The Benghazi burner or Benghazi cooker was an improvised petrol stove or brazier used by British Army troops and their Commonwealth and Imperial allies in the Second World War, during and after the North African Campaign.
The Benghazi burner or Benghazi cooker was an improvised petrol stove or brazier used by British Army troops and their Commonwealth and Imperial allies in the Second World War, during and after the North African Campaign.
As used in the Western Desert campaign, the Benghazi burner itself consisted of a single empty steel fuel can - usually a 4 gallon (18 litre) 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 it would then be ignited. A second can of the same size could be placed on top and used as a cooking vessel. [2] It was used because the standard pressure stove issued to armoured vehicle crews, known as the "Cooker, Portable No 2", was prone to blockages caused by sand. [3] The Benghazi burner had the advantages that it was silent, fast and that empty cans, sand and fuel were readily available in the desert. [4] The disadvantage was that it was unpredictable and the fuel would often burn out too early; it was tempting to add petrol to the hot sand with explosive results. [5] An additional use was as a beacon to illuminate desert airstrips. [1]
The importance of the Benghazi burner in the desert campaign was, at least in part, due to the fact that the water supplied to the front line was often transported in fuel cans; the resulting foul taste could be remedied by making tea with it. Although tea drinking was a long established custom in the British Army (one account describes tea being liberally distributed on the morning of the Battle of Waterloo), [6] the act of "brewing-up" (i.e., making tea) soon became "almost a ritual" in the desert campaign. Besides providing most of the men's hydration, the act of making and drinking tea also aided bonding and morale. One soldier recorded that morale was directly proportional to the "supply of brews" and that "tea had become as a drug to us". A battalion could use almost a hundred gallons (about 450 litres) of fuel per day in making tea. Recognising this, the British Government bought all the black tea available on the European market in 1942. [7] The burners were also used to cook field rations; tinned corned beef - known as "bully beef" - could be fried and hardtack biscuits could be crushed and made into a kind of porridge known as "burgoo" or "biscuit la-la". [8] During extended periods of low rations a British soldier interviewed after the war noted to have used the burner for cooking an assortment of objects saying, "With the right mish-mash of spices, or whatever you could get your hands on, you could turn even the vilest of rat into something edible."
The burners were subsequently used during the Italian Campaign and in the North-West Europe Campaign. In a British tank crew the radio operator and hull machine-gunner had the additional job of making tea whenever there was an opportunity. The sign "WHEN IN DOUBT BREW-UP" was common in the British Army. [9]
Right at the end of hostilities, the latest Centurion tank was fitted with a boiling vessel or "BV" which supplied hot water heated by the tank's electrical system. [10] These are now fitted to almost every type of British military vehicle. Despite this, the Benghazi burner design had a brief revival by British forces in the Gulf War of 1990–91, albeit made from ammunition boxes. [11]
The Second Battle of El Alamein was a battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein and the Battle of Alam el Halfa had prevented the Axis from advancing further into Egypt.
A portable stove is a cooking stove specially designed to be portable and lightweight, used in camping, picnicking, backpacking, or other use in remote locations where an easily transportable means of cooking or heating is needed. Portable stoves can be used in diverse situations, such as for outdoor food service and catering and in field hospitals.
Operation Sonnenblume was the name given to the dispatch of German troops to North Africa in February 1941, during the Second World War. The Italian 10th Army had been destroyed by the British, Commonwealth, Empire and Allied Western Desert Force attacks during Operation Compass (9 December 1940 – 9 February 1941). The first units of the new Deutsches Afrikakorps departed Naples for Africa and arrived on 11 February 1941. On 14 February, advanced units of the 5th Light Afrika Division, Aufklärungsbataillon 3 and Panzerjägerabteilung 39 arrived in Tripoli, Libya and were sent immediately to the front line east of Sirte.
A jerrycan or jerrican is a robust liquid container made from pressed steel. It was designed in Germany in the 1930s for military use to hold 20 litres of fuel, and saw widespread use by both Germany and the Allies during the Second World War.
The Centurion was the primary British Army main battle tank of the post-World War II period. Introduced in 1945, it is widely considered to be one of the most successful post-War tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing combat into the 1980s. The chassis was adapted for several other roles, and these variants have remained in service. It was a very popular tank with good armour, mobility, and a powerful main armament.
A kitchen stove, often called simply a stove or a cooker, is a kitchen appliance designed for the purpose of cooking food. Kitchen stoves rely on the application of direct heat for the cooking process and may also contain an oven, used for baking. "Cookstoves" are heated by burning wood or charcoal; "gas stoves" are heated by gas; and "electric stoves" by electricity. A stove with a built-in cooktop is also called a range.
