Original German WWII Hand Held Cable Reel by Wittig & Schwabe – dated 1943 Original Items

Original Item. Only One Available. During the Second World War, radio was still a relatively new invention, and also was not really the most secure method of communication. Wired communication, either telegraph or telephone, was still very widely used on the for communication behind the front lines, and while sometimes long runs were needed, at other times only relatively short ones were, which is what this hand held cable reel was for.

It has a spool measuring 7 1/2″ in diameter, with an internal width of about 2″, and only the last 1 3/4″ of the diameter is able to hold the cable. It has a wooden handle on the bottom of the bracket, and a nice stamped steel crank with a wooden handle on the side. It measures about 13 1/4″ in overall length, and would definitely be easily portable. It is painted in the standard dark blue gray German WWII panzergrau (armored gray) paint used on most field gear later in the war.

The bottom of the frame still bears complete WWII maker information stamped into the steel:-

Wittig and Schwabe
1943
Lengefeld i. Erzg.

This company is a known maker of items such as lamps and other simple electric appliances, and continued functioning into the post war period. To the right of the maker mark is a Waffenamt WaA300 stamp, which is an inspector based in Lengefeld that also inspected items from Otto Reichel.

Overall condition is very good, with a lovely broken in look that shows it saw real use in service. There is paint missing from areas, and there are dents and deformation on the spool, the frame, and also on the handle. From what we have seen this is the larger model of the hand held cable reels, and for thinner gauge cable would definitely have been able to hold quite a long length.

A very interesting piece of German WWII military equipment, ready to display!