(Originally Posted October 21, 2010): It’s easy to forget about the logistical challenges faced by the military to cover simple needs of the military. Showering in the field is one such example. A New Zealand-focused site has a page on the history of mobile laundry and baths from 1914-1990. Canada also had similar mobile services. How frequently such services actually appeared in the field is less clear to me, especially given the lack of photos of this equipment.
Back in 2010 I came upon the model below, which appeared on a new defunct website. The site showed how the builder created the model mobile bath.
The builder, Dave, had based his model on the picture below. In his post, he notes that the Jeep “was stationed in Germany in 1945 with the 2nd Battalion, The Kensingtons, 49th Division, Transport Centre, Iserlohn, Ruhr“.
This 1954 example out of France shows a mobile laundry unit of some type. This photo (page from book?) is for sale on eBay. The auction title is “Jeep transport laundry collective”.
The Seabees had to make their own laundry. Check out MCB53’s page, about 1/4 the way down the page.
My old man went into the ” battle of the Bulge ” on 17 Dec 44 ( 82nd airborne ) no change of clothes and no shower till end of Feb 45 . Met up with a shower and laundry unit , they had a long tent, took off your clothes at one end got a hot shower, and got new clothes at the other end. I asked ,what did they do with your old clothes, he said “they burned them”
Looks more like a still to me.
Gayland: There’s all kinds of stuff on that page. I was thoroughly distracted! http://www.mcb53.com/pageww2/worldwar2photos.html
Terry: I doubt they ever wanted to see those clothes again!
RD: I thought the last photo of the mobile trailer kind of looked like a precursor to the ‘Bounder’ mobile home (from Breaking Bad).