What Pens Would Soldiers In Wwii Be Using?

[camoandconcrete]

Hi,

 

I was wondering what pens would American, German, British and Russian soldiers be using to write letters, sign documents, etc. What would be the average pen they could afford?

 

Thanks,

 

MiamiArcStudent

[jar]

Mostly pencils, a few liberations, then Sheaffer, Parker, Waterman, Pelikan, Troppen, Onoto, Conway Stewart, Swan, Diplomat, Mentmore, Eversharp, Esterbrook...

[tfwall]

Pencils. They don't freeze, spill or require refills. They can be sharpened with a penknife and will write on wet or greasy paper.

[jar]

So I pulled out some of the mail from Dad, and all was written with a pen, most in black ink.

 

http://www.fototime.com/727845C8749ADC2/standard.jpg

[FrankB]

For that period of time, I also think pencils were the more frequent writing instrument. The letters my dad and mom's brothers wrote home are all in pencil. I think FP's would have been used mostly by administrative personnel.

[dcwaites]

  On 10/17/2009 at 10:04 PM, MiamiArcStudent said:

Hi,

 

I was wondering what pens would American, German, British and Russian soldiers be using to write letters, sign documents, etc. What would be the average pen they could afford?

 

Thanks,

 

MiamiArcStudent

I am sure that all of these countries have War Museums, the equivalent of the Australian War Museum. If they have any collections of servicemen's possessions, they may be able to tell you what, if any, pens they had.

 

While pencils would have been common because of their practicality, fountains pens would not have been uncommon. I remember somebody on the FPN bringing up a model of pen that had ink pills. Put an ink pill in the barrel, fill it with water and you have a functioning fountain pen.

 

As well, Parker wouldn't have developed the Microfilm Black ink, as described in this eBay item, if there hadn't been the need. This implies that there would have been many servicemen using this ink, and hence fountain pens.

[JakobS]

I would imagine the use of a fountain pen would be based on rank, social background, and importance of the document being written. As well, I would imagine pen ink would hold up better over long distances than pencil, as well as the rough conditions that the mail may have traveled through to get from solider to family. I know a number of pen companies made fountain pens with military clips that for the most part met a US military regulation that the pen cap could not be showing beyond a certain length in the pocket. So, I would imagine that fountain pens were common enough. If you do a search for military clips in the Sheaffer, Parker....etc specific forums you will find a number of posts on these pens, as well as the Writing Instruments section. A Google search for "Military Clip Fountain Pens", or similar will give you a good start. Hope this helps!

 

P.S. I would imagine as well that fountain pens were given by their families to those in the military as departing gifts as they went off to Europe and Asia.

Edited October 18, 2009 by JakobS

[zubipen]

There were some special models developed for the war as Schaeffer with those little clips, that may be covered by the flap of the pocket of the uniform shirt. In BBC site is also a link about war memories and there are some mentions to letter written with Conway Stuart pens, which also was used by W. Churchill. In the German side we have also examples of documents signed with pens. There are some links about Soldbuchs (Germans IDs) were you can see that they were completed by fountain pen, most of them in blue black and also green. Some German officials used to sign some documents color pencils or wax pencils (almost green or blue). In the case of the German Army I wonder if there were some official supplier.

 

 

 

 

[ZeissIkon]

Probably worth noting that the US Army, at least, had standards for pens carried in a uniform, essentially that the pen couldn't be visible in the pocket. That meant a clip attached at the very top of the cap so as not to push up the pocket flap and short enough not to show below it, and a pen short enough not to "bottom out" in the pocket and thin enough not to make much if any bulge. This didn't necessarily have much to do with what soldiers used to actually write letters from the combat theater, or course; in that environment, there were few officers anything like as concerned with whether a soldier's pen was visible in his pocket, as with whether he had a clean weapon, ammunition for it, water and ration packs or real food available.

[HBlaine]

The Tintenkuli, a stylographic pen created by Wilhelm Riepe, founder of the company that became Rotring, was purchased in bulk by the German military for use by their troops prior to/during WWII. There's a reference to this in Dietmar Geyer's Collecting Writing Instruments. He refers to it as "every soldier's writing instrument."

Edited October 18, 2009 by HBlaine

[Ernst Bitterman]

The average soldier may or may not have had his own pen-- when time came available for writing home, I imagine the guys that had one were very popular. As to what kind of pen it would be, it would be whatever was available to the civilian population, and dependent on the soldier's personal means. The guys without a lot of money might have (in the US or Canadian military, which are the only markets I've got a firmish grip on) Wearevers, Champions, Packards, Arnolds, or a zillion other makers that you've never heard of who have since vanished. Wealthier soldiers would have pens we know and want; Sheaffer, Parker, Waterman, Wahl, &ct. Translate those makers into the home market of wherever the soldier came from, Allies or Axis, and you've more or less got your answer

 

Microfilm Black was also for the home market, of course-- V-Mail went both ways.

