Original Item: Only One Available. Now this is a seldom seen example of a mess tin. These were produced in the years leading up to and during WWII for use by the Danish military. They bear a striking resemblance to other mess tins used by European countries during the time, especially German ones. Danish mess tins were actually a popular item to be acquired by German soldiers and were repainted and used as a part of their own personal kit, and to find an original unpainted example such as this one is seldom seen.

A mess tin is an item of mess kit, designed to be used over portable cooking apparatus. A mess tin can be thought of as a portable version of a saucepan, intended primarily for boiling but also useful for frying. Mess tins were originally a military design, but are also popular among civilian campers.

Mess tins are generally rectangular with rounded off edges - the rounded edges are easier to clean inside than a sharp corner. Most mess tins are supplied as a set, with one slightly larger than the other, allowing them to nestle together for easy packing. This arrangement is also useful when using the tins for boiling, as the smaller tin can be used to hold the liquid, with the larger tin placed on top to act as a lid. In order to save weight, some designs stick with a single mess tin with a lid, with the lid often having a secondary role as a frying pan.

While functionally similar to a one-man civilian mess kit, military mess kits are designed to be even more compact, using their space as efficiently as possible. Thus lids will almost always be used for preparing, cooking, and/or eating, and usually come in two or three pieces. As such, it may sacrifice certain features, or use other features to complement it.

When in a large camp, it is common for soldiers to use either normal dining wares, or a multi-compartment mess tray similar to a TV dinner tray, but much larger.

This mess tin does not have any manufacturing marks present but there are multiple unit marks stamped into the front:

3 FAR
1378
3AA
1430
3 FAR 2530

We have not been able to identify a unit from any of these markings.

This is a lovely example of a seldom seen unpainted Danish mess tin. Comes ready for research and display!