Being a new guy, I don't have a whole lot to add in terms of useful mechanical info, but I thought you guys might be interested in hearing some anecdotes about stoves being used in WWII. My main hobby is WWII living history/reenacting and that's how I wound up here: trying to get my M1941 and M1942-Mod stoves working. I'm very grateful for the quick responses and good advice and thought this might be a small way to return the favor. The main unit that my reenacting group portrays is the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. One of the great things about portraying this unit is that two officers and at least one enlisted man wrote memoirs so there is quite a bit of first hand information from this particular unit. There is also another great book that puts together unit histories and interviews to tell the story of the 504th. So, as part of my research into whether or not the 504th used the stoves, I ran across these anecdotes about the stoves: In his book All the Way to Berlin, Lt. James Megellas tells shares this from his time in the Appenine mountains of Italy in November-December 1943: On the next page Megellas admits to making the "rookie mistake" of drinking from a canteen full of gas! While I haven't seen any pictures of men cooking on their stoves from this period, I have found a picture of troops climbing the mountain and one rifleman with two canteens, and I'm guessing one of those is a fuel container since he's not a medic. In his book Strike and Hold, Capt. T. Moffatt Burriss, Burriss lets a Pvt. McLane tell a story about a stove incident from Anzio in early 1944: If you've seen the movie A Bridge Too Far, Robert Redford's character, Julian Cook, is kind of a mash-up of Cook and Burriss. In the book, More Than Courage (a history of the 504th), author Phil Nordyke shares this story from Pfc. Lawrence Dunlop while he and a buddy were stopped on the side of a road on 21 July 1943 in Sicily: A buddy and I are planning on cooking (but not eating) some bacon like this for a display on Veterans Day weekend, will report back on how it goes if anyone is interested. Next Nordyke reveals how Pvt. Harold J. Sullivan carried his stove, to the chagrin of Lt. Col. Cook: I thought these were all interesting stories that showed just how valuable and beloved their stoves were. Who knows, maybe one of the stoves in someone's collection on here helped heat the meal of a GI fighting somewhere during the war?
Neat stories, thanks for sharing those. I don't think you can underestimate the impact a stove makes on morale. And you can't appreciate the value of a stove until you been without one in winter. Mike
My son-in-law found that out when he's gone out on paintball "reenactments". He'll fire up the Coleman 530 upwind of the opposing side when they're dug in, and make some coffee and fry up some ham and English muffins. The other side has commented that it's the most demoralizing thing, being out in the field, smell hot food and drink, and realize that it's so near, and yet, SO FAR AWAY!!!!!!!!! Murph
Great anecdotes and history, thanks for sharing! It blows my mind that some of those WWII era stoves are virtually unchanged from the design they use today, I'm fascinated with the history.
Hi Matt was your outfit at Military odyssey at Detling this year I will try and post a picture of a stove at one of the American camps there it may be yours. Cheers Nick
Pretty sure it was in an American camp site so I do not know what the Mg 42 was doing there, or is it the other way round! all the best Nick
Why expend your rounds first? Acquire and re-deploy theirs. This is why we use thermite and det cord to decommission our weapons and ordnance if overrun. Looking at this, first glance caught the round belt magazine and I mistook it as an MG-34. Second glance noticed the slot for the quick change barrel(GI's best friend and worse enemy) Only place I want to see an MG-42 rain hell is "Call of Duty". AR
Nope, wasn't me, but I'm glad to see there are some other stoves in use. I'll try tonget some pictures from the 12th. I do know that a lot of GIs would pick "Esbit" stoves off of Germans. They're about the size of a deck of cards and unfold to allow a heat tab (like hexane) to burn undet a canteen cup or other cooking container. GIs would also cook off of little canisters of wood alcohol (think sterno) or even with just a regular fire in a C ration can. Having tried all of these, I see the admiration for the gas stoves and understand why they'd be so valuable to anyone who acquired them.
Those Esbit stoves are great considering their size, weight, etc. I have at least a half dozen of them. One of them in a backpack I leave in the car was a real life saver when I got stuck in Houston unexpectedly for hurricane Ike.
Thanks Matt!! Interesting history for sure. Where is your AGM's flame spreader/windscreen? Jeff Neat history for sure
Not My stove I am afraid so the where abouts of the wind shield is unknown to me! This was just in a reenactors camp site. Here is another camp for British this time, looks like some kind of oven to me.
