Jerry Cans & Fuel Cans
The Origin Story — A German Secret Weapon
The jerry can was designed in 1937 by the Müller engineering firm in Schwelm, Germany, to a design by chief engineer Vinzenz Grünvogel. Hitler understood early that his planned Blitzkrieg — lightning-fast armored advances — would live or die by fuel supply. He ordered engineers to design the perfect portable fuel container, and the result was the Wehrmacht-Einheitskanister: the Armed Forces Standard Canister. By 1939, Germany had thousands stockpiled in secret.
The design was revolutionary:
- Two pieces of pressed steel interlocked and welded together — no seams to leak
- Distinctive ribbed indentations that stiffen the steel and allow contents to expand and contract with temperature changes
- Three handles arranged so one soldier could carry two cans at once, or pass them down a line in bucket-brigade fashion
- A gasketed, leak-proof cap requiring no tools or funnel to open
Meanwhile, the Allies were using what soldiers called the “flimsy” — a thin tin plate fuel can that leaked, required a wrench and funnel to open, and had to be packed in wooden crates just to survive transport. British soldiers in North Africa famously preferred to cut them open, fill them with sand and gasoline, and use them as stoves to make tea. That’s how useless they were as fuel cans.
How the Allies Got the Design — A Spy Story
In 1939, an American engineer named Paul Pleiss was traveling through Europe with a German colleague. When they needed emergency water storage, his German companion secretly obtained three jerry cans from the stockpile at Berlin Tempelhof Airport. Pleiss took one back to America and one to India. The third went to the British.
Britain and America immediately recognized the genius of the design. The US sent their sample to Camp Holabird, Maryland, where engineers tried to copy it — and produced an inferior version. They kept the handles, size, and shape but replaced the welded seams with rolled seams that leaked, removed the lining, and still required tools to open. The Germans’ original was still better.
The British did better with their copy. By 1943, two million British jerry cans were shipped to North Africa. By D-Day, the Allies had agreed that Britain would produce all the cans needed for the invasion of Europe. By the end of the war, 21 million Allied jerry cans were scattered across Europe.
Where the Name Comes From
“Jerry” was Allied slang for a German soldier during both World Wars — derived from a shortening of “German,” or possibly from the German helmet’s resemblance to a chamber pot (called a “jerry” in British slang). When Allied soldiers encountered these superior German fuel cans, they called them “jerry cans” — and the name stuck permanently. Today it’s in the dictionary.
Item Details & Practical Uses Today
20 liters / approximately 5 US gallons capacity. Pressed steel construction with the signature ribbed sides, three handles, and leak-proof gasketed cap. The design that NATO armies still use today, virtually unchanged from 1937.
- Fuel storage — vehicles, generators, farm equipment
- Emergency water storage — disaster and emergency preparedness
- Off-road & overlanding — preferred by serious overlanders over modern plastic versions
- Collector & display — one of the most recognizable military artifacts in the world
Color coding: Military jerry cans traditionally used color to indicate contents — olive drab/green for fuel, black for diesel, and sometimes white or unpainted for water.
