BACKGROUND: As with any nation’s military the Germans had garrisons and barracks to house and care for its troops when they were not in the field. Following the old adage that, "an army runs on its stomach", one of the major concerns and main benefits of military life was the guarantee of three "square" meals a day. The Kriegsmarine also had the added responsibility of outfitting the galleys on all sea going vessels such as Submarines, Battleships, Destroyers etc.. The German armed forces had a tradition, dating from the 1700's, of maintaining a separate branch of Officials to oversee all administrative and technical functions, thus freeing up active service Officers and allowing them to concentrate on actual military matters. The Officials were responsible for a wide variety of administrative and technical tasks from Court Martial, Librarian, Technical and Meteorological Services, to School, Barracks, Hospital administration and Provisions/rations supply. Most officials careers consisted of four varying grades, of high, elevated, medium and low grade with slightly differing identifying insignia for each grade. The grade of the career was determined by the education and/or experience of the individual. During the Weimar, Reichswehr, (National defence Force, Circa 1919-1933), era the Officials were divided into military and civilian personnel until March 29^TH 1935 when the OKM, Oberkommando der Marine, (High Command of the Navy), did away with the differentiation and consolidate all the Officials into the newly formed Wehrmachtbeamte-Marine, (Armed Forces Officials-Navy). The Administrative and Technical Officials were not classified as soldiers but rather as Wehrmacht-Angehörige, (Armed Forces-Members), and were obligated to follow both military and civil servant regulations. The procurement and distribution of provisions/rations was the responsibility of the Marineverpflegungsamt, (Navy Provisions Office), and regulations authorized each sailor a daily food ration. Although regulations dictated the daily quantity of rations issued to each sailor it became more and more difficult to meet the requirements as the war continued and any food became a valuable commodity. This container was presumably a part of a garrisons or vessels stores and was distributed as required.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Roughly, 5" tall, 4" wide, 1 1/4" thick, blue/grey painted, sheet metal construction container with a vertical, brazed side seam, a brazed on bottom panel and a fold back top lid with a brazed on, staggered, horizontal, wire hinge to the reverse and a brazed on, swivel hinged, wire closure clip to the obverse. The bottom of the container has embossed script, "Kriegsmarine 300 gr Notverpflegung", (Navy 300 grams {of} Emergency Rations). The container retains about 80% of its blue/grey paint with a few small spots of wear to the base sheet metal with light to moderate surface spotting and some raised "spider-webbing". Unique Emergency Rations container.

GRADE ***1/2                             PRICE $500.00