Shell damaged British hot food container: 18th Battalion, AIF

Insulated double wall hot food container. The container is kidney shaped and has two canvas straps so that it can be worn as a backpack. Their is a small stuffed Hessian sack near the base of the container to provide some back support. The container has two rope handles to help carry it if not being worn as a backpack. One handle has disconnected at one end due to the damage made from a shell hitting it and causing two puncture holes from the top side of the container to the bottom of the opposite side.

Both holes, but especially the exit hole, reveal the red-brown fibre insulation, likely animal fibre, inside the double walls. The container has four butterfly screws attached to rods at the opening that secure the lid to the container. The lid no longer fits properly on the container due to distortion from the shell damage.

Insulated food container damaged by a German shell near Villers-Bretonneux. On 6 July 1918, the 18th Battalion moved into the front line east north east of Villers-Bretonneux, establishing their cookhouse at the Villers Line trench, possibly at the northern end of the trench, near the battalion's headquarters.

At 10.10pm on 8 July, the north section of the Villers Line was shelled. The food container was standing with others beside the cookhouse in the support line. The cooks of the 18th Battalion were preparing food to send to the front line when a 7.7cm shell hit the container and passed through the double wall of steel and insulation, landing beside one of the cooks. Fortunately the shell was a dud and did not explode, sparing those in the vicinity.

• Lid for shell damaged British hot food container: 18th Battalion, AIF