Description
Mess kits are used even before World War II. The design was to serve men queuing in feeding lines and served in unit forma- tions from large garrison-type field kitchens when not in actual daily combat operations. Soldiers in the field were never ex- pected to either forage or to completely cook their rations, even in daily combat or frontline service. When not used as a serving tray for company-size or larger units, the mess kit was used to re-heat pre-measured servings of the canned reserve ration.