Used ammo boxes-steel?

[Ed Smurf]

Lots of old metal ammo boxes for sale. What did soldiers in combat conditions (WW2 +) do with empty mg boxes?. Were they recovered and reused or was this not practical, or safe, during operations? Just curious.

 

[zuke]

probably left to be found by recovery/recycle teams

 

[donor]

In my area of post war Poland ammo boxes (if large enough),helmets and similar containers were used by farmers for moving animal feed around.

I've seen pictures of them with rudimentary handles attached and helmets had their tops flattened after heating them up.My grandpa had Soviet helmet like this for chicken feed.

Jerry cans were always popular and many survived till 1970-80s in use.Small containers are still littering countryside by now reduced to flakes of rust.

 

[gaff]

In the war zones I was in. boxes and crates were filled with dirt or rubble and stacked into defenive positions. I also remember having to burry truck loads of ammo cans at the Shirley road dump.(late 1980's). then in the 90's the policy changed and they would be returned to the Ammo compound. probbly refilled or sold as scrap.