M2 Jungle First Aid Kit

[Fixbayonets!]

Over the years I have had many of these M2 jungle first aid kits but I never found one with the original as issued contents (and never with the Frazier's solution). I finally went to a show and unsnapped what I believe to be an all original as issued but not quite complete kit. The contents include the field dressing in the proper cardboard sleeve, unused insect repellent bottle with the green seal intact, sealed sulfadiazine tablet packet, sealed iodine applicator in wooden tube, sealed atabrine tablet vial and the Frazier's solution bottle with early 5 digit stock number, contents half full. Missing is the halazone tablet bottle and the 3 band aids. I have on hand what I believe to be correct "Stickband" brand band aids that I added to the kit, I just need to find the proper halazone tablet bottle in a likewise condition to match the other contents. Thanks for checking it out!

 

Rob

[Fixbayonets!]

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[luft]

wow, pretty neat find! It's the 1st time for me to see one in brand new condition, it's very very uncommon! It's hard to find some nice ones and complete today....

thanks for share it

 

T

[Fixbayonets!]

wow, pretty neat find! It's the 1st time for me to see one in brand new condition, it's very very uncommon! It's hard to find some nice ones and complete today....

thanks for share it

 

T

 

Thanks! I do believe this kit was issued but only used slightly as the Frazier's solution has been opened and a few other contents were missing. I agree it is uncommon to find them like this, I would imagine that some of the as issued contents would have been used up fast and replaced with whatever was on hand at the time. I believe that this is the reason so many have a mish mash of different contents. I have seen some excellent examples posted here of these kits unissued and still in the box!

 

Rob

[luft]

 

Thanks! I do believe this kit was issued but only used slightly as the Frazier's solution has been opened and a few other contents were missing. I agree it is uncommon to find them like this, I would imagine that some of the as issued contents would have been used up fast and replaced with whatever was on hand at the time. I believe that this is the reason so many have a mish mash of different contents. I have seen some excellent examples posted here of these kits unissued and still in the box!

 

Rob

you're welcome! Yep, surely, and stored in a good place like a desk a footlocker or something like that. Near all the time when i find one, all is completely mismatched and few things are missing, because as you says this type of first aid was heavily used, components need to be replaced by new ones and so on. Btw, this model of pouch have a long career, some were reissued in Korea if recall properly. Bunch of them were sold (or given) to Frenchs too during Indochina war.

I'm always wandering how people do for find rarities like that, always a pleasure to see them like guys have seen them back in the time, it's very instructive

[rambob]

Rob, Most of the WWII M2 first aid kits I see on the web are pieced together with a mismatch of components. However, yours is an exception and appears to have all of the original components that should be in one of these kits, except for the bottle of water purification tablets. Congratulations!! How, can I be so sure you ask? Well, I am fortunate to have two mint, unissued M2 first aid kits with their original boxes that they came in. They were unopened and unmessed with when I received them around 10 years ago. These two kits are the barometer that I would use to compare most M2 kits to. Here is an image of one of the kits and the contents of both kits I own are identical. FYI. The Frasers solution in my two kits is completely evaporated, even though both bottles were still sealed with green tape. Your bottle still has some solution in it, which is interesting. Lastly, the adhesive plasters (Bandaids) you added to the kit are the identical brand and type of the bandaids that are in my kits.

 

Bob

[rambob]

Rob, FYI. I just checked my two M2 kits and there are 12 bandaids issued with each kit, wrapped with a blue rubber band and tucked under the flap. Everywhere I have read about the M2 kit it is stated were only three bandaids issued with the kit, but it looks like the manufacturers were a bit more generous than that. A classic example of this is the attached image of the M2 content list from the Med 6 Medical Supply Catalog dated 1944. Sorry about the .pdf file, but then added a .jpg with the content list. Notice the quantity of 3 bandage, gauze, adhesive on the list.

 

Bob

M2 First Aid Kit Content list.pdf

[Fixbayonets!]

Hey Bob,

 

Thanks for posting one of your excellent M2 kits, these must be the kits I was taking about when I said I saw them posted unissued in the box. A few questions for you if you don't mind. I am on the hunt for the proper Halazone bottle, I have an example of one that is in a used kit in my collection (veteran used and brought home, not a put together). I was going to see if I could track down the same bottle but I see that yours is different, I guess they used variations from different companies. I see the same type of Halazone bottle on Ebay as yours except the label is blue and not green, am I reading too far into this? I also wanted to ask you about the bandaids, are they supposed to fit inside that loop on the inside flap and if so, do all 12 of your bandaids fit?

 

Here is a photo of the Halazone bottle I have in one of my other kits.

 

Thanks,

Rob

[rambob]

Ron, I was only able to get 6 of the bandaids into the cloth loop under the flap. However, all 12 bandaids fit perfectly inside the flap and are held in position when the kit is snapped shut. As far as the water purification tablets are concerned, I have not seen any other bottles with the light green colored label. I feel any WWII era water purification 100 tablet bottle will work in your kit. With the rust on the cap of the tablets you already have, its condition is a bit worse than the rest of the components so I would just buy an unissued bottle of the same style from Ebay to put in your kit. They are pretty common up on Ebay.

 

Go Cavaliers from a Cleveland resident!!

