Original Items: Only One Lot of 3 Available. Now this is a unique grouping. This lovely trio of tins were common items to be found on lifeboats and liferafts. Three genuine WWII US Coast Guard lifeboat and life raft rations which contain 7 Oz. pemmican, malted milk, biscuit and chocolate.

All 3 are in good condition with much of the original contents labels still present, but there is surface oxidation present. Though the tins are unopened and we can hear contents inside, we cannot guarantee all items listed will be present. Two of the tins are dated 1945 while the third is dated May of 1944.

A lovely grouping ready for further research and display.

Idiot Clause - the contents of the kits are pre-1945 manufacture and are NOT suitable for consumption. They are being sold as novelty collector pieces only. Even though some people on youtube have tried. Yuk!

Before the American entry into World War II, cutters of the Coast Guard patrolled the North Atlantic. In January 1940 President Roosevelt directed the establishment of the Atlantic Weather Observation Service using Coast Guard cutters and U.S. Weather Bureau observers.

After the invasion of Denmark by Germany on 9 April 1940, President Roosevelt ordered the International Ice Patrol to continue as a legal pretext to patrol Greenland, whose cryolite mines were vital to refining aluminum and whose geographic location allowed accurate weather forecasts to be made for Europe. The Greenland Patrol was maintained by the Coast Guard for the duration of the war.

The Coast Guard became directly involved in the first World War II attack on America in the 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor. Supporting U.S. naval forces on 7 December, were the Coast Guard cutters, patrol boats, bases, stations, lighthouses and personnel assigned to the 14th Naval District. These units included USCGC Taney and patrol cutters Tiger and Reliance; buoy tenders Kukui and Walnut; patrol boats CG-400, CG-403, CG-27, and CG-8; a buoy boat and the former Lighthouse Service launch Lehua all participated in the battle shooting at several aircraft.

Taney, a notable World War II era high endurance cutter, is the only warship still afloat today (as a museum ship in Baltimore) that was present for the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, although she was actually stationed in nearby Honolulu. Coast Guard aviator, Lieutenant Frank Erickson, who later pioneered search and rescue helicopter flight, although assigned to Taney was standing watch at Ford Island before the attack then took command of an anti-aircraft battery to fight off multiple enemy aircraft.

During World War II, there was great concern about enemy vessels nearing U.S. shores, allowing adversarial forces to invade the nation. Beach patrols manned by Coast Guardsmen gained increased importance as security forces with three basic functions: to look for and report on any suspicious vessels operating in the area; to report and prevent attempts of landings by the enemy; and to prevent communication between persons on shore and the enemy at sea. patrolled the shores of the United States during the war.[59] On 13 June 1942 Seaman 2nd Class John Cullen, patrolling the beach in Amagansett, New York, discovered the first landing of German saboteurs in Operation Pastorius. Cullen was the first American who actually came in contact with the enemy on the shores of the United States during the war and his report led to the capture of the German sabotage team. For this, Cullen received the Legion of Merit.

USCGC Modoc was peripherally involved in the chase and sinking of the German battleship Bismarck.

Shortly after Germany declared war on the United States, German submarines began Operation Drumbeat ("Paukenschlag"), sinking ships off the American coast and in the Caribbean. On 15 March 1942, USCGC Acacia, while en route from Curaçao to Antigua, was attacked and sunk by U-161 approximately 150 miles south of Port au Prince, all hands were rescued with no loss of life.

Many Coast Guard cutters were involved in rescue operations following German attacks on American shipping. USCGC Icarus, a 165-foot (50 m) cutter that previously had been a rumrunner chaser during Prohibition, sank U-352 on 9 May 1942, off the coast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and took 33 prisoners, the first Germans taken in combat by any U.S. force.

USCGC Thetis sank U-157 on 10 June 1942. During the war, Coast Guard units sank 12 German and two Japanese submarines and captured two German surface vessels.

