Copyright by Kadel and Herbert, N. Y.
Fig. 113.—Liquid Fire Attack.
Long series of experiments were necessary before a satisfactory combination of oils was produced, which could be projected as a flame on the enemy, but they were finally successful. Unlike the use of poison gas, however, the flaming liquid gun did not prove to be a successful weapon of warfare. True, at first they were rather successful, but this was before the men learned their real nature. In the first attack, the Allies were completely surprised and the troops were routed by the flames. Auld tells of one of the early attacks (July 29, 1915) when, without warning, the front line troops were enveloped in flames. Where the flames came from could not be seen. All that the men knew was that they seemed surrounded by fierce, curling flames, which were accompanied by a loud roaring noise, and dense clouds of black smoke. Here and there a big blob of burning oil would fall into a trench or saphead. Shouts and yells rent the air as individual men, rising up in the trenches or attempting to move in the open, felt the force of the flames. The only way to safety appeared to be to the rear. This direction the men that were left took. For a short space the flames pursued them and the local retirement became a local rout. After the bombardment which followed, only one man is known to have returned.
After a study of the pictures of the liquid fire gun in operation, it is evident that the men could not be blamed for this retirement. One has only to imagine being faced by a spread of flame similar to that used for the oil burners under the largest boiler, but with a jet nearly 60 feet in length and capable of being sprayed round as one might spray water with a fire hose.
Later, when the device was better known it was different, though even then it was a pretty good test of a man’s nerve. It was found that the flames could not follow one to the bottom of a trench as the gas did, and that, if a man crouched to the bottom of his trench, his head might be very warm for a minute or so but that the danger was soon past and he then could pick off the man who had so recently made things uncomfortable for him.
While it is said that Major R., who invented the Flammenwerfer, enjoyed a great popularity among his men, and is familiarly known as the Prince of Hades, there is no doubt that this was not shared by the Allies. Their rule was: “Shoot the man carrying the apparatus before he gets in his shot, if possible. If this cannot be done, take cover from the flames and shoot him afterwards.”
The German had several types, which may be grouped into the small or portable and the large Flammenwerfers.
The portable Flammenwerfer consisted of a sheet steel cylinder of two compartments, one to hold compressed nitrogen, the other to hold the oil. The nitrogen furnished the pressure which forces the oil out through the flexible tube. Air cannot be used, because the oxygen would form an explosive mixture with the vapors of the oil, and any heating on compression, or back flash from the flame or fuse might make things very unpleasant for the operator. A pressure of about 23 atmospheres is reached when the cylinder is charged. The nitrogen appeared to be carried on the field in large containers and the flame projectors actually charged in the trenches.
The oil used in the flame projectors varied from time to time, but always contained a mixture of light or easily volatile and heavy and less volatile fractions of petroleum or mineral oil, very carefully mixed. In some cases even ordinary commercial ether has been found in the cylinders.
