Flamethrower
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A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long, controllable stream of fire. The word is a loan-translation of German Flammenwerfer : modern flamethrowers were first invented in Germany.
Some flamethrowers project an ignited stream of flammable liquid; others produce a long gas flame. They are used by the military and also by those needing controlled burning, such as in agriculture (including in sugar cane plantations) or other land management tasks. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high pressure propane or natural gas, which is considered safer.
[edit] Military flamethrowers
Flamethrowers date from the time of the Byzantines, when hand-pumped flamethrowers were used in naval forces: see Greek fire. Infantry flamethrowers had a limited range and capacity; the larger naval flamethrowers were used to set alight enemy ships' sails and rigging. The composition of the chemical used in these primitive "flamethrowers" is not definitively known.
Modern flamethrowers were first used in World War I, and their use increased greatly in WWII. They can be vehicle mounted, as on a tank, or hand-carried.
The backpack element usually consists of two or three cylinders. One cylinder holds flammable liquid and the other compressed propellant gas, usually nitrogen. A three-cylinder system often has two outer cylinders of liquid and a central cylinder of propellant gas to improve the balance. The gas is used to force the liquid out of the cylinder into a pipe and then the gun part of the system. The gun attachment consists of a small reservoir, a spring valve, and an ignition system; depressing a trigger opens the valve and allows the pressurized liquid to pass over the igniter and out of the weapon. An un-ignited stream can also be fired and afterwards ignited. The igniter can be one of a number of systems, a simple type is a wire coil which is heated electrically. Another type of igniter used a small pilot flame, fueled by pressurized gas from the system.
It is a weapon with a potent impact on unprepared troops, delivering a particularly horrendous death; flamethrowers can have great psychological impact. The weapon is primarily used against battlefield fortifications, bunkers, and other protected emplacements. A flamethrower projects liquid rather than flame, so the stream can be 'bounced' off walls or ceilings to project the fire into unseen spaces such as the inside of bunkers or pillboxes. Flamethrowers are typically depicted in popular media as having a range of a few meters, but real modern flamethrowers can kill 50-80 meters (165-270 feet) away.
Flamethrowers pose many risks for those using them. Their first disadvantage is that they are heavy and impair mobility. Flamethrowers are also very visible on the battlefield, and flamethrower operators may become prominent targets for snipers. Historically, flamethrower operators were rarely taken prisoner, especially when their targets survived the impact of the weapon, those captured often suffering summary execution in reprisal. Finally, and perhaps most obviously, flamethrowers have a very short range, meaning that soldiers wielding these weapons have to get very close to enemy positions to use them, exposing themselves to enemy fire.
The risk of a user being caught in an explosion if his flamethrower is struck by enemy fire is greatly exaggerated in Hollywood films. <ref>canadiansoldiers.com flamethrower article</ref>
It should be noted that flame thrower operators did not usually face a fiery death from the slightest spark or even from having their tank hit by a normal bullet as often depicted in modern war films. The Gas Container [i.e. the pressurizer] is filled with a non-flammable gas that is under high pressure. If this tank were ruptured, it might knock the operator forward as it was expended in the same way a pressurized aerosol can bursts outward when punctured. The fuel mixture in the Fuel Containers is difficult to light which is why magnesium filled igniters are required when the weapon is fired. Fire a bullet into a metal can filled with diesel or napalm and it will merely leak out the hole unless the round was an incendiary type that could possibly ignite the mixture inside. This also applies to the flame thrower Fuel Container.<ref>Gordon, David. Weapons of the WWII Tommy</ref>
The best way to minimize the disadvantages of flame weapons was to mount them on armoured vehicles. The Commonwealth and Americans were the most prolific users of vehicle mounted flame weapons; the British and Canadians fielded the Wasp (a Universal Carrier) at the infantry battalion level, beginning in mid 1944 and eventually incorporating them directly into the infantry battalions. Early tank-mounted flame throwing tanks included the Badger (a converted Ram tank) and the Oke, first used at Dieppe. The most famous flamethrowing tank was the Crocodile.<ref>canadiansoldiers.com flamethrower article</ref>
[edit] History
[edit] Early history
The concept of throwing fire has existed since ancient times. Greek fire was used extensively by the Byzantine Empire, and is said to have been invented by a Syrian Christian refugee named Kallinikos (Callinicus) of Heliopolis (Syria), probably about 673. Greek fire, used primarily at sea, gave the Byzantines a strong military advantage. One form of delivery was through a hand held pump that shot bursts of the substance via a piston, igniting on a match on its way out, in a similar manner to modern versions. The weapon also makes an appearance in the American Civil War.
[edit] 20th century
The first flamethrower, in the modern sense, is usually credited to the German Richard Fiedler. He submitted evaluation models of his Flammenwerfer to the German army in 1901. The most significant model he submitted was a man portable device, consisting of a single cylinder around 4 feet (1.2 m) high, divided horizontally with a pressurized gas lower section and inflammable oil in the top section. On depressing a lever the gas forced the liquid through a rubber tube and over a simple wick igniting device in a steel nozzle. The weapon could project a flaming jet and enormous clouds of smoke around 20 yards (18 m) with two minutes of firing time. It was a single shot device - for burst firing a new ignitor section had to be attached each time.
[edit] WWI
It was not until 1911 that the German army accepted the device, creating a specialist regiment of twelve companies equipped with Flammenwerferapparate. Despite this the weapon was not used in WW I until 25 June 1915 when it was briefly used against the French. On 30 July, 1915 it was used against British trenches at Hooge, where it had limited but impressive success.
It was discovered that the weapon had drawbacks: it was cumbersome and difficult to operate and could only be fired safely from a trench, so limiting its safe use to areas where the opposing trenches were less than 20 yards apart, not a common situation.
