Model 1874 Shovel Cover, Argentina Army, Ejército Argentino, EA, M1874 Spaten, Schanzzeug, Schanzzeugtasche

I had the opportunity to purchase a couple of VERY hard to find shovel covers the other day.  The early covers are always hard to find, but to find two of them was a real score.

These two covers were used by the Argentina Army starting back around 1874, and into the 1970's, and probably, to some extent, into the 1980's.

First off, here is my "blog posting disclaimer".  There is very little information that can be found about the military equipment of Argentina.  There are a couple of books that were published in Argentina, but they are not readily available outside the country.  There are also very few collectors who seem to know much about this old equipment.  So, what I will be presenting today, will be what I have gathered from old photographs, some translations here and there, and looking at a number of photos of Argentinian gear online.  If I miss anything, or get it wrong, I apologize.  I will be updating this posting as I find additional information, or make corrections as needed.  If any of my readers have information, pleas email me.  My contact information is on my bio-page on the sideline of the blog. 

Argentina was heavily influenced by the Prussian Army, and then the German Army, starting in the late 1800's.  In the 1930's, they further aligned the army with the German models and styles of uniforms, helmets and field equipment.  In fact, by the 1930's, a soldier in the Argentina Army looked nearly identical to a soldier in the German Army!

The first entrenching tools that were adopted by Argentina were the "Linnemann" style shovels.  In fact, the old flat spades are still referred to as Linnemann tools in Argentina.
You can read an outstanding history of the Linnemann tools over at this blog:
https://m55q.weebly.com/linnemann.html

The earliest shovels that show up in Argentina were the Model 1874 "Kleines Spaten für Infanterie", or small infantry shovels made by Germany.  These shovels were the German copies of the original Linnemann spades.  The early shovels in the Argentina Army are marked with German manufacturers stamps.  Later, Argentina started producing their own version of the shovel using domestic Argentina manufacturers.

The earliest, leather, shovel covers that were adopted by Germany were the Model 1874 style, with a single leather belt hanger.  The next versions and had two belt hangers and were considered the Model 1909 carrier.

M1874 cover on left, M1909 cover on right.

Both styles were used by Argentina.  I believe that the single hanger style carriers were obtained from Germany with the shipment of the first, German produced, Model 1874 shovels.
This would place the two covers that I have, as some of the earliest carriers used, probably back in the 1870's or 1880's.  By 1909, the single hanger covers were obsolete, and they began using the two hanger style covers.

The spade type shovels continued to be used by Argentina well into the 1960's and 1970's.  At some point, probably in the 1960's, Argentina started painting all of the old leather field gear with olive green paint.  I believe this was a cheap attempt to "modernize" the old field gear and have it match the new, "modern", US style, field uniforms and gear.  In the 1960's or 1970's, Argentina started manufacturing their own version of the US tri-fold shovel.  These were domestically produced.  I was probably not long after the introduction of the tri-fold shovels, that the old flat spades were phased out.

Each of my shovel covers have a slightly different single belt hanger.  One is longer than the other, and one is sewn, "sandwiched", between the front and back leather pieces, and the other is sewn to the outside.  You can see the differences in the photo below.

Both of the covers have faint "EAC" stamps, which stand for Ejército Argentino, or the Argentina Army.  The "C" in the stamping may mean cavalry, but that is just a guess.  The leather is very worn, on both covers, so the stampings are not very clear.

There is also a manufacturer's stamp on one of the hangers.  Again, too worn to read clearly.  I believe that this one is the oldest of the two (the one with the shorter hanger).

There are also letter, and number, stampings on both of the covers, which are most likely unit or inventory indicators.  The letter and number styles are the old type, circa WW1 or earlier.

You can see where much of the green paint is peeling off of the leather.  It appears that some type of latex paint was used, which would also point to a 1970's time frame for the paint application.

Well, that just about exhausts my knowledge of these covers, so let's get on with the photo album!  Enjoy.  (The shovels pictured in the photos are a couple of my old Russian spades from the WW1 era.  Similar to the original Linnemann spades).