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• The Flamethrower Operator During the Pacific War

One of the most devastating weapons Marines used during World War II was the portable flamethrower. Over 30 percent of all Japanese killed on Iwo Jima were not killed by explosions or bullets, but by being incinerated alive by flamethrowers carried in a backpack or the M-4 Sherman Flamethrower tank called Satan or Zippo tanks (which carried 300 gallons of fuel). On Iwo alone, 10,000 gallons of flamethrower mixture was used daily for both troop-carried models and Zippo tanks (360,000 gallons total for the 36-day campaign). The portable flamethrower Marines used in 1944 and 1945, especially the improved M2-2, had two tanks about the size of scuba tanks, full of flammable fuel (4.5 gallons) plus a slightly smaller center tank of compressed air or nitrogen (nitrogen was preferred because it was not flammable). All three tanks were welded together onto a backpack with shoulder straps. The compressed air canister pushed air through the hose connected to the 3-foot wand or gun, which delivered burning fuel on a target. When fired with full force, the weapon blew fuel at a “rate of one half-gallon per second.” It was heavy and awkward machinery—most flamethrower operators carried 100 pounds of equipment—but deadly. In typical Marine Corps fashion, legendary Marine Chesty Puller, on seeing it for the first time asked “Where [does] the bayonet fit on?” A serious answer to this question would have been: “No bayonet needed if properly used,” yet, if one did run out of fuel using the flamethrower, Chesty had a valid point.

On Iwo Jima, “The flamethrowers suffered particularly heavy casualties. The Japs feared and hated their fire. When they saw one of our flamethrowers advancing, they concentrated their weapons on him. Our men swore the Japs hurled their mortar shells not at our units, but at our individual flamethrowers” according to Marine Corps correspondents from the battle. The oil in the diesel produced a black smoke as it burned so a flamethrower had to constantly move or the enemy would zero in on him since his battlefield signature was large. Sometimes it was not the flamethrower’s smoke, but its sound that elicited counterfire: “When the pressure is released [from compressed nitrogen], there is a sharp hiss that immediately discloses to the enemy your exact position. ‘Then,’ [a veteran explained], ‘you start getting hell from [him]” according to journalist USMC PFC Paul Hoolihan. The weapon itself was also a hazard according to the records in the National Archives:

“[The] mixture of air under pressure into gasoline produces a highly flammable mixture and… gun hoses and connections have a tendency to leak under severe combat conditions. A tank, being of metal construction, containing many moving metal parts and an elaborate electrical system, is a constant source of sparks. If compressed air is used, one spark near a leaking hose would cause a violent explosion.”

Often in battle, these instruments exploded due to malfunctions and enemy fire (likely hitting the tubing when the flame ignited). In other words, when in a foxhole, one tended not to share it with a flamethrower. Nonetheless, without the flamethrower, war in the Pacific would have been considerably slower and more challenging.

When the Marines received the flamethrower in 1943-44, they worked hard to discover the ideal mix of diesel and gasoline to produce the most effective flame. They also experimented using kerosene, motor oil and a napalm-like jelly called “phosphorous gel” or “phosgel,” none of which worked as well as the diesel and gas mixture. If one used only diesel, the fluid was too heavy and the flame traveled only a few feet. Such a weapon had no effect on the battlefield unless one was to pour his flame into an opening in the earth. If one just used gasoline (130-octane aviation gas), then the flame lacked body and sprayed quickly into the air and was swiftly extinguished. If mixed in a 1:1 ratio, however, these two fuels gave enough body and heat (power density) to send fire twenty to thirty yards to the operator’s front, unleashing hell on the battlefield.

A 21st Marine regimental report from the 2nd Battalion noted the men “preferred a mixture of gasoline and oil rather than the napalm mixture because it would carry farther.” Once engaged, an operator had 7-9 seconds of fuel with the trigger pulled before the tanks emptied. It was a terrifying firearm: Former Marine Commandant and 4th MarDiv commander on Iwo Jima, Major General Clifton B. Cates, said he could not think of a more inhumane weapon. Marine veteran Eugene Sledge wrote:

“I shouldered the heavy tanks, held the nozzle in both hands, pointed at the stump about twenty-five yards away, and pressed the trigger. With a whoosh, a stream of…flame squirted out, and the nozzle bucked. The napalm hit the stump with a loud splattering noise. I felt the heat on my face. A cloud of black smoke rushed upward. The thought of turning loose hellfire from a hose nozzle as easily as I’d water a lawn back home sobered me. To shoot the enemy with bullets or kill him with shrapnel was one of the grim necessities of war, but to fry him to death was too gruesome to contemplate. I was to learn soon, however, that the Japanese couldn’t be routed from their island defenses without it.”

The men practiced using this weapon for hours, learning the best methods. The firing apparatus had two triggers. There was one on the wand’s front where there was a cylinder with phosphorus matches to activate the flame and another at the back to send out the fuel using compressed air. Each flamethrower had five matches to the cylinder so they were used sparingly. A match stayed lit for ten seconds. The supply of “fuel” lasted 7-9 seconds when engaged, so the operator pumped the trigger in bursts to conserve fuel and direct the fire.

