The P38 can opener is a pretty small item by any standar but comes with a rather large history. The “ opener, can, hand, folding, Type 1” seems to have begun life in America around 1930/35 when one of the military departments were asked to create something simple to open the ‘C’ rations which contained lots of tins. The P38 became every GI’s companion during World War Two. ‘Learn how to use it or go hungry’ British Army ration packs contained a version of the P38 right up until the 1980’s when pre-packed, dried food in vacuum sealed plastic took over. It was a similar situation with outdoor folk and campers who often carried a P38 (though very few would have known its proper name) with them until the dried food revolution relegated them to the cutlery drawer. The advert opposite from the March 1970 Mountain Magazine tells us that P38’s were still in use then. The larger one we have here in the collection is from the 1970’s British Army Ration Pack and the smaller one is an original US Army P38