----- Original Message -----
From: "KBDewey 42GPW" <dirtman42GPW@webtv.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2001 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] jerry cans
>
> Oh and does the "20 stand for litters assuming the "5" stands for
> gallons and that these cans were produced and distributed to our metric
> allies.
>
20 litres is the standard size and would be some 5.3 US gals or 4.44
Imperial gallons, now, we didn't metricate until the 70's and certainly not
during WWII.
> 1) I don't believe that there were multifuel engines during WWII but as
> there were diesel ones this could very well be for diesel OR gas and the
> different type of pour spout was a way to give notice to the sleepy GI
> to pay attention and don't cross fuel gas into a diesel tank or vice
> (caboink-clank) versa?
>
No.
The RASC (Supply Corps) official history deals with this in some detail, at
the onset of war in 1939 it was already well known that the stock of
British, rectangular 2 gall cans carried on vehicles was totally inadequate,
there was no material, time or capacity to make the several millions needed
and indeed the BEF was expected to forage for fuel in France.
The much ridiculed "Flimsy" (for that is what it was), carried in an open
wooden crate, was pressed into service and it does have some attributes:
Needs the very minimum of material
Holds 4 gallons (sometimes. . . . .)
Can be made by any semi-skilled indigenous metal-worker
Is non-returnable
Available now (then)
After use it also served as a container/desert cooker being readily cut or
modified with a penknife. Leak copiously it did, which was not a problem
with fuel unless your truck caught on fire carrying a load of them and the
RASC managed to set up filling stations and truck millions of gallons into
the western desert with flimsies in a matter of a week or so. My ailing
desert tanker relative confirms the continual glut of petrol (gas) but the
flimsy leakage when used as a water container made the meagre official
ration even smaller. Nothing went into a tank cooling system or battery
before it had passed through a human. Contents were mostly denoted by crude
stencilling or even more ad hoc methods.
The Wehrmacht too had a material and tooling intensive can shaped like a
triangular prism with a screw filler on the top edge, convenient it was not,
but almost immediately on meeting Rommel in N Africa the original jerrican,
just as we know it today with the cam-lock filler, was captured and
immediately recognised for the excellence of what it was, although better
than currency in the Western Desert samples went back very quickly to the
War Office who uncharactistically also noted the excellence of the device
and immediately placed an order for some 5 million copies on the
non-beleaguered US.
Here it went wrong, someone over there insisted they could improve on it and
then some two years passed whilst samples were made, re-engineered and
rejected by WD amidst much trans-oceanic bickering, finally WD prevailed and
simply insisted they be made as is, by which time the DAK had been swept
from Africa and allied supplies of handy jerricans didn't appear at the
front line until Italy.
For whatever reason the US persisted with its own version for many years
until finally reaching the conclusion that the original cannot be surpassed
and of course it is a NATO standard too.
The very shape of the jerrican makes it an efficient storage volume that
will stack, two can be carried by a man relatively easily and single units
are within reasonable weight to be passed up to a tank deck or truck bed,
the triple handles allow for a human chain to pass them without tangling
hands and the proper mil vented spout pours quickly and well. The flat
handle pressing front area off to the side of the filler allows the simple
affixing of a pressed tin or alloy label retained with fold-back tabs, some
have a pair of pop rivet holes for this also.
The British mil even went to the extent of an excellent jerrican funnel
which takes the appearance of a slim, flat brief-case that opens to provide
a stable mounting foot and a huge, square, rubber lined mouth that accepts
two jerricans at 45 degrees whilst standing on a vehicle and using a sexless
1/4 turn 2" hose coupling to the tank filler. The first can to empty is
simply replaced with another than taking turn and turn about, it cannot
overflow as the rising fuel in the funnel mouth cuts off the air supply to
the cans.
I use mine continuously to fuel the Stalwart (being some 8ft above ground to
the filler), excellent it is. If there is any interest I'll post a couple
of pictures to the egroups files.
Richard
Southampton - England
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