German Forces

An unusual canteen

José Marques

Found in Russia a few years ago in the Leningrad area, this otherwise common German canteen had his Russian discoverers baffled due to the unique engravings found in it. Next to the canteen an id plate shaped like a cross and bearing the nº 9660 and 'Span Div 250' was found. For a while the discoverers thought that the canteen had belonged to an Italian and it was only due to a casual conversation between a Portuguese and a Spanish militaria colector that the canteen and the story of the true owner both came to light. The canteen had once belonged to a Portuguese Wehrmacht corporal named Julio Cesar, one of less then 200 Portuguese that volunteered to fight in the Blue Division. A veteran of the Spanish Civil War, he enlisted in the Blue Division in the summer of 41, participating during the first half of 1942 in the battles around the Volkhov pocket as a member of the 4th/263, in the summer of that same year the Blue Division was transfered to the Leningrad area. On the 10 February 1943, a black day for the Blue Division, Julio found himself fighting in the Krasnyj-Bor area were he was wounded during a counter-attack, as a consequence of his injuries, which cost him a couple of fingers, he was considered unfit for duty and repatriated (to Spain) during 1943 were on the 15th of November he received the Assault Badge (Silver) for his actions. Nothing more is known of this man's fate. The canteen bares his name, his place of birth (Lisboa = Lisbon), the Cross of Christ (Portugal's Armed Forces ensignia) with a swastika in the middle, a date and the name 'Volchov' which most probably refers to Volkhov. It is now owned by a Portuguese collector and it's probably one of the most unusual artefacts of Portuguese military history in existence.