 

Bob

[Chief Bast]

That is a beautiful and lucky find you made today at the show! Thanks so much for sharing - you gentleman have some wonderful examples of Jungle First Aid Kits.

[Fixbayonets!]

Ron, I was only able to get 6 of the bandaids into the cloth loop under the flap. However, all 12 bandaids fit perfectly inside the flap and are held in position when the kit is snapped shut. As far as the water purification tablets are concerned, I have not seen any other bottles with the light green colored label. I feel any WWII era water purification 100 tablet bottle will work in your kit. With the rust on the cap of the tablets you already have, its condition is a bit worse than the rest of the components so I would just buy an unissued bottle of the same style from Ebay to put in your kit. They are pretty common up on Ebay.

 

Go Cavaliers from a Cleveland resident!!

 

Bob

 

Thanks again Bob & Chief Bast for the comments & help. The bottle of Halazone I had posted in the photo was from another kit and I was not going to use it for this one, just showing it as an example. I will hunt down a bottle in unissued condition on Ebay. I also have another 3 Stickband bandaids to make a total of 6, I will add them to the kit as well.

 

Rob

 

[rambob]

Rob, Sounds like a great plan.

 

Bob

[Survival]

What year is the pouch? Contents look like they are out of a 43 or 44 case. Personally I would look for an Abbott Halizone with the blue label but the one shown is probably just fine. As far as the kit in the case that Rambob owns I originally bought about 16 of those direct from the guy who found them. Not all at one time but in dribs and drabs. I contacted collectors I knew and got everyone together to buy in quantity to try to get the price down. The Dealer was selling them one at a time on E Bay and everyone he sold went for a little less each time and he finally got tired of it and sold the rest off. He had tossed alot of them as they were rotten. I think the master carton was 144 kits and he gave me the label which I have somewhere. Anyway everyone of those kits I have came with 16 of the stickband bandaids not three or twelve. Somewhere I have seen a reference that calls for 16 bandaids in the M2 but right now I can't recall where. I would just stay with the three in your kit. MSA brand would also be good but make sure they have the plain pad. Johnson and Johnson ZO brand also good.

[Fixbayonets!]

Thanks for the info survival, a master carton full of unissued kits is one hell of a find! The pouch for my kit is dated 1944.

 

Rob

[rambob]

Thanks for the info survival, a master carton full of unissued kits is one hell of a find! The pouch for my kit is dated 1944.

 

Rob

To bayonets!, thanks for the info on the source of the mint, unissued M2 kits. I am sure my two kits came from the guy you mentioned as I bought them both from EPay within a week and no more appeared after. I counted the bandaids in both kits and there are 12 in each. It is possible the seller removed 4 bandaids from each of my kits to complete another kit that had "rotten" bandaids. Who knows?

[rambob]

Sorry Survival, it was actually you who I was directing my last post to.

 

Bob

[Survival]

If you were a student of E Bay psychology that would have been an interesting set of auctions to watch. As I recall he started the auctions at a higher auction price and they didn't sell well. Dropped the price and I bought a couple. Then a couple guys bid an auction or two higher so he raised the start price again and they didn't sell so he dropped the prices again. They were not as popular as you would have thought. People might buy one and that was enough so the market became glutted and the price fell. I think he might have sold maybe 24 or 30 kits that I saw. As I recall all the pouches were 45 dated and the contract label was 45 also. I think they were all Avery brand pouches except for a couple. All had identical contents to Rambob's except a couple had Abbott halizone. All had 16 stickbands bundled together. Usually with a black rubber band but some were loose as the bands had broken. I posted the carton label before on the Forum somewhere before but I'll dig it out and post it again.

[rambob]

Survival, I was absolutely shocked at the low prices I got these two kits off of Ebay and amazingly nobody else bid on either auction. Once I discovered the kits on Ebay, I got two quickly for the opening bids of I believe $75 dollars, which to me was a super bargain. I knew that the value would increase dramatically once the supply dried up and was ready to buy many more kits, but no more complete kits appeared on Ebay. So I didn't miss the boat, but did want to buy a boat load more of the kits at the price they were going for at the end.

 

Bob

[sgtpeter]

Nice find Rob!

[Fixbayonets!]

Thank you sgtpeter!

 

I dug through some more of my stuff and came up with 12 of the Johnson & Johnson ZO brand bandaids. These are the bandaids that survival said are also correct for this kit. Posting a photo of them here for reference.

 

Rob

[Survival]

Those look good to me

[usmc grunt]

On 6/21/2016 at 9:21 AM, Survival said:

"All had 16 stickbands bundled together." 

Survival is spot on with regard to the fact that WWII era M-2 First Aid Kits contained, and were issued with 16, not 12, stick bands. Note that while the attached image of the M-2 content list from the Med 6 Medical Supply Catalog dated 1944 does not show the unit of measure and quantity for the stick bands, 9200000, in the last two columns, the number "16" is clearly see at the end of the description. Now, note that the number "100" appears in the same location for the bottle of Halazone - which contains "100 tablets". I believe that the "3 Bandages" was printed in error. As Survival correctly noted, the M-2 was issued with 16 bandages. If you received an M-2 with 12, then someone, at some point, removed 4 from the kit. 

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