover in the
manner of a standard USMC World War One Canteen Cover
was left in place.
The strapping is identical to the material used for
straps on some French M2 gas mask bags, which suggests
either the straps on these canteens were fashioned from
material which was commonly available in France during
the war, or the straps used for the modification were
salvaged from discarded M2 gas mask bags.
There is no doubt that very few specimens of this unique
canteen arrangement have survived with the straps fully
intact. It is known that at one time a dealer back east
had more than one example of these strapped canteens in
his collection, however none of the canteens had
survived with the straps intact, having either pulled
away from the rivets or the strap was torn leaving only
remnants of the strap. There has been a rumor that a
fully intact specimen is held in the collection of
either the US Navy Museum at the Washington D.C. Navy
Yard, or at the US Marine Corps Museum at Quantico,
Virginia, but I have not been able to confirm this.
This is a rare opportunity to add a unique, and very
historically important artifact to your World War One US
Marine Corps collection.
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