The German army continued to deploy flamethrowers throughout the war and they were used in over 300 engagements, usually in teams of six flamethrowers.
[edit] WWII
Flamethrowers were used extensively in World War II. The German army first employed man-portable flamethrowers in 1940 to destroy Dutch fortifications and gun positions. The U.S. army subsequently introduced its own manpack flamethrower in 1942.
The vulnerability of infantry carrying backpack flamethrowers, and the weapon's short range, led to experiments with tank-mounted flamethrowers (called flame tanks). The British hardly used their man-portable systems, relying on special Sherman, Churchill, and Matilda tanks in the European theatre. These tanks proved very effective against German defensive positions, and caused official Axis protests against their use. There are documented instances of German SS units executing out of hand any British flame tank crews they captured.
In the Pacific theatre, the US Marines used the backpack-type M2A1-7 flamethrower and M2-2 flamethrowers, finding them especially useful in clearing Japanese trench and bunker complexes. In cases where the Japanese were protected from the flames by deep caves, the burning flames often consumed the available oxygen, suffocating the occupants. The Marines eventually stopped using their infantry-portable systems with the arrival of adapted Sherman tanks with the Ronson system (see flame tank). US flamethrowers were also used by the U.S. Army in Europe to clear out German bunkers, notably during Operation Overlord.
The Germans made considerable use of the weapon (Flammenwerfer 35) during the invasion of western Europe, especially in Holland and France against fixed fortifications, but it soon fell out of favour except for use in reprisal operations. However, on the Eastern Front its use on the battlefield and for "scorched earth" tactics continued until the end of the war. See the Stroop Report link on article of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
The British WWII army flamethrowers, "Ack Packs" had a doughnut-shaped fuel tank with a small spherical pressurizer gas tank in the middle. As a result, some troops nicknamed them "lifebuoys".
WWII German army flamethrowers tended to have one big fuel tank with the pressurizer tank fastened to its back or side. Some WWII German army flamethrowers occupied only the lower part of its wearer's back, leaving the upper part of his back free for an ordinary packful of supplies.
Some Soviet Army flamethrowers had three backpack fuel tanks side by side. Some descriptions seem to say that its user could fire three shots, each emptying one of the tanks.[edit] After 1945
United States Marines used flamethrowers in the Korean War and Vietnam.
Flamethrowers have not been part of the U.S. military arsenal since 1978, when the Department of Defense unilaterally decided to end their use because of concerns that the public found them inhumane, though they are not specifically banned by any of the international treaties that the U.S. has signed.
[edit] Private ownership
Private ownership of flamethrowers is not restricted in the United States by the federal law, but it is restricted in some states, such as California, by state laws (see CA Health and Welfare Codes 12750 - 12761, "Flamethrowing Devices") CA H&W Code on line
In California, unlicenced posession of a flamethrowing device (defined as "any nonstationary and transportable device designed or intended to emit or propel a burning stream of combustible or flammable liquid a distance of at least 10 feet" H&W 12750 (a)) is a misdemeanor, punishable by a county jail term not to exceed one year OR by a fine not to exceed $10,000 (CA H&W 12761.) Licenses to use flamethrowers are issued by the State Fire Marshal, and (s)he may use any criteria for issuing that license that (s)he deems fit, but must publish those criteria in the California Code of Regulations, Title 11, Section 970 et seq. CA Regs(CA H&W 12756) (definitions and scope, administration, enforcement and penalties)
[edit] Other uses
Flamethrowers are also used by those needing controlled burning, such as in agriculture and other land management tasks.
In ripe sugar cane plantations, they are used to burn off the dry dead leaves which otherwise clog harvesting machinery, and as a side-effect to save workmen's lives by killing any poisonous snakes lurking in it; the stems are juicy and do not burn.
Flamethrowers are also sometimes used for igniting controlled burns of grassland or forest, although more commonly a driptorch or a flare (fusee) is used.
U.S. troops used flamethrowers on the streets of Washington D.C — to clear snow (as mentioned in a December 1998 article in San Francisco Flier). It was just one of several methods used to clear a surprisingly large amount of snow that fell before the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. A history article on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers notes "In the end the task force employed hundreds of dump trucks, front-end loaders, sanders, plows, rotaries, and flamethrowers to clear the way" [1]. The massive effort by city, military, and others even included 1700 Boy Scouts. The work paid off the next day with the successful inauguration of J.F.K. on January 20 1961.
Flamethrowers are also used for special effects, such as concerts and special events. Particularly, the band Rammstein's lead singer Till Lindemann is known to use a flamethrower during live performances.
[edit] In fiction
Due to the flamethrower's dramatic and spectacular effects, they are often featured in fiction, action movies and especially in video games, even where they would not be used in reality.
Hollywood movie makers seem to have no difficulty getting hold of flamethrowers. But on set they are often filled with propane instead of liquid fuel, for safety for the actors, producing a flaming effect but with none of the spray, splatter, smoke, and area effect of the genuine fuel. For example, in the Omaha Beach sequence of Saving Private Ryan, the flamethrower that exploded was filled with a small amount of propane — just enough to burst the containers and produce flames. The spectacular explosion that you see, actually occurred a few seconds after the burst, and was caused by blowing vaporized propane onto the explosion.
Movie makers may also use flamethrowers as special effects tools to simulate things like fires and explosions and volcanic eruptions.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- First World War.com: Weapons of War: Flamethrowers
- WEAPONS OF THE WORLD WAR II GYRENE: Flamethrowers
- Howstuffworks "How Flamethrowers Work"
- Jaeger Platoon: Portable flame-throwers
- Slate article from October 2001, "Why we should consider using flamethrowers in Afghanistan"
- A history of flamethrowersde:Flammenwerfer
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