22 Oct 2024 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

[eb in oregon]

I would hate to be the flame thrower guy.

[Mark in Rochester]

I would hate to be the flame thrower guy.

The flamethrower as a “mercy killer”
In 1944, the CWS began to run articles in the Chemical Warfare Bulletin proposing that flamethrowers caused instant death with far less pain and suffering than bullets, explosives, and other common battlefield weapons. Lt. Col. Orbie Bostick, a chemical officer in the South Pacific and author of a 1944 article entitled Mercy Killer: Instant Death from the Flame Thrower



Beyond the burn: Studies on the physiological effects of flamethrowers during World War II | Military Medical Research | Full Text

[CINDERS]

Not so sure on the instant kill bit I gather the removal of oxygen but there would be an instant the receiver felt excruciating pain from a not yet dead nervous system.

I know what burns feel like having removed all the skin from my right foot with a steam hose at the abattoir I was a slicer at they were used to clean your knives, steel, mesh glove and get the fat from the soles & sