Medical Canteen, Sanitäter Feldflasche of Die Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP) der DDR, the Garrisoned People’s Police of the German Democratic Republic, or Communist East Germany

Welcome back! Today we are looking at another type of canteen used by the KVP, the forerunner to East Germany’s National Volksarmee. Going back at least as far as World War 1, the German military has had a practice of combat medics, Sanitäter, carrying a second canteen for use with patients on the battlefield, commonly referred to as the Sanitäter Feldflasche, or Sanitäter Trinkflasche. While the Sanitäter carried his own Feldflasche on his breadbag, he carried another on a shoulder strap that he could share with patients.

A captured German Sanitäter with his Feldflasche slung over his shoulder during WW2.

Our first example of the KVP medic canteen, seen in the photos below, has a field grey felt cover over the unpainted aluminum canteen body. The drinking cup is painted grey and maker marked on top. It has brown leather fastening straps and a webbed canvas carrying strap.

The brown leather straps are riveted to the felt cover with a leather inner reinforcement tab.

Here you can see the inner leather reinforcement tabs for the rivets.

The snaps are painted black on the outside. They are attached through grey colored herringbone twill material. These snaps are marked “O.L.5.5.”

Here is the maker mark on the screw-on cap of the canteen body.

Our second example of a medic canteen is similar but with some interesting differences. This version has black leather straps as opposed to brown, and the canteen body is painted green. The cup is painted red, which you see from time to time with old East German canteens. One source indicated that canteens with the red cups were issued to German Red Cross, the Deutsches Rotes Kreuz (DRK). These red-cupped canteens also came in a variety styles, another version is at the bottom.