The Japanese kitchen is the place where food is prepared in a Japanese house. Until the Meiji era, a kitchen was also called kamado and there are many sayings in the Japanese language that involve kamado as it was considered the symbol of a house. The term could even be used to mean "family" or "household". Separating a family was called kamado wo wakeru, or "divide the stove". Kamado wo yaburu means that the family was broken.
The Western Desert campaign took place in the deserts of Egypt and Libya and was the main theatre in the North African campaign of the Second World War. Military operations began in June 1940 with the Italian declaration of war and the Italian invasion of Egypt from Libya in September. Operation Compass, a five-day raid by the British in December 1940, was so successful that it led to the destruction of the Italian 10th Army over the following two months. Benito Mussolini sought help from Adolf Hitler, who sent a small German force to Tripoli under Directive 22. The Afrika Korps was formally under Italian command, as Italy was the main Axis power in the Mediterranean and North Africa.
A mess kit is a collection of silverware and cookware designed for use by military personnel for food and military rations. They also used during camping and backpacking. There are many varieties of mess kits that militaries issue to their personnel that later become available to consumers.
Rationing was introduced temporarily by the British government several times during the 20th century, during and immediately after a war.
A field ration is a type of prepackaged military ration designed to be easily and quickly prepared and consumed in the field, in combat, at the front line, or where eating facilities are otherwise unavailable. Field rations are primarily used by military forces, though they are also sometimes distributed to civilians as part of humanitarian aid and emergency management. They differ from garrison rations and field kitchen provisions, which are intended for where proper meals can be supplied and prepared with relative ease and safety, such as in the rear where logistics are steady and fresh food can be supplied. They are similar to, but distinct from, other purpose-designed long-lasting types of food or rations such as emergency rations, humanitarian daily rations, and camping food.
A catastrophic kill, K-Kill or complete kill is damage inflicted on an armored vehicle that renders it permanently non-functional.
Sea of Sand is a 1958 British war film starring Richard Attenborough, John Gregson and Michael Craig. The film, which was directed by Guy Green, is about a patrol of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) during the North African Campaign in the Second World War. It was shot on location in the Kingdom of Libya.
The rapid British advance during Operation Compass forced the Italian 10th Army to evacuate Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya. In late January, the British learned that the Italians were retreating along the Litoranea Balbo from Benghazi. The 7th Armoured Division was dispatched to intercept the remnants of the 10th Army by moving through the desert, south of the Jebel Akhdar via Msus and Antelat as the 6th Australian Division pursued the Italians along the coast road, north of the jebel. The terrain was hard going for the British tanks and Combeforce, a flying column of wheeled vehicles, was sent ahead across the chord of the jebel.
A Tommy cooker was a compact, portable stove, fuelled by a substance referred to as "solidified alcohol" which was issued to British troops ("Tommies") in World War I. It was notoriously ineffective; one soldier complained that it took two hours to boil half a pint of water. A variety of commercial or improvised alternatives were in use.
The Battle of El Agheila was a brief engagement of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It took place in December 1942 between Allied forces of the Eighth Army and the Axis forces of the German-Italian Panzer Army, during the long Axis withdrawal from El Alamein to Tunis. It ended with the German-Italian Panzer Army resuming its retreat towards Tunisia, where the Tunisia Campaign had begun with Operation Torch (8–16 November 1942).
Combeforce or Combe Force was an ad hoc flying column of the British Army during the Second World War, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John Combe. It comprised parts of the 7th Armoured Division of the Western Desert Force. The rapid British advance during Operation Compass forced the Italian 10th Army to evacuate Cyrenaica, the eastern province of Libya. In late January, the British learned that the Italians were retreating from Benghazi, along the coast road. The 7th Armoured Division was dispatched to intercept the remnants of the 10th Army by moving through the desert, south of the Jebel Akhdar via Msus and Antelat, as the 6th Australian Division pursued the Italians along the coast road, north of the jebel.
A boiling vessel is a water heating system fitted to British armoured fighting vehicles that permits the crew to heat water and cook food by drawing power from the vehicle electrical supply. It is often referred to by crewmembers as "the most important piece of equipment in a British armoured vehicle".
The flimsy, officially known as the Petrol, Oil and Water can, was a World War II fuel container used by the British Army. They held 4 imperial gallons of fuel, which allowed them to be moved by a single person.
British logistics supported the operations of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group in the Western Allied invasion of Germany from 8 January 1945 until the end of the Second World War in Europe on 8 May 1945. To conserve scarce manpower, the British and Canadian forces employed mechanisation and materiel to maximum effect. This involved prodigious use of ammunition, fuel and equipment, which in turn demanded a first-class military logistics system. By this time, the British Army was highly experienced, professional and proficient.