A Molotov cocktail is a hand-thrown incendiary weapon consisting of a frangible container filled with flammable substances and equipped with a fuse. In use, the fuse attached to the container is lit and the weapon is thrown, shattering on impact. This ignites the flammable substances contained in the bottle and spreads flames as the fuel burns.
A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World War II as a tactical weapon against fortifications.
The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour protection during the early stages of the war, especially during the first year of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. In certain situations, even a single KV-1 or KV-2 supported by infantry could halt German formations. The German Wehrmacht at that time rarely deployed its tanks against KVs, as their own armament was too poor to deal with the "Russischer Koloss" – "Russian Colossus".
The Panzerkampfwagen III, commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was Sd.Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and serve alongside and support the similar Panzer IV, which was originally designed for infantry support.
The Panzerkampfwagen 35(t), commonly shortened to Panzer 35(t) or abbreviated as Pz.Kpfw. 35(t), was a Czechoslovak-designed light tank used mainly by Nazi Germany during World War II. The letter (t) stood for tschechisch (German for "Czech"). In Czechoslovak service, it had the formal designation Lehký tank vzor 35 (Light Tank Model 35), but was commonly referred to as the LT vz. 35 or LT-35.
A flame tank is a type of tank equipped with a flamethrower, most commonly used to supplement combined arms attacks against fortifications, confined spaces, or other obstacles. The type only reached significant use in the Second World War, during which the United States, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom all produced flamethrower-equipped tanks.
The Type 93 and Type 100 flamethrowers were flamethrowers used by the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy's SNLF during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.
The Flammenwerfer 35, or FmW 35 was a one-man German flamethrower used during World War II to clear out trenches and buildings. It could project fuel up to 25 meters from the user.
The Char B1 was a French heavy tank manufactured before World War II.
The Carro Veloce 33 (CV 33) or L3/33 was a tankette originally built in 1933 and used by the Italian Army before and during World War II. It was based on the imported British Carden Loyd tankette. Many CV 33s were retrofitted to meet the specifications of the CV 35 in 1935. In 1938, the CV 33 was renamed the "L3/33" while the CV 35 became the "L3/35s."
The Lagonda company produced a number of flamethrowers during the Second World War.
The Panzerkampfwagen I was a light tank produced in Germany in the 1930s. The Panzer I was built in several variants and was the basis for a number of variants listed below.
The Einstossflammenwerfer 46 was a handheld single shot flamethrower designed in Germany during the second half of World War II and introduced in 1944; it was engineered to be both cheap and easily mass-produced, falling into the category of throwaway flamethrower. The disposable weapon fired a half-second burst of flame of up to 27 metres (89 ft). It was issued to the Volkssturm or the Werwolf movement, but also used by the Fallschirmjäger . It was inspired by the Italian "Lanciafiamme Mod. 41 d'assalto".
The first German man-portable flamethrower was called the Kleinflammenwerfer or Kleif. Fuel was stored in a large vertical, cylindrical backpack container. High-pressure propellant was stored in another, smaller container attached to the fuel tank. A long hose connected the fuel tank to a lance tube with an igniting device at the nozzle. The propellant forced the fuel through the hose and out of the nozzle at high speed when a valve was opened. The igniting device at the nozzle set fire to the fuel as it sprayed out. The flamethrower was operated by two soldiers, one carrying the fuel and propellant tanks, another wielding the lance. Wex, a replacement for the Kleif, was introduced in 1917 after the third battle of Ypres.
The Wechselapparat (Wex) was a World War I German flamethrower introduced in 1916 to replace the earlier Kleif. Developed by Richard Fiedler, as early as 1901. It had a doughnut-shaped backpack fuel container with a spherical propellant container (nitrogen) in the middle that blasted the gasoline. The containers were made of welded car rims, which made it easier to carry it yourself. A corrugated rubber hose led from the tank at the ends of which there were valves that enables mixture of fuel and propellant dispensing under pressure to the metal fuel pipe which had handles on both sides. Wex used a magnesium ignition system in a nozzle. In order for the fire to burn longer, tar was added to the gasoline or instead of it fuel oil was completely used up. It was used throughout the war, and some survived flamethrowers have been used by the Finns in the 1920s and then converted to Flammenwerfer 40. This design was updated before the Second World War to become the Flammerwerfer 35. However, it was considered too fragile so it was soon replaced by the Flammenwerfer 41, a simpler construction with smaller, horizontal, cylindrical backpack containers.
The Flammenwerfer M.16. was a German man-portable backpack flamethrower that was used in World War I in trench warfare by the Germans. It was the first flamethrower ever used in combat, in 1916 at Verdun by the Germans. It was also used in 1918 in the battle of Argonne Forest in France against Allied forces by Germans, as featured in the 2001 film The Lost Battalion where the main character fights German, although an account in a 1917 issue of The Living Age suggests eyewitness accounts of it being used at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 by Germans.
The M1 and M1A1 were portable flamethrowers developed by the United States during World War II. The M1 weighed 72 lb, had a range of 15 meters, and had a fuel tank capacity of five gallons. The improved M1A1 weighed less, at 65 lb, had a much longer range of 45 meters, had the same fuel tank capacity, and fired thickened fuel (napalm).
A flame fougasse is a type of mine or improvised explosive device which uses an explosive charge to project burning liquid onto a target. The flame fougasse was developed by the Petroleum Warfare Department in Britain as an anti-tank weapon during the invasion crisis of 1940. During that period, about 50,000 flame fougasse barrels were deployed in some 7,000 batteries, mostly in southern England and a little later at 2,000 sites in Scotland. Although never used in combat in Britain, the design saw action later in Greece.
The Petroleum Warfare Department (PWD) was a government department established in Britain in 1940 in response to the invasion crisis during World War II, when Germany apparently would invade the country. The department was initially tasked with developing the uses of petroleum as a weapon of war, and it oversaw the introduction of a wide range of flame warfare weapons. Later in the war, the department was instrumental in the creation of the Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation that cleared runways of fog allowing the landing of aircraft returning from bombing raids over Germany in poor visibility, and Operation Pluto, which installed prefabricated fuel pipelines between England and France soon after the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
The Lanciafiamme Spalleggiato Modello 35, also known as the Model 35, was a flamethrower issued to the Royal Italian Army in the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. In 1940 it was replaced by the Lanciafiamme Spalleggiato Modello 40, which used a different ignition system.
