Fuel

[JonS]

On 7/13/2016 at 1:05 AM, Sgt Joch said:

In the west front, fueling in the field was done with 5 gallon "Jerrycans".

Good post Joch, but I think this could easily be taken for more than you probably meant. Not all fueling was done by Jerrycan. Using the Jerrys was highly inefficient - they were slow and wasteful to fill up, and slow and wasteful to deliver, and slow and wasteful to refuel vehicles with. However, they were super convenient and transportable, and pretty much every vehicle carried a can or three. But bulk refueling would, wherever practical and tactically viable, be done directly from tanker trucks. In Canadian armoured regts, for example, each fighting squadron (19 Shermans) had an admin echelon which included three 3-ton bulk petrol lorries, and there were another four of them in the HQ admin ech (so, 13 x 3 ton bulk petrol lorries in the regt)

Edited July 17, 2016 by JonS

[Sgt Joch]

JonS,

I have been taking a second hard look at this, but I do not think you are correct on the TOE. The organic 3 ton bulk petrol lorries in the Canadian armored regiments are I think just standard trucks used to carry 5 gallon cans.

In the British Army and I presume the Canadian as well, specialized 800-1750 gallon fuel trucks were grouped in non-divisional "Bulk Petrol Transport" companies:

"NON DIVISIONAL UNITS (SPECIALISED)
Bulk Petrol Transport Company
This provided transport for bulk petrol, usually on the Lines of Communication.

Headquarters of a Mechanical Transport Company
The headquarters will have the following additions
Captain
batman 
cook ACC
In accordance with note 2 the Headquarters of a petrol tanker platoon has the following additions
10 ton 6 X 4 GS
driver IC 
3 X Transport Platoons. The vehicles could be 1,750 gallon 4 X 4 -2 (6ton semi trailers) tankers, 800 gallon 4 X 4 tankers or 800 gallon 4 X 2 tankers. Some companies operated a mixture of types.
2 X Relief Driver Increments
Composite Platoon. This composite platoon only handles petrol and so the ammunition and butchery personnel are deleted
serjeant butcher
corporal butcher
2 X butcher
corporal storeman (ammunition) RAOC
2 X storeman RAOC
1 X Workshop Platoon, Serial 2.
If the Company operated 1,750 gallon tankers then at least one 3ton 6 X 4 Breakdown Lorry is replaced by a Heavy Recovery Tractor."

If the British followed American doctrine, the role of the Bulk petrol company was to transport fuel to decanting points where it could be transferred to 5 gal. cans. Organic transports in the Armoured Divisions were regular trucks used to carry all sort of supplies, including gas in 5 gallon cans:

"IN AN ARMOURED DIVISION
Armoured Brigade Company.
Transport for the carriage of 2nd line scales of ammunition, petrol and anti gas reserves, and of supplies on single echelon on unit basis for units of an armoured brigade.
Headquarters Mechanical Transport Company RASC
4 X Transport Platoon with five sections of 3ton lorries (4 X 4)
1 X Transport Platoon with five sections of 6ton lorries (4 X 4 – 2 semi trailers)
1 X Composite Platoon with A, B, C and D increments
3 X Relief Driver Increment 
1 X Workshop Platoon, Serial 5
On account of its size this company headquarters varies from the basic organisation in having the following additions
2 X Captain
2 X batman 
2 X cook
A serjeant ammunition adviser RAC attached."

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/23786-motor-transport-units-rasc/

see this also:

"The transport of petrol.
The system for the transport of petrol differed form that for supplies because all petrol was alike and was not perishable. There was no need for two echelons working a two day turn round. 
- Supplies of petrol were delivered to the divisional petrol refilling point by corps transport where it was held on wheels until collected by the divisional transport as required. The corps RASC held a reserve sufficient to move the entire division 25miles.
- Forward of the divisional refilling point was a holding point where the second line transport held a reserve on wheels sufficient to move the entire division 50 miles. Second line vehicles also ran a shuttle service from the holding point to unit supply points so that petrol was always available when required. 
- On return journeys lorries should carry salvage in the form of empty jerricans. All petrol was in cans and a 3ton lorry could carry 160 jerricans.
- There was less need of clerks, although deliveries were monitored so that fresh supplies could be ordered."

http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/23787-royal-army-service-corps-introduction/

 

 

Edited July 18, 2016 by Sgt Joch

[Sgt Joch]