When USCGC Campbell rammed and sank U-606, her enlisted mascot Sinbad became a public hero at home and brought attention to the role of the Coast Guard in convoy protection.

The Coast Guard had 30 Edsall class destroyer escorts under its command that were used primarily for convoy escort duty in the Atlantic. Other United States Navy ships under Coast Guard command included:

75 patrol frigates
8 Flower-class corvettes
22 Troopships
20 Amphibious cargo ships
9 Attack transports
76 Landing Ship, Tank
28 Landing Craft Infantry
18 gasoline tankers
10 Submarine chasers
40 Yard patrol boats

In addition to antisubmarine operations, the Coast Guard worked closely with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Many of the coxswains of Coast Guard operated American landing craft, such as the Higgins boat (LCVP), used in amphibious invasions were Coast Guardsmen who had received amphibious training with the cooperation of the U.S. Marine Corps. Coast Guard cutters and ships partially crewed by Coast Guardsmen were used in the North African invasion of November 1942 (Operation Torch) and the invasion of Sicily in 1943 (Operation Husky). Coast Guard crews staffed 22 tankers, 51 large tugs, 6 marine repair ships, and 209 freight and supply vessels for the United States Army.

On 9 September 1942 USCGC Muskeget was sunk by U-755 with a loss of 116 crewmembers, one Public Health Service physician, and four civilian Weather Service personnel while on North Atlantic weather patrol.

In November 1942, legislation was passed creating the Coast Guard Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS. Led by Captain Dorothy C. Stratton, around 11,000 women served in various stateside positions, freeing men for overseas duty.

On 3 February 1943 the torpedoing of the transport SS Dorchester off the coast of Greenland saw cutters Comanche and Escanaba respond. The frigid water gave the survivors only minutes to live in the cold North Atlantic. With this in mind, the crew of Escanaba used a new rescue technique when pulling survivors from the water. This "retriever" technique used swimmers clad in wet suits to swim to victims in the water and secure a line to them so they could be hauled onto the ship. Escanaba saved 133 men and Comanche saved 97. Escanaba herself was lost to a torpedo or mine a few months later, along with 103 of her 105-man crew.

During the Normandy invasion of 6 June 1944, a 60-cutter flotilla of wooden 83-foot (25 m) Coast Guard cutters, nicknamed the "Matchbox Fleet", cruised off all five landing beaches as combat search-and-rescue boats, saving 400 Allied airmen and sailors. Division O-1, including the Coast Guard-crewed USS Samuel Chase, landed the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division on Omaha Beach. Off Utah Beach, the Coast Guard crewed the command ship USS Bayfield. Several Coast Guard-crewed landing craft were lost during D-Day to enemy fire and heavy seas. In addition, a cutter was beached during the storms off the Normandy coast which destroyed the U.S.-operated Mulberry harbor.

On 27 August 1944, the all Coast Guard-crewed USS LST-327 was torpedoed – but not sunk – by U-92 while crossing the English Channel. 22 Coast Guardsmen were killed.

On 12 September 1944, SS George Ade, a Liberty ship, was torpedoed by a German U-boat off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. USCGC Jackson and USCGC Bedloe, heading to assist the crew of George Ade, were caught in the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 the day after, sinking both cutters and killing 47 Coast Guardsmen. A U.S. Navy seaplane rescued the survivors.

On 29 January 1945, USS Serpens, a Coast Guard-crewed Liberty ship, exploded off Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, while loading depth charges. 193 Coast Guardsmen, 56 Army stevedores, and one U.S. Public Health Service officer were killed in the explosion. This was the biggest single disaster to befall the Coast Guard during the war.

As was common during this period, many of Hollywood's able-bodied screen stars became enlistees and left their film careers on hiatus in order to support the national defense. Specifically, actors Gig Young, Cesar Romero, and Richard Cromwell all served admirably in various capacities in the USCG in the Pacific for several years. The A&P heir Huntington Hartford also served in the Pacific as a commander.