How To Tell The Difference Between Different US M1910 Canteens

hey everybody this is woodward guy here today and today i'm going to show you how to identify a canteen more specifically the american m1910 model canteen so these canteens have been used basically from 1910 all the way to i believe the mid 90s i know desert storm they still had the model i don't know when the us military transitioned to whatever they used today modern military is not my expertise at all this video is going to help you guys if you're in an antique shop military show if you're a new collector and you come across some canteen but you're not exactly sure what it is what model is it worth this price and so on assuming of course you know the date is not there because with a date yeah it's pretty easy to know what you have so i have a few different canteen covers here and before we continue this is the covers only the canteens we're not going to look at so what's inside is not the interest for this video we're going to look at the canteens we're going to see some different factors some differences some similarities and hopefully this will help you guys for the next time you see one at wherever you at you are all right first off we're going to look at what the u.s used before they transition um so excuse my lack of knowledge but i don't know the model number model you know designated name for these canteens but you know they're flat plate looking canteens and the us military used this for as long as i can think of i believe you know around the time of our independence they had a similar you know disc style canteen and of course throughout the years they basically improvised it um but the overall shape is something you would have seen used in the civil war this one's an indian war uh canteen and you've also seen this for like the spanish-american war this is what the us military used this very plate looking canteen and around 1910 uh you know the us military decided we need to modernize our military we need to change basically our whole uniform so they changed everything that's why you have like the my model 1910 haversack uh canteen um t-handle shovel uh you have the model 1912 montana peak cap and other things that i that you can look up and they decided with the model 1910 canteen so they came up with the model 10 uh model 1910 canteen which is what you see in front of you as you can see it's made of canvas it has a us imprint on it it has these called lift the dots because you push the dot and you lift and it opens they came up with the new attachment system which is the uh wires here that would attach to your cartridge belt pistol belt whatev your pack whatever you wanted to really and that was it on the inside on the inside they will have a wool lining wool or felt i believe the early ones were wool then they switched to to felt because it was cheaper and still effective and this design would allow you to put your cup and your canteen all one spot while before you had your canteen then you had to store your cup somewhere else this makes it all compact one spot easy and ready to go now there were the early models you know the ones made in 1910 and 1911 1912 those are very hard to find i don't have examples of them but one easy way is on the back you would have about i believe 12 rows of stitching later variants you know for whatever reason they realized it wasn't necessary so there would be only just the connecting seam in the back so if you come across a canteen like this what you can notice is that it's relatively slim it has seven rows of stitching on the front only one stitching in the back you have this square shaped attachment piece lift the dot buttons and of course if there is a date it's going to be on the inside flap either on the left or the right side depending on manufacture inside you would see the manufacturer and the year it was produced this one i believe was february i believe that's what that two would stand for is the month um not all of them is not all of them are going to have a month if that is a month but they will all have a year usually just an 18 or they might put 1918. so the model 1910 is what they used throughout all of world war one in the interwar period and the early stages of world war ii like i said with the model 1910 it was used throughout world war ii but in about around 1942 the u.s you know military came up with a new improvement or modification and that is what many collectors call the m1942 canteen cover the only difference with this the main difference is that it was slightly wider so that was easier to put and take your cup out from the cover because the earlier versions like that one it was very tight around the cup and it was actually a bit difficult to remove it so the biggest improvement is that it was now a bit bigger so it's easier for the soldier to take out their cup when they needed to you still have your seven rows of stitching in the front but the back also the seam does not go all the way down it stops at the very top here they still have this square attachment here for the the hooks lift the dot buttons and on the inside they would still have felt felt or wool lining some of the colors also change so the 1910 they would be a yellowish khaki color while the model 42s would go more towards a green you know od 307 maybe color so it's a bit greener in color so if you have these two canteens sitting in front of you at an antique store the best way you're going to know which ones which without looking at the date is this one is a yellowish khaki color and it is more slim this one is a greenish color you know od3 color and it's a bit wider now the thing is during war sometimes you need help from your allies and if you know