I went to a small militaria show today and found this interesting grenade box. It's a late wood packing box for 15 Model 43 stick grenades, dated February, 1945. It was used as a packing box for a Veteran to send home a group of other captured German items and mailed to his wife or girlfriend in Vancouver, Washington. You can see the address written on the bottom in red grease pencil with a couple of postage stamps still attached.
I hadn't seen one like this in person before but remembered a National Archives photo saved earlier that had some like it in the middle of a stack of crates. It's made from a combination of tongue and groove plank boards with a plywood top. It is very simple with one rope handle and a minimum of metal parts....only a single front latch and no hinges. Just a wooden tab to retain the rear of the lid. Things were getting pretty desperate in 1945 and this sure doesn't resemble those beautifully engineered metal suitcases from earlier in the war.
Do any of our BOCN members have a complete example so I can see how the inside was configured? Not that I have enough M43s to fill it up. My two or three grenades would look pretty lonely in that big box but it would be nice to see how the partitions were layed out. Thanks for any input. Rick
I hadn't seen one like this in person before but remembered a National Archives photo saved earlier that had some like it in the middle of a stack of crates. It's made from a combination of tongue and groove plank boards with a plywood top. It is very simple with one rope handle and a minimum of metal parts....only a single front latch and no hinges. Just a wooden tab to retain the rear of the lid. Things were getting pretty desperate in 1945 and this sure doesn't resemble those beautifully engineered metal suitcases from earlier in the war.
Do any of our BOCN members have a complete example so I can see how the inside was configured? Not that I have enough M43s to fill it up. My two or three grenades would look pretty lonely in that big box but it would be nice to see how the partitions were layed out. Thanks for any input. Rick
