Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Manufacturers, production numbers, configurations, etc.
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by YLG80 » Thu May 10, 2018 11:56 pm

Another information from Richard M. Daniel of the US Naval Reserve.
After my colleague and I made our report, a new five-gallon container under consideration in Washington was canceled. Meanwhile the British were finally gearing up for mass production. Two million British jerrycans were sent to North Africa in early 1943, and by early 1944 they were being manufactured in the Middle East. Since the British had such a head start, the Allies agreed to let them produce all the cans needed for the invasion of Europe. Millions were ready by D-day. By V-E day some twenty-one million Allied jerrycans had been scattered all over Europe. President Roosevelt observed in November 1944, “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.”

In Washington little about the jerrycan appears in the official record. A military report says simply, “A sample of the jerry can was brought to the office of the Quartermaster General in the summer of 1940.
It's difficult'to find consistent information on that matter.
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by YLG80 » Fri May 11, 2018 9:30 am

image.jpeg
image.jpeg (99.04 KiB) Viewed 2799 times
Where CAN we find information about the CAN orders from the QMC?
Or perhaps there are archives of the War Office about the British CAN orders?
i guess that there were contracts?
Yves.
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by Silly's MB » Fri May 11, 2018 11:47 pm

Hi Yves,
Great picture but I think it best to keep this thread about Magnatex and not get it too mixed up with bigger subjects such as who had other contracts for what. :D
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by YLG80 » Thu May 17, 2018 8:43 am

I agree, you're right :wink: .

Sticking to the MAGNATEX subject, you CAN now see the very interesting film/document about the WWII Magnatex Ltd facility via this link,
even if you live outside of the UK:
Movie BRITISH MADE 'AMERI-CANS', Something to Focus On.
[sorry link removed. Dropbox housekeeping.]
If you download it for your archives please note its in full HD so it's a 432Mb video file 8) .
If you want to download that full version, right click on the link and Save as.... The mp4 file will be saved on your HD.

When I've commented Silly'sMB process snapshots about safety, I forgot to mentioned the crazy noise in that facility.
The personnel was likely deadly tired after work.
There are sometimes no comments and you can hear the noise produced by hundredth of moving drums on the conveyors.

Yves

PLEASE CONFIRM IF THE LINK ABOVE IS WORKING. THANK YOU. (Cannot test it via Proxy)
Last edited by YLG80 on Wed Mar 06, 2019 5:51 am, edited 7 times in total.
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by Chuck Lutz » Thu May 17, 2018 1:03 pm

I guess the rarity of the Magnatex gas can is based not only on them being scattered all over Europe, but in the fact that they just didn't make that many. If they made 700 per hour, 8 hour shift equaled 5,600 per day, on a 6 day workweek, that would be 33,600 per week. If they worked 52 weeks a year that would be 1.65 million cans in a year. Starting in say, June of 1943 to June of 1945 that would be about two years of production and that would total about 3,300,000 Magnatex cans.

Question for our Continental allies: what is the ratio of standard British cans to the Magnatex Ameri-can when you guys see them? What about cans made in the USA? We must have shipped a lot of them to Egypt, Italy and southern France not to mention those convoys that originated in the USA that just went directly to the beach assaults in the MTO?

The Magnatex can is certainly a rarity in the USA, and since I live on the West Coast, even further away....I've never seen or heard of a friend around here finding one.
Chuck Lutz

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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by Silly's MB » Sun May 20, 2018 12:31 am

Yves , Thanks for sorting out that link, it works for me. You see a shortened version if you watch it on the website or if you have a dropbox account you can download and see the whole production.

Unfortunately Chuck didn't say if he could watch the unique historic video of production of Ameri-cans and I am surprised nobody else has said.

Chuck,
On page one (viewtopic.php?f=37&t=240360#p1637987 ) a document says that by May 1944 736 000 Magnatex cans had been produced against the British 28 000 000. I was at a large autojumble yesterday and most of the wartime cans were British and actually 1945 dated and I only saw 1 US Gas can which happened to be a magnatex produced one.
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by Steve Webb » Sun May 20, 2018 9:25 am

I watched the short version and it was enjoyable. Thanks. Boy the conditions then for work in wartime compared to what regulations would be in place now would probably make cost go up x 5 at least.
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by YLG80 » Tue May 22, 2018 8:02 am

If you want to download that full version, right click on the link in my post above and Save as.... The mp4 file will be saved on your HD.

@Steve :
Except in what I call the Technology industry (space, nuclear etc ..) improving safety should not increase the cost.
In the mass industry, it should even reduce the costs. (Lean mfg)
Taking care of safety, leads to better manufacturing methods, less people turnover, less machine breakdown.
But during WWII, safety was indeed not the first concern: volume (followed by reliability) was the first goal.
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by Steve Webb » Tue May 22, 2018 1:44 pm

I respectfully disagree. I have been in construction for 45 years and have seen requirements that do increase costs. I do agree that technology can cause vast ways to improve production which mostly means eliminating humans doing a lot of tasks. I saw many things done by hands that robotics would have eliminated making those cans. The logistics of a war just astound me to this day and it is too bad some gains we make have to be tied into a horrible cost.
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by YLG80 » Tue May 22, 2018 11:40 pm

That's the beauty of the free world : we can disagree :) !
Yes there are many safety problems in the construction, but we'll not hijack that topic on that subject :wink: .
Yves
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Re: Magnatex US Jerrycans British assembly

Post by lundavra » Sun Dec 18, 2022 6:38 am

I registered because (whilst looking up something else) I came across some references to Magnatex on FOLD3 and was looking for further information. I was originally looking for the 'American' and 'Blitz can'.

There is a photograph of their factory (Harlington?) and pictures inside of kits for making jerry cans and the jerry cans themselves.

There is a table of sizes, dimensions etc for a range of cans and drums.

There is a lot there!

I think you can get 7 days free access still because did that before subscribing.

Only problem is that you have to download a page a time, you cannot just download a whole set of pages.

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