[camoandconcrete]

Thank you very much everyone for your responses! Since I am getting into reenacting this summer I thought I would inquire as to what soldiers used to write with.

 

Thanks,

 

MiamiArchStudent

[Johnny Appleseed]

  On 10/17/2009 at 11:00 PM, dcwaites said:

While pencils would have been common because of their practicality, fountains pens would not have been uncommon. I remember somebody on the FPN bringing up a model of pen that had ink pills. Put an ink pill in the barrel, fill it with water and you have a functioning fountain pen.

 

Those pens were called Trench-pens and were aimed at the troops in WWI. By WWII, they would have been dinosaurs.(Actually, Ink Tablets were popular in the 1900-1920 era and could be used in any eyedropper-filling pen. Swan, Parker, and a couple of other companies made "Trench pens" that had special compartments for

 

There were a couple of pens from the 1940s that worked on similar principle (see the Ink-maker pen thread), but I don't think they would be very common.

 

John

[baazjg]

I recently read Tears in the Darkness by Michael Norman. The book is about the war in the Pacific, specifically the battles in the Phillipines and the Bataan Death March. The author tells how members of the Japanese army would strip the captured American soldiers of their personal belongings. The Japanese soldiers were particularly looking for cameras, flashlights, mechanical pencils, and fountain pens. When it came to fountain pens, they preferred Parker Duofolds "Pah-kah," the guards wouuld demand, "Pah-kah pen."

 

By the way, I recommend this book to anyone looking to gain some basic knowledge of this aspect of the war.

 

baazjg

[Bearcat]

My Father had a short, brown celluloid Sheaffer with the "military clip". He also had access to a typewriter as he cajoled his way into the Quartermaster Corps.

[Paddler]

My military experience (1969 - 1971) says that the average soldier in WWII probably didn't carry a pen or pencil around in his pocket at all. He didn't carry a writing utensil because he didn't carry paper in his pockets (at least, not the kind you write on ) Letter writing was mostly done back at a barracks or billet where his baggage was. That being the case, he could have used any pen available in the civilian market.

 

Paddler

[zubipen]

And from the German side? Montblanc always has been a luxury brand so I think the regular soldiers use something lik pelikan, matador, osmia

[donwinn]

Last year at one of the semi monthly Dallas Pen Club meetings, one of the members gave a presentation about a Parker Vacumatic pen he had purchased,and its history. He had been able to track down the original owner of the pen, who received it for high school graduation. He was able to talk to the gentleman and get some of the history. The man carried the pen with him through the European Theater of WWII, and wrote letters home with it, and wrote to a pen pal whom he met through a program where people stateside would be pen pals with soldiers. In fact, he became enamored of the pen pal, and married her after the war, and they are still married, over 50 years. So, at least one man carried a Parker Vacumatic from 1941 through Europe and wrote home with it throughout the war.

 

Donnie

[RLTodd]

The age of the indelible pencil (ink pencil) lasted well into the 1960's.

[Kaweco]

  On 10/25/2009 at 3:45 AM, zubipen said:

And from the German side? Montblanc always has been a luxury brand so I think the regular soldiers use something lik pelikan, matador, osmia

Hi all

German soldiers wrote with fountainpens. It was the best writing article and they sent masses of letters home. During each wartime the demand for good writing equipment inflated dramatically, the production during ww2 increased to its peak in 1940. Then, because of the shortage of rare materials, the production went down but was in 1945 even higher as in 1936! There were lots of primary orders from the military government and the producers had often not been able to fulfill the longlasting contracts with the wholesalers and shops. I have a letter in my collection with the personal signature of Mr. Voss, who was one of the MB owners, where he beagged at a client for foreign military order receipts to be able to serve more for private people. MB was only one among many other brands in these ancient times! They really did not make "better" fps than Kaweco, Soennecken or Osmia. The fountainpen as a tacky sign of luxury is an invention of our modern times.

Another problem for the fp producers during the war was that Speer converted the factories partially to wheapon- and other war- products. Therefore some smaller factories like GEHA and Discus had to stop their fp production totally.

My grandpa and his family had a fp repair shop and one of those numerous submicro fp productions. Actually they made business during ww2. In a letter from France the brother of my grandpa ordered pistons for repair and fountainpens for the black market at the front line in Paris. There they purchased Cognac, female French underwear and other fancy stuff which they sent to Germany. There it was exchanged to food to survive.

Kind Regards, Thomas