Jerry Cans

Can't find a site about Flimsies Adam but I have a few pictures ! They must actually have been quite efficient for shipping, just not very durable.



If you know of any going cheap, give me a shout, won't you ?

Rich

 

I'd quite like a 1939 or 1940 dated flimsy. I've never actually "done" Beltring. Always been a bit put off by the cowboy element.

 

Ah!.... the Jerrican .............................

Humpted may a hundred of those and usually last thing at night.

Seem to remember that ones that were kept for water were painted white.

I also remember that they used to stack them up into pyramid shape dumps

Ron

 

So there were two types of flimsy: the 'new returnable' and, presumably, the 'old disposable'?

Is it worth merging this thread and the other one?

 

Dam...I passed another bit of info about 200 pages ago regarding the difficulty filling vehicles with fuel from the old cans (esp vehicles with fuel tanks located underneath) and the urgent request for funnels and the allocation being raised from 1 per 5 vehicles to 1 for every vehicle.

 

WW2 British petrol/water can design can be regarded as a failures for the simple reason that the basic principles of engineering were ignored.The British can was made of "tin can" material designed to be of a sharp cubic shape.The seams which were welded as would be a tin can, were a failure and often leaked due to internal stress generated by the fluid being stored.

The obvious answer was to avoid 90 degree seams.That is why you will never find a boiler with a cubic type drum,it will always be to cylindrical shell type with hemispherical ends (ie,designed without 90 degree seams) to minimise the stress created by the internal fluid on the internal surfaces and seams.

If you look at the Jerrycan,although having a cubic profile did not possess 90 degree seams.Although having a flatter cubic profile,the design avoided the 90 degree seam and yet was idea for handling,storage and stacking on a vehicle.

An example of simple German engineering.

 

The Flimsy cans were common in Libya, I was working in support of an Oil Seismic exploration company near Darna, to the West of Tobruk. One lot was in what seemed to be a buried cache in a wadi
Pic here All available sizes | DSCF2252.jpgresize | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

We also found a lot of the later jerry cans with crows feet on them date stamped 1944

 

The Flimsy cans were common in Libya, I was working in support of an Oil Seismic exploration company near Darna, to the West of Tobruk. One lot was in what seemed to be a buried cache in a wadi
Pic here All available sizes | DSCF2252.jpgresize | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

We also found a lot of the later jerry cans with crows feet on them date stamped 1944

I would say,the petrol cans were part of a supplies dump which would be known to British patrols.These supply dumps were also a feature of the supply support network for LRDG units.

 

This is from a recent issue of "The Black Country Bugle"

 

The usual fanboys can claim one piece of German kit that was any good after all

 

A Jerrycan, when full, was bloody heavy and was always carried in pairs, i.e. one in each hand.

Whenever a 3 ton lorry turned up at your unit fully laden with full cans of petrol then everybody had to muck in until the vehicle was empty.

This was the drill wherever you were and I'm sure that records must have been set up as to how long it took to empty a truck of fuel.

The "Flimsies" were a waste of time, but the cans themselves, when emptied of fuel, were much used as cooking utensils.

Ron

 

As I recall - it took around 45 jerry cans of fuel to fill both tanks of the Churchill Tank -and it took four men - two on the truck - two on the tanks - and the truck driver "supervising- Tank Commander at order group ....even then we had to changeover as the two on the truck had to lift and carry each one !

As the Churchill only did four gallons to the mile - ( yes that's right - 4 GPM ) - it had to be refilled every day - we had muscles in our eyebrows even- then the guns had to be cleaned - and the clutch- brakes - steering brakes etc adjusted and engine cleaned- tracks checked - bogies greased - THEN go and fight
I don't know where the time went

Cheers

 

Always complaining, always complaining! At least you had the privilege of going into battle sitting. And the fact that you were the object of the attention of every gun the Tedeschi had must have done wonders to your youthful ego

 

As Ron suggested the flimsies were good for the 'Benghazi Stove'.