Tommy cooker

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A Tommy cooker was a compact, portable, solidified alcohol fuelled stove issued to British troops (Tommies) in World War I^[1]. It was notoriously ineffective and a variety of improvised alternatives were in use, but a refined version remained in use during World War II. The term also came to be applied by the late Panther and Tiger German tank crews as a derogatory nickname for the Sherman tank, which, due to a combination of obsolete armour and the highly flammable fuel -- only on early models, acquired an early reputation for "brewing up" when hit^[2].

The British army still uses compact portable solid fuel (hexamine) stoves.

[edit] References

1. ^ First War encyclopaedia
2. ^ BBC History