Jump to content

British Jerry Can colours


Dave Fleming

Recommended Posts

Hi Dave

 

I don't think the colour of the Jerry Can denotes its contents but fuel and water cans will normal have different embossed patterns on their sides: water cans are embossed with an X and "WATER" whilst fuel cans display a different design.  Examples from Accurate Armour's Website below:

 

spacer.png

 

spacer.png

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dave Fleming said:

I notice looking at pictures that Jerry cans are available in several colours - black, green etc - do these indicate the contents ? Is so, what is what?

Are you asking about modern or historic colours? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,fuel cans are green,they would have a yellow tag for diesel and a red one for petrol.this tag would be at the spout of the can.

water containers are usually plastic and are black.

HTH.

Ivan

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/1/2020 at 1:16 AM, dcrfan said:

Are you asking about modern or historic colours? 

 

Well I posted in modern...... 🙂

 

In this case, first Gulf War. the vehicle I am looking at is festooned with different coloured Jerry cans, so was wondering if some were fuel and some water

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

 

Well I posted in modern...... 🙂

 

In this case, first Gulf War. the vehicle I am looking at is festooned with different coloured Jerry cans, so was wondering if some were fuel and some water

Can you put a photo up and then we can have a guess?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Dave Fleming said:

 

Well I posted in modern...... 🙂

 

In this case, first Gulf War. the vehicle I am looking at is festooned with different coloured Jerry cans, so was wondering if some were fuel and some water

😳 So you did.  As posted above fuel type designated with different colour tags on green/black/ and tan (US) painted/colour cans.  Water is marked in variety of ways (like plastic can embossed WATER) but still in standard colour cans.  Non green/black/tan colour cans are not standard practice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Water cans are black plastic, but can be painted dependent on theatre, but paint can degrade the plastic. Never seen the embossed water ones, probably older issue. I have one green water container in the stores, slightly larger than the regular ones, suspect it is foreign issue "borrowed" in the past.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Dave,

The front one is definitely a water can,IMHO on the side it looks like a mix of water and fuel! From left to right I would say fuel,water x2, US fuel can and then water.

There was a lot of mixing and matching between our lot and the cousins so really take your pick 😀

Ivan

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Black plastic cans were always water, green metal cans were POL (Petrol, oil and lubricants) as Ivan mentioned they were tagged on the handles, yellow was derv, red for petrol, and I think Kero was blue. Refuelling at night from cans could be fun, you had carry out the sniff test on each can which involved dipping fingers in and sniffing (Benz or Kero) :winkgrin: these tags often fell off as they were a soft steel just bent around one side of the handle.

 

 

The colour of the cans varied from bronze satin green, dark green and olive green, during Op Granby they were also painted sand including the water cans, after a while they chipped badly. 
 

shows the tags on cans:-

 

https://www.army.mod.uk/who-we-are/corps-regiments-and-units/royal-logistic-corps/rlc-reserve-units/383-commando-petroleum-troop/

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...