Orig 1943-dated U. S. Army Sleeping Cot, Excellent Condition, Welsh Co 12/18/43

  
This is a very nice original U. Army sleeping cot, dated December 18, 1943. It is a "transitional" 1943 color scheme, meaning that it has OD No. 7 canvas for the canvas part of the cot, which is trimmed with a lighter OD or khaki trim.

W11-009 qm-17100, 12/18/43, Welsh Company, St. This information is repeated on a white tag sewn to the canvas, so the wooden part of the cot, and the canvas, are an original matched set.

It is fairly common to find these cots with unmatched wood and canvas, because the canvas was often replaced. It is quite unusual to find a cot in this condition with an original stamp on the wood as well as a cloth label on the canvas. The wooden cross-pieces each have a piece of cloth nailed to them that forms a loop so that they can be attached to the folded cot via a couple of factory-applied canvas straps. The straps are OD webbing with a brass buckle and strap tip, and a lighter, gray-colored webbing with steel buckle and c-tip.

Other metal hardware is zinc-plated steel. The Welsh Company of St. Louis was a major supplier of cots to the U.

Army, and also made barracks bags and tarpaulins as well. The cot is in excellent, lightly used condition. The wood and metal parts are in fine shape, it works as it should and there are no cracks, splits, loose rivets, or other problems, other than the end cross-pieces have a bit of wear and chips to the wood.

The canvas is strong, mostly clean with just some slight soiling. There is a soldier's name stamped onto the wood of the cot, this is ROKETA, B. I do not have any further information on the soldier. There is some green paint on a couple of areas on the cot, see photos.

I partly assembled the cot for the photos, it has both of the original wood cross-pieces for the end, these are in good shape with some minor wear as noted above. Overall a very nice, sound, well-preserved and serviceable WWII US Army cot. These cots were used everywhere the U. Army was present in WWII, from tent camps to field hospitals to Quonset huts. There is a very nice photo of a cot exactly like this one -- OD canvas with lighter OD trim -- shown on page 30 of Jonathan Gawne's superb book, Spearheading D-Day: American Special Units in Normandy. In the photo, Non-Commissioned Officers from the U. Army's 29th Infantry Division are shown in a tent in England, just prior to the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Militaria\WW II (1939-45)\Original Period Items\United States\Field Gear, Equipment". The seller is "msaco" and is located in this country: US. This item can be shipped to North, South, or Latin America, all countries in Europe, all countries in continental Asia, Australia.

1. Region of Origin: United States
2. Modified Item: No
3. Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
4. Theme: Militaria
5. Original/Reproduction: Original
6. Conflict: WW II (1939-45)