The sylinder box the germans soldiers wore

what was it for, holding granades ?

A gasmask.

Supposed to be a gas mask but often was food.

It's their gasmask cannister. But it was often used for other purposes, carrying grenades or food being one of them ...

It was used to hold their gas masks and sometimes there was gas cape strapped to the outside. Tim

Container for belts of machine gun ammo.

Dave www.Historylink.org The online encyclopedia of Washington state history.

thanks, dosent look very 'gas mask'ish' form to me

As a schoolboy during the war, I had one to replace the battered cardboard box the mask was issued in.

The cylinder container is for the gasmask this is refrenced in several Osprey Men at Arms books, the US War Dept. 'Handbook on German Military Forces' 1945 and many other credible sources. Machine gun belt were normaly carried in rectangle boxes with handles on them.

Really? I have never heard of anyone but German troops having them.

How did you get it? How did your friends feel about you having German Army equipment?

it was for their gas masks, but occasional;ly was used for other things. I have one from 1940 complete with extra lenses and first aid kit for gas attack.

these masks were in pratice almost never used. there are several instances in 1939 poland where chemical gas mines (mustard/blister agent) were used and i have also heard of the possible use of such weapons in the Ukraine by German police units assaigned to anti-partisan details. All soldiers of every era have found unique and non regulation uses for regulation equipment. I had always thought that it would make a great storage place for a soldiers still, extra ammunition, food, personel item. I am not 100% sure nut i do not think that the Stehlhandle Grenade would actually fit inside such a case, due to the lenght of the handle, in any event certainly no more than 2 due to the width of the explosive cannister, so to use it as a granade carrying device is proberly the least likely item to have been carried. thanks mike m