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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.
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire, using materials such as napalm, thermite, magnesium powder, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus. Though colloquially often known as bombs, they are not explosives but in fact are designed to slow the process of chemical reactions and use ignition rather than detonation to start or maintain the reaction. Napalm, for example, is petroleum especially thickened with certain chemicals into a 'gel' to slow, but not stop, combustion, releasing energy over a longer time than an explosive device. In the case of napalm, the gel adheres to surfaces and resists suppression.
A smoke screen is smoke released to mask the movement or location of military units such as infantry, tanks, aircraft, or ships.
The Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank, No. 75, also known as the "Hawkins grenade" was a British anti-tank hand grenade used during World War II. It was one of a number of grenades developed for use by the British Army and Home Guard in the aftermath of the Dunkirk evacuation. The grenade first appeared in 1942, and was designed to be more versatile than previous grenades, such as the No. 73 grenade and the sticky bomb.
White phosphorus munitions are weapons that use one of the common allotropes of the chemical element phosphorus. White phosphorus is used in smoke, illumination, and incendiary munitions, and is commonly the burning element of tracer ammunition. Other common names for white phosphorus munitions include WP and the slang terms Willie Pete and Willie Peter, which are derived from William Peter, the World War II phonetic alphabet rendering of the letters WP. White phosphorus is pyrophoric ; burns fiercely; and can ignite cloth, fuel, ammunition, and other combustibles.
The "Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74", commonly known as the S.T. grenade or simply sticky bomb, was a British hand grenade designed and produced during the Second World War. The grenade was one of a number of ad hoc anti-tank weapons developed for use by the British Army and Home Guard after the loss of many anti-tank guns in France after the Dunkirk evacuation.
The No. 73 grenade, also known as the "Thermos", "Woolworth bomb", or "hand percussion grenade", was a British anti-tank grenade used during the Second World War. It got its nickname from the resemblance to a Thermos flask.
The Projector, 2.5 inch—more commonly known as the Northover Projector—was an ad hoc anti-tank weapon used by the British Army and Home Guard during the Second World War.
The military of the United States has used many different types of hand grenades since its foundation.
The No. 77 grenade was a British white phosphorus grenade introduced in September 1943 and used during the Second World War. The No. 77 consisted of around 225 grams of white phosphorus, an impact fuze and a tin casing. It was intended for laying down smoke screens and as a signalling device. The grenade was also very effective as an anti-personnel, incendiary weapon. As well as being issued to the Home Guard, the No. 77 grenade was issued to the British army. This grenade was fitted with an "all-ways" action impact fuze designed to set the grenade off when it hit a surface - the fuze was called "all-ways" as it was designed to work no matter which way the grenade landed.
Incendiary ammunition is a type of ammunition that contains a chemical that, upon hitting a hard obstacle, has the characteristic of causing fire/setting flammable materials in the vicinity of the impact on fire.
Colonel Robert Stuart Macrae TD was an inventor best known for his work at MD1 during the Second World War, his best known invention being the sticky bomb.
A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand, but can also refer to a shell shot from the muzzle of a rifle or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade generally consists of an explosive charge ("filler"), a detonator mechanism, an internal striker to trigger the detonator, an arming safety secured by a transport safety. The user removes the transport safety before throwing, and once the grenade leaves the hand the arming safety gets released, allowing the striker to trigger a primer that ignites a fuze, which burns down to the detonator and explodes the main charge.
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 Frangible Grenade M1 was a specially designed factory produced molotov cocktail created by the United States in 1942 as it entered World War II (1939–1945). It was designed to provide lightly armed personnel with simple, uncomplicated weapons that were easy to mass-produce. It provided a cheap stopgap means of knocking out enemy vehicles, clearing out strongpoints, and harassing or killing enemy personnel until more effective weapons could be produced and distributed. It was dubbed "frangible" because it was made from glass, which is brittle and easily broken.
The Ampulomet was an expedient anti-tank weapon which launched a 125 mm incendiary projectile made of spherical glass. This weapon was introduced in 1941 and used by the Red Army in World War II, but by 1942 was largely obsolete.
The OTO Mod. 42 is an incendiary anti-tank hand grenade supplied to the Royal Italian Army during World War II.
References
Notes
- ↑ MacKenzie, 1995, p. 92: gives a figure of "more than 6,000,000 by August 1941"
- 1 2 3 War Office. Military Training Manual No 42, Appendix B: "The Self-Igniting Phosphorus Grenade, The AW Grenade". 29 August 1940, p. 25.
- ↑ Handbook for the Projectors, 2+1⁄2 inch, Marks I & II, September 1941. p. 26.
- ↑ Northover Projectors - WO 185/23, The National Archives
- ↑ Macrae 1971, p. 120.
- ↑ Macrae 1971, pp. 84–85.
- ↑ "Bomb team tackles WWII grenades". BBC News. 24 August 2005.
- ↑ Pilgrim 2018.
- ↑ Brown 2017.
General references
- Brown, Raymond (2017). "Bomb disposal experts detonate unexploded grenades". Cambridge News. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
- Mackenzie, S.P. (1995). The Home Guard: A Military and Political History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820577-5.
- Macrae, Stuart (1971). Winston Churchill's Toyshop. Roundwood Press. SBN 900093-22-6.
- Pilgrim, Tom (2018). "A massive number of bombs have been cleared from the Cambridge ice rink site". Cambridge News. Retrieved 30 May 2018.
Collections
- "The National Archives". Repository of UK government records. Retrieved 26 August 2010.