2 Gal Petrol Can

Originally posted by Bob Moseley
Hi Hanno
Point of interest in OZ the two gallon can is also known as a flimsie, amongst my crowd anyway.

I have noticed this from other lists and it causes a huge amount of confusion. The 2 gall can is certainly not flimsy at all and why ever the name has gotten transferred in the antipodes is perhaps lost in the mists of time now.

Although much ridiculed and hated, the flimsy was a sensible and logical course at the time, we had barely enough 2 gall cans to support the BEF, about 1 million at the time, and they were expected to forage for fuel.

It was obvious the smallish capacity plus work and material in the 2 gall can precluded any attempt to mass produce the thing with the war on as it were, so the flimsy was adopted as a bigger capacity container using the minimum of now scarce material that could be made by any semi-skilled blacksmith and needing no logistics for return; the shortcomings were well known at the outset.

Its well documented in the official history of the RASC.

R.