# The jerry can

*https://danishfuel.com/the-jerry-can/*

The jerry can was designed in Germany in 1937, copied by the Allies in 1941 and made by the million during the Second World War. It has hardly changed since, because there was little to improve.

## Specifications

| Invented | 1937, Germany |
| --- | --- |
| Designer | Attributed to Vinzenz Grünvogel |
| Original name | Wehrmacht-Einheitskanister (armed forces unit canister) |
| Capacity | 20 litres (about 5 US gallons) |
| Empty weight | About 4 kg (8.8 lb) |
| Adopted by the Allies | 1941, British and American forces |
| Factories in WWII | More than 200 |
| Models in existence | About 1,800 (Danish Fuel research) |
| In Europe by D-Day 1944 | More than 21 million (Danish Fuel research) |

## Why is it called a jerry can?

The can was a German design. British and American soldiers called the Germans “Jerries”, and the can became the jerry can. Its German name was Wehrmacht-Einheitskanister.

## A brilliant, simple design

It had to be cheap to produce and easy to transport. The square shape made the cans easy to stack and store in small spaces, and more than 200 factories made them during the war.

## Colours and what they meant

The cans were coloured by their contents: red for petrol, grey for kerosene, black for diesel and white for gear oil. The idea of telling things apart by colour was later used to find your way around metro systems and hospitals.

![Jerry can depot of the Red Ball Express during the Second World War](https://danishfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/18_Red_Ball_Express_-_Jerricans_depot.jpg)

## The can that won the war

By D-Day in 1944 more than 21 million jerry cans were spread across Europe, and the jerry can went hand in hand with the Willys MB jeep. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is quoted on the part the cans played in the Allied advance:

 > “Without these cans it would have been impossible for our armies to cut their way across France at a lightning pace which exceeded the German Blitz of 1940.”
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> President Franklin D. Roosevelt

## Recycling during the war

In October 1944, when troop and vehicle movements peaked, 3.5 million jerry cans were reported lost. The problem grew so large that the United States offered rewards to French schoolchildren for collecting empty, discarded cans. About one million cans were recovered that way.

## From fuel can to furniture

Danish Fuel collects used military jerry cans from surplus warehouses and upcycles them by hand in Denmark. Our [limited WW2 editions](/limited-editions/) are built from original German and British cans from the war years, and the [Tribute series](/originals/) uses our own reproduction of the 1939 German can. [See how a jerry can becomes a cabinet](/production/).