American Jerry Cans

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by lynx42

G'day Bob,
Probably ATLANTIC MOTOR OIL. Atlantic sold thousands of oil-filled jerry cans after the war. I have one here and it has the grade of oil as well as ATLANTIC on the front below the spout.
Can't get to it at the moment for a photo.
Regards Rick

Here's one of mine:

[alleramilitaria]

i have about 40 WWII fuel cans (some unissued) and none had anything stenceled on them. there were stampings on the side, bottom, and under the handle depending on who made them and what year.

[Lynn Eades]

This is probably an Australasian thing. Various oil companies must have aquired large numbers of them. Here in N.Z. they are commonly found in various forms, some painted white with " Mobil Oil Company " on them, some as "Shell Oil " in yellow. Some were just stensilled over the O.D.
Interestingly most have the same date pressed into the bottom. (20-5-42) if I remember correctly.

[Rob Beale]

The 20 - 5 - 42 means 20 litre - 5 US gal - 1942

Don't know where I read or heard it, but it makes more sense to me!

Rob

[Lynn Eades]

I've never heard that before. It's good, but are you sure big brother really cared how many litres there were in the tin.
1 US gal. = 0.833 Imp. gal. = 3.79 litres.
The math doesn't fit very well. Isn't there a book about these (G) Jerry cans?

[Jeff Gordon]

The 20 stands for the gauge steel used!
It was a US government requirement that all manufactures stamped the gauge of steel used, the amount it held and the year.
There is some that state 5.25 or 5 1/4.
I was told this by the king of Jerrycans Philip Lindsay of Germany.
He has written many articles on them a good one is in Army Motors 115.
He also has a huge collection.
Yes I don't think they give a rats about Liters then because they still don't want to know about the metric system. And they say we a behind the times.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Jeff

[alleramilitaria]

Originally Posted by Jeff Gordon

The 20 stands for the gauge steel used!
It was a US government requirement that all manufactures stamped the gauge of steel used, the amount it held and the year.
There is some that state 5.25 or 5 1/4.
I was told this by the king of Jerrycans Philip Lindsay of Germany.
He has written many articles on them a good one is in Army Motors 115.
He also has a huge collection.
Yes I don't think they give a rats about Liters then because they still don't want to know about the metric system. And they say we a behind the times.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Jeff

you are not behind the times, you are just in your own world

dave

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Jeff Gordon

The 20 stands for the gauge steel used!
It was a US government requirement that all manufacturers stamped the gauge of steel used, the amount it held and the year.
There is some that state 5.25 or 5 1/4.
I was told this by the king of Jerrycans Philip Lindsay of Germany.
He has written many articles on them a good one is in Army Motors 115.
He also has a huge collection.
Yes I don't think they give a rats about Liters then because they still don't want to know about the metric system. And they say we a behind the times.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Jeff

That explains it! I was scratching my head about the "Date" stamp.