Benghazi burner

The Benghazi burner or Benghazi cooker was an improvised petrol stove or brazier used by British Army and Imperial troops in the Second World War, during and after the North African Campaign.

The Western Desert campaign

As used in the Western Desert campaign, the Benghazi burner itself consisted of an empty steel fuel can—usually the 4 imperial gallons (18.18 L) type, known as a "flimsy"[1]—or a biscuit tin. The sides of the top half would have some holes pierced in it, and the bottom half would be filled with sand. Petrol would be stirred into the sand and ignited. A second can of the same size would be secured on top and used as a cooking vessel.[2] It was fashioned because the standard pressure stove issued to armoured vehicle crews, officially designated "Cooker, Portable No 2", was prone to blockages caused by sand.[3] The Benghazi burner was superior in that empty cans, sand and fuel were readily available in the desert, it was very easy to construct, and it functioned silently.[4] Its primary disadvantage was that it was unpredictable and the fuel would often burn out too early; soldiers were often tempted to add petrol to the hot sand, which could result in an explosion.[5] An additional use was as a beacon to illuminate desert airstrips.[1]

Later developments

The burners were subsequently used during the Italian Campaign and in the North-West Europe Campaign.

The Benghazi burner was superseded by the introduction of the boiling vessel or "BV" which supplied hot water heated by a vehicle electrical system,[6] however the Benghazi burner design had a brief revival by British forces in the Gulf War of 1990–91, albeit made from ammunition boxes.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Hanson, Jonathan (17 August 2012). "Irreducible imperfection: The flimsy". Overland Expo. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  2. ^ Young, Denholm. "Desert brewup". British Forces in Palestine. Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  3. ^ Robertshaw, Andrew (2012). Frontline Cookbook: Battlefield Recipes from the Second World War. The History Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0752476650.
  4. ^ Kennedy Smith, W.B. (1945). Long Range Desert Group. London: Collins. pp. 50–51.
  5. ^ Mitchell, Raymond (2001). Commando Despatch Rider: From D-Day to Deutschland 1944-45. Leo Cooper. p. 72-73. ISBN 0-85052-797-X.
  6. ^ Ware, Pat (2012). The Centurion Tank, Pen & Sword, ISBN 978-1-78159-011-9 (p. 11)
  7. ^ Walker, Harlan. Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 1991: Public Eating: Proceedings, Prospect Books, ISBN 0-907325-47-5 (p. 13)
  8. ^ Cryer, Max (2010). The Godzone Dictionary: Of Favourite New Zealand Words and Phrases. ReadHowYouWant.com. p. 203. ISBN 9781458779526. Retrieved 3 January 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.