Whether taking out personnel in the open, in pillboxes or in trenches, one had to ignite the first thrust of fuel and then the targeted area would already be on fire, thereby providing the flame the fuel needed to ignite subsequent bursts, so one just had to continue to hit the back trigger to release more fuel on the burning area. Releasing the fuel in bursts was the most effective method to send out more fuel to eliminate a target. Once the flame left the nozzle, it rolled out to approximately 20 feet in diameter as it created a huge fireball of force. Learning how to properly operate a flamethrower was tough and Medal of Honor recipient Woody Williams says controlling the flame was a skill only obtained with several weeks of training. He stated, “I can’t tell you the number of times I singed off my eyebrows and the hair on my arms learning to use that rig.”

It was crucial for the flamethrower to fire his weapon from the correct stance. The propellant for the fuel had to be powerful enough to reach a target without getting too close. That gave the weapon a kick when compressed air was released from the center tank, forcing the barrel up as it fired. Unless the operator was prepared to hold down the flamethrower as it fired, and lean forward to absorb the kick, the barrel could wind up pointing to the sky. Not only would he miss the target, the fire would rain down, incinerating him. That happened in one instance when a trained flamethrower fell in battle and an inexperienced Marine picked up the weapon and fired it. He did not lean forward, was saturated with flame and was killed in an instant.

Many Marines expressed concern about being a flamethrower operator for a variety of reasons. Carrying so much gear made them an easy target. They looked like hunchbacks. And since they were carrying metal tanks with highly explosive fuel next to a tank with compressed air, they worried their hardware would not stand up to shrapnel or bullets. This would make them walking bombs.

Hearing these concerns, one of William’s non-commissioned officers tested the flamethrower’s ruggedness by shooting a few tanks with high-caliber weapons to see what would happen. Much to everyone’s relief, even .30 caliber rounds from the BAR rifle would not penetrate the tanks (the rubber tubing connecting the wand with those tanks was another matter). Although the tanks were tough, the operators knew they would become targets and have difficulty finding cover during combat while carrying the metal backpack.

Despite this vulnerability, they recognized the flamethrower would be one of the most effective weapons to use against emplacements: Bullets cannot strike targets inside pillboxes or trenches like a fast-flowing stream of liquid, flaming gas can. The flamethrower became one of the best weapons against strongly fortified enemy positions, even more so than tanks, naval gunfire, cannons, claymores, mines and satchel charges.

Nonetheless, many have asked why battle tanks or cannons weren’t used to take out enemy positions. The problem was that tanks were unable to operate on some hilly terrain, loose, sandy soil, or where the enemy had constructed tank traps. There were also not enough tanks to handle the multitude of fortified positions the enemy had created on many Pacific islands. Naval gunfire was great, but battleships were so far away it was difficult for them to make a pinpoint hit on a target. Moreover, it sometimes took hours to get the requested naval gunfire or close air support and, in the meantime, Marines were vulnerable to enemy fire. Once the Marines landed, great skill in targeting was required. A similar caution applied to artillery, which fired smaller shells from closer distances. There were a lot of enemy fortifications that, as a practical matter, only a Marine with a flamethrower could effectively neutralize.

It was remarkable how far the U.S. came with flamethrower technology in a short amount of time. After the Nazis had effectively used flamethrowers (Model 1935 Flammenwerfer) and demolitions in May 1940 against the Belgian fort of Eben Emael and secondary positions around the fortification such as machinegun nests, the Chemical Warfare Service and the Army Engineer Test Board collaborated in the development of experimental flamethrowers (E1 and E1R1s). By March 1942, the model M1 started to arrive in the Pacific. It was poorly designed and suffered from defective battery ignition systems, broken fuel lines, leaky valves and frequent loss of pressure. Improvements were made and the first significant use of flamethrowers by the U.S. Army and the USMC was the M1-A1 in late 1942 and 1943. Yet, these versions were inferior and often the battery-operated ignition system failed to ignite the fuel exposing them to counter fire. Often, they used “tracer bullets, white phosphorus shells, or hand grenades” to set “target areas on fire.” The M2 and M2-,2 which the flamethrower operators on Iwo Jima used, were vastly improved when they arrived in mid-1944. The M2-2 had a more rugged design and an improved ignition system that used a housed match lighting mechanism in the wand’s nose. This ignition system was a “waterproofed revolving cylinder which worked much like a revolver” with the matches inside. By the time Marines hit Guam and Iwo Jima, they wielded the most advanced flamethrower in the world.

The flamethrower was one of the most effective tools to counter the tactic of fighting from underground. The importance of this weapon was also evidenced by the fact that the U.S. produced 14,000 M1-A1 first generation and 25,000 M2-2 second generation flamethrowers during WWII. At the war’s beginning, the Germans and Japanese had superior flamethrowers, but by war’s end, Americans had developed flamethrower technology that surpassed that of their enemies. The U.S. Marines became the best warriors in the world at manipulating flaming death to defeat an entrenched enemy.

For more, see “Flamethrower”: https://www.amazon.com/Flamet.../dp/1734534109/ref=sr_1_2...

#WWII #flamethrower #IwoJima #USMC #MarineCorps #combat #military #militaryhistory #warfare