Flamethrower

A flamethrower is a weapon that projects a jet of burning liquid over a distance of a dozen to a few dozen metres. The modern flamethrower was born in Germany, and it was in the trenches of the First World War that it was first used in combat. It served for fighting at close quarters: burning defenders out of trenches, dugouts and fortifications.

How it worked

A device that used compressed gas to force a jet of flammable oil through a lance was offered to the German army at the beginning of the 20th century by the pyrotechnician Richard Fiedler. He developed it together with Bernhard Reddemann, a reserve pioneer officer and professional firefighter, chief of the fire brigade in Poznań. The army adopted two types: a large one served by several soldiers and a smaller one carried on the back. Portable flamethrowers reached 20–35 metres, and a tank was enough for a minute or two of fire.

First attacks

According to some sources, the Germans tried to use burning liquid as early as the autumn of 1914 in the Argonne, but with little effect. The attack of 26 February 1915 in the Malancourt wood near Verdun is regarded as the first combat use of flamethrowers. Reddemann’s unit flooded French trenches with fire and the infantry took them without difficulty, although it was only a local experiment. In March Reddemann was given the 3rd Guard Pioneer Battalion, whose companies were equipped with flamethrowers.

On 30 July 1915 flamethrowers took the British by surprise at Hooge, east of Ypres. The attack fell on an inexperienced division of Kitchener’s New Army. The Germans used only a few flamethrowers and few men were burned, but terrified soldiers fled their trenches into rifle fire and the Germans took whole stretches of the line. After this attack the French and the British began serious work on flamethrowers of their own.

In the following years

The Germans used the weapon most widely. Flamethrower companies supported the offensive at Verdun, and a few months later flamethrowers and grenades drove the French out of the caponiers of Fort Vaux. Flamethrowers belonged to the equipment of storm troops: in the counter-attack at Cambrai small groups with light machine guns and flamethrowers worked their way between British posts. According to one tally the Germans used flamethrowers in more than 650 attacks.

The French quickly built flamethrowers of their own, but their first attack, in June 1915 at Vauquois, failed. Later their light Schilt flamethrowers proved effective, and a detachment of Paris firemen with flamethrowers went in with the infantry when Fort Douaumont was retaken. The British tried out huge, static flamethrowers designed by Captain Livens on the Somme, but then gave them up. The Royal Navy also used hand flamethrowers in the Zeebrugge Raid in April 1918.

Austria-Hungary adopted German designs, and in 1915 also built its own, often unreliable, flamethrowers. In the fighting for Ortigara the Austrians broke into Italian trenches with grenades and flamethrowers. Bulgarians and Turks also received German flamethrowers.

Assessment

The flamethrower had a very short range, and trenches were rarely close enough together for it to reach the enemy. The heavy tanks hampered movement, and the crews were an easy target for rifles, artillery and mortars. The greatest effect was psychological: fire caused terror and drove defenders out of trenches and dugouts into the fire of the infantry. That is why the flamethrower remained an auxiliary weapon of the assault rather than a means of breaking through the front. It was used on a larger scale only in the Second World War, against bunkers and fortifications.