your history there is the len lease act where america would make a whole bunch of equipment and firearms and weapons for the british military and in a way to repay that the british offered to make different equipment for the soldiers such as canteen covers haversacks cartridge belts um other things like that mossette bags and it's possible that you may come across some at an antique store so right here we have two british made canteen covers that were made in 1944 now comparing that to the model 10 we're going to use the model 10. to compare there are some differences a lot of the british webbing was more of a greenish color this one's very used so it's more brown but you can see there's a more greenish color compared to the od3 that we're more familiar with on the front there's only four rows of stitching instead of the seven and on the back it's still relatively the same although this one follows the 42 pattern where the seam only goes down about a quarter way through and then some minor differences is the attachment was a bit lower on the lifted dot they still have the lift the dot snaps you know the actual ones some american ones did but other manufacturers did not have them for whatever reason as you can see here on the inside where it's less faded a much greener color and you can see 1944 and right on the stitching of course it says british made which we'll look at the other one in a second to see accidents as you can see although very hard to see on camera it does say british made there on the inside the british would have a white felt lining so the americans had a gray black one while the british had a white one so that's an easy easy way to identify if you have a british made canteen cover otherwise they're basically the exact same they just had some minor differences that really didn't affect the the user or the effectiveness of the canteen cover all right so now we're getting to the variants that i'm not entirely sure on so take everything i say with a grain of salt and do a little bit extra research in case you want to buy one of these so after world war ii you know they decided hey you know this works great but there could be some improvements as seen with this one they start to go more towards a od7 color so a darker green color but they still have the exact same shape you have your one two three four five six seven rows of stitching on the front on the back you have the seam that only goes a quarter way down but now you have a larger tab sewn onto the canteen this is just basically a reinforcement so that there's less chance of this ripping off ignore this wire this is done post war this is not original factory wire here you can see the stamp would be on the outside on the front uh it's hard to read but i believe it's a 1945 data cover so around 1945 is when they started producing these on the inside you still have your gray black felt lining and you still have your classic lift the dot snaps on the front this would have been used in korea uh very late stages of world war ii i believe you know so really around like may maybe uh april may and they were also used in early stages of vietnam very early stages next here we have another model and unfortunately i don't know the model i might do some research put at the bottom of the screen right there maybe but this is what you're going to see more in vietnam and to backtrack something i forgot to include is the early model 1910 covers did have these kind of snaps on them it was until a few years later i believe around 1916 i could be wrong but around then that they add the lift a dot so sometime around the 60s for whatever reason they went back to these snaps which i don't really like you know if they have a hard time coming on you just got to keep pulling and hope it doesn't tear through the cover so that's going to be the biggest difference it's going to be the snaps are snaps not lift the dots you still have seven rows of stitching on the front that hasn't changed the color is a green you know od7 color and now on the back we have the alice clips so we are gone away with the the wires 1910 wire system we are now on the alice system as you know in vietnam and post vietnam it was what was very common for our soldiers uh markings were different of course these are very faded but it's basically going to be the same as the world war ii kinds but with a little bit more information and a little bit you know ease of you know bigger letters and words on the inside now you have a some of them did have felt i believe but here you have a sort of synthetic fur it seems like which is interesting but it was the same idea it was just for to help with insulation around the time of the 1990s so operation desert storm uh the u.s used this style of canteen but there are also some made of nylon so these were made of canvas like i said at the beginning of the video but around the late 80s and 90s they started using nylon um i believe it is because nylon's a bit you know more robust it's a little stronger so it's going to last you a bit longer than canvas that can easily you know dry rot a bit easier than the nylon so that basically concludes the video hopefully this video helped you guys so for those who are not experienced or new to this they'll have an easier time identifying the certain canteen covers in an antique store estate sale military show even ebay what have you if this video helped you guys or if you enjoyed it drop a like write a comment share and subscribe but besides that you guys have a great day

Channel: World War Guy

Views: 1,010

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Ww2, Canteen, American, USA, US

Id: qxVg7zxuYPc

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 07 2020