Mk 2 Carrier water can

[Robert Bergeron]

My friends,

Thank you Lynn for your comments. I was not thinking of the poor light infantry when making my comments because the tread concerned water cans on Canadian Mk 2 Carriers , a mechanised vehicule for the modern mechanised warfare practiced in the WW2 NWE theatre of war . You are abolutely right, those goddamned Jerry cans are too heavy to carry around in the jungle like you and the Chindits did before you.

That is right Bob my friend but we are talking about the WW2 Carriers .

Thank God for the large filling cap on the later versions of the American Jeep. Spilling of fuel yes but when you have to fill up and go that is the way to go.

Here a few examples of the US Jerrycans , fuel and water and they are radicaly different from either the Canadian or the British versions .

Lastly, the issue has not evolved much in the last 75 years because here you have a modern, current Canadian water can / Jerrycan . It is made of plastic, it is black and it weights a lot when full. Better suited for vehicule mounting than being carried by light infantry in the mountains of Afghanistan.

So, coming back to the initial subject. Carrier crews would mount whatever they could get their hands on to carry as much fuel and water to last till the next replenishment. It could take quite a while. 2 gal, 5 gal Brit / US Jerrycans you name it.

In my humble opinion the US 5 gal water Jerrycan was the best because of the large mouth . Unfortunately i see no photographic evidence they were ever used by the Canadians. It is better and the evidence to that is that it is still largely employed today in the form of the plastic example i have posted. They are also made sand desert colour.

As far as the fuel container , the British 5 Gal Jerrycan was better. The US Jerrycan really needed a funnel to work . Anyone wants to add on this ? I am open to critisizim but please , please let's stay gentlemanly.

I am still curious to see what Lynn , Lauren ( thanks for the nice 2 gal can pictures ) and the other folks from the Commonwealth are going to post for pictures of 4, 5 gallon cans and flymsies so we can compare with the Canadian Carrier experience . I am really interested .

Picture 1- Left 1944 US gas Jerrycan right 1944 US Water can. Picture 2- 1944 gas Jerrycan. 3- Current Canadian water can. Used from the mid 80's till present day.

David Dunlop you little bugger , you posted the best picture . A wine Jerrycan of all things . Only the French...

Radek, your picture of a green Canadian watercan is mystifying..

Wait till my next post gentlemen, you are in for a surprise.

Cheers.

[Robert Bergeron]

Friends,

We seem like we want to expand this discussion to fuel cans as installed in Canadian Carriers NWE 44-45.

Not wanting to fuel controversy ( petrol-fuel, got it ? ) , i suggest there were multiple colours available for 2 gal and 5 gal water / fuel cans .

We have seen white, gray ( Robert) , green ( Radek, Lauren, Lynn maybe ) maybe black ( Robert again ) . As for fuel 2 and 5 gal cans we have seen green.

I now introduce to you the RED 2 gal petrol/ gas can !

Like Radek's , it is official Canadian military stenciling , not a repaint.

Picture 1- To the left Green GSW CBroad Arrow marked PETROL 1944 , to the right RED GSW CBroad arrow marked PETROL 1943 .

Picture 2- 44 left , 43 right . C Broad arrow both cases .

picture 3- GSW years 44 and 43 respectively.

How about this ? Isn't a gas ?

Stewart : BTW thanks for posting the bails . That was a new one for me .

[Ed Storey]

There must have been a few of them kicking around in Canadian hands as according to the Sherman stowage diagrams issued by the War Officer, there were two stowed within the left-hand sponson of each British Sherman tank.

[Ed Storey]

That is a rare can and is not encountered very often, red is apparently for white gas (naptha), but I have yet to find any documentation to support it.

[Lauren Child]

Yes, I think the 4gal cans are flimsies, though I was quoting from the manual - I dont have a good (complete) example of one.

Jerricans are referred to as 4 1/2 gallon cans in some of the wartime docs, differentiating them from the mention of 4 gallon cans. There are diagrams for safe stacking of both types.

There's a good photo on various forums that shows the difference between 2gal, 4gal non-returnable flimsy, 4gal returnable later type, and jerricans - I've attached it below (shout if it's your photo).

[Lauren Child]

Flimsy type (non-returnable) from RASC training pamphlet 20 part 2.

image.jpg

(note this is a document on Petrol, Oil, and Lubricants, not water, so just quoted here to demonstrate the difference in the cans)

4 Gallon returnable (late flimsy)

image.jpg

4 1/2 gallon Jerricans

image.jpg

[Robert Bergeron]

Thanks Lauren very detailed information on the bulk transportation of the cans.

Thanks Ed , i just did'nt remember Naphta or white gas was carried in Ww2 . Strange because we all know about the Canadians and Coleman lanterns and stoves. We have been using them ever since WW1 if not before .

So here is a picture of the different cans that would of been carried on a Canadian Carrier in 1944-45 in NWE .

So Ed, should i add the US water and gas Jerrycans to the Carrier picture to be historicly correct ?

[Mike Gurr]

Thank you to all contributors as I have now managed to find a 1944 dated Canadian water can for my 1944 (Canadian Ford) carrier. To continue and expand this thread a little.My question now is the other can mounted on the front of a carrier was for oil, was this also a different can to those used for petrol or the same? Being in the UK all the other cans I have are WD and broad arrow marked with a date and 'Petroleum Spirit - Highly Inflammable'. Would this have also been sued for oil?
Mike Gurr

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Lauren Child

Flimsy type (non-returnable) from RASC training pamphlet 20 part 2.

(note this is a document on Petrol, Oil, and Lubricants, not water, so just quoted here to demonstrate the difference in the cans)

Lauren, very interesting!

May I ask if they added a few sketches on the 20-cwt trailer, which "was designed, primarily, to carry petrol in tins, in two tiers"?

H.

[Lynn Eades]

I have taken a long time to get to this, but as Robert did ask, here are a couple of the Kiwi 2 gallon tin. These are well made and probably more than twice the empty weight of the British or Canadian equivalent. No dates or makers names on these. I Believe these were supplied with carriers that carried the Vickers water cooled guns. These "tins" They're a tin here) usually came with an alloy cap. I will put up a picture later. I have no idea about the red paint and when it was painted.
I'd be keen to hear from anyone who has some history details on these.
In the last pic:
On the left is a British one gallon oil tin and on the right, a Canadian one (I could do with a cap for the British one) It has a course thread, while the Canadian one is a fine thread. These tins are fairly rare here these days, as they are very thin and rust easily, once scratched.

[Matthew P]

Here are the samples still in India of my UK style cans. The company also does the Canadian style with the lip top and bottom.

Matt