U.S. Army doctrine was similar. U.S. Armoured divisions had no organic fuel tankers, all gas was transported in 5 gal. cans. If a division was operating far from a supply point, it could have a Quartermaster company with fuel tankers attached, but the role of the QM company was to set up an intermediate supply point where it would decant its fuel into 5 gal. cans:

"Class III, fuel and lubricant, supply points were established
by the army on recommendation from the division G4. Since the armored
division lacked organic fuel and lubricant vehicles, these supply
points were within thirty-five miles of the most distant unit "B"
trains. 25 Typically, fuel was supplied in five gallon cans which
were filled and picked-up at the field army's supply point. For
protracted operations, where a field army supply point would be too far
away, the armored division required attachment of a quartermaster
company, gasoline supply, to operate a division Class III supply
point. 2' The quartermaster gasoline supply company consisted of fuel
tank trucks that set up a divisional supply point and decanted fuel
into 5 gallon cans."

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a241430.pdf

(p. 21)

5 gallon cans were a wasteful and inefficient way to deliver fuel, but it was a very flexible system. The cans worked as both a temporary storage facility and fuel delivery system. You could setup a fuel depot anywhere, anytime in any quantity and fuel could be delivered to combat units by any available vehicles. 

U.S. First Army fuel dump near Spa, Belgium, Dec. 7, 1944.

Specialized fuel tankers were always too few in numbers and were better used as transport from the permanent supply sources to the end fuel depots. 

Edited July 18, 2016 by Sgt Joch

[Sgt Joch]

German Panzer divisions also worked on the same principles. The Germans had specialized fuel trucks, but they seem to have been used mostly by the Luftwaffe. Fuel for the Panzer divisions were transported usually in regular trucks:

"d. DISTRIBUTION OF FUELS AND LUBRICANTS. Fuel from home fuel depots or from Field Army mobile reserves is directed to the railheads. Sometimes the fuel is kept loaded in tanker trains (Eisenbahntankstellen) near the railhead and transferred from these directly to fuel columns, but preferably it is laid down in 20- and 200-liter containers in Army Fuel Dumps (Armeebetriebesstofflager) forward of the railhead. From these dumps the fuel is taken forward to Division Fuel Distributing Points (Divisionsbetriebsstoffausgabestellen) or, in the case of some motorized and armored divisions, to Division Fuel Dumps (Divisionsbetriebsstofflager). Fuel is forwarded from the division area to lower echelon supply points and to fuel points that are set aside for the use of single vehicles (Tankstellen für Einzelkraftfahrzeuge): The latter may also be supplied from the army fuel stores. "

https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/Germany/HB/HB-6.html

The 20 liter container is the German equivalent of the 5 gallon can, i.e. the original "Gerry can". The 200 liter container is a 55 gallon barrel. This was also used by the the British and Americans, but since it weighed about 330 lbs fueled loaded, it was a lot less practical.

This is  quote from the 1st Panzer division supply officer on how the division was kept fueled during the drive to the Meuse in may 1940.:

"Retired Graf von Kielmansegg, who was the supply officer in charge of logistics for the 1st Panzer Division, looking back described the fuel supply movements during the advance to the Meuse River as “one of the toughest tasks” that he ever had to accomplish during the war.

The main problem was a conflict between tactical and logistical requirements. Zeitzler demanded that all vehicles must pass not only the border of Luxembourg but also the Belgian border fully loaded with fuel. But, at the same time, the requirement of the operations officer of the 1st Panzer Division, Major i.G. [Walther] Wenck, was strictly to adhere to the time frame on the march movement table. There was to be no stopping on the move. 

Kielmansegg used an improvised system of gasoline can delivery to resolve that conflict. The fuel quantities needed for all the marching groups were calculated precisely and were then stockpiled in gas cans at the planned tactical rest halts along the hundred-kilometer march to the border. In addition, numerous trucks carrying gas cans were inserted into the spearhead of the march movement group. At suitable points, gas cans were simply handed to the crews as their vehicles slowly drove past. Thus, the next stop could be used for refueling— the empty gas cans were simply thrown out on the roadside at designated points. There they were picked up and refilled in the next fuel dump. In that way, it was possible to meet both requirements at the same time: all vehicles drove through the Ardennes fully gassed up with fuel, and it was not necessary to interrupt the march movement to refuel. "

http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=16080.0

[JonS]

Hmm. Good posts