German insulated hot food container damaged by an explosion in the Bellicourt Tunnel, France

Damaged German insulated hot food container which is dull grey-green and might be galvanised or painted. It is grimy and stained with dark coloured accretions on the sides. There is a torn and jagged 185mm split in the outer jacket and a corresponding 110mm split in the inner lining, which may have been caused by a piece of shrapnel hitting the pot. Cork has been used as insulation between the outer jacket and inner lining. A heavy coating of mixed dirt, straw and cobwebs are stuck to the base. The circumferential reinforcing strap around the base is broken. The strap, which is only held on by two rivets, prevents the pot from sitting flush on its base. The lid has a circumferential fabric-tape seal that is broken and stained brown by rust.

This pressure cooker was found in an improvised German kitchen that had been established in a chamber in the Bellicourt Tunnel, France. The kitchen, which had been destroyed by a shell that had killed a party of Germans, was discovered on 29 September 1918.