Coca-Cola Bottles
by Lew Ladwig » Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:47 am

As I understand, several million bottles were put into "service" that were civilian bottles that were green. Then as Military bottling plants were built, they made clear bottles. I also found this:
Once the bottling plants were installed overseas, the next issue became maintaining the makeshift factories without sacrificing necessary military manpower. As an answer, the Coca-Cola Company sent 148 of its employees abroad to oversee the installation and management of the plants. These men were given US Army uniforms with the rank of Technical Observer and were treated as officers, although they had no military duties to speak of. Although one might think this would cause friction between the fighting men who sacrificed everything and the Coca-Cola men who led a life of relative leisure, the relationship was quite the opposite. In fact, servicemen would often go out of their way to ease travel restrictions and other obstacles for the “Coca-Cola Colonels” as they were affectionately called.
I also read that the date on the bottle was when the mold was made, not the bottle. So you can know the bottle is as old or newer than the mold.
I found this too: Bottle production began in 1943. The bottles were to be made using clear glass and no City/State markings on the bottom.

There are two theories about why clear glass was used instead of the normal Coke Green in manufacturing these bottles. One was that it made the bottles easily identifiable as military bottles. The other is that copper is needed to create the Coke Green glass and, due to a shortage of copper, it was necessary to manufacture them with clear glass. This latter theory may not be correct since all U.S. Coca-Cola bottles manufactured during the War years were in the standard Coke green glass.

The first bottle manufactured in 43 was simply the PAT’D D-105529 bottle in clear glass with no City/State markings. A new bottle mold could not be made quickly to allow a different style bottle for Military use only. By 1944, the new style bottle began production with the word ‘TRADEMARK REGISTERED' below the Coca-Cola script. This bottle was produced until 1946.