The British Army in North Africa 1942 E18640

The flimsy, officially known as the Petrol, Oil and Water can, was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

fuel container used by the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. They held of fuel, which allowed them to be moved by a single person. The flimsy was well known for leaking; when used in the

North African Campaign The North African campaign of World War II took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943, fought between the Allies and the Axis Powers. It included campaigns in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts (Western Desert campaign, Desert Wa ...

, some flimsies leaked 20%, and in some cases over 50% of the fuel they carried over a journey. One quartermaster reported that his of fuel had been reduced to just over the journey; and was informed that even this was a "good effort". The problem with the containers was the crimped or soldered seams, which easily split during transportation, especially over the rocky desert terrain in North Africa. Containers were stacked on top of each other during shipping, and the upper layers crushed those below, resulting in fuel flowing freely in the bilges, with the resulting poisoning and fire risks. The favoured use by soldiers for the flimsy was as a small stove which could be used to heat meals and tea for the crews. A soldier would cut the flimsy in half, fill the bottom half with petrol-soaked sand and balance the other half on top, filled with water. This was known as a '' Benghazi Burner'' or ''Benghazi Boiler'', after the embattled town of

Benghazi Benghazi () () is the List of cities in Libya, second-most-populous city in Libya as well as the largest city in Cyrenaica, with an estimated population of 859,000 in 2023. Located on the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean, Ben ...

. An alternative use for discarded fuel cans was to fill them with sand and use them to reinforce the walls of dugouts. Both 4 gallon flimsies and the original 2 gallon cans were replaced by the

jerrycan A jerrycan or jerrican (also styled jerry can or jerri can) is a fuel container made from pressed steel (and more recently, high-density polyethylene, high density polyethylene). It was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to hol ...

, copied from the much better German design of fuel container. This happened gradually from late 1940, first from captured stock of German jerrycans, then with British-made copies.

References

{{Commons category, Four gallon petrol tins Fuel containers Liquid containers Military equipment introduced from 1940 to 1944 World War II military equipment of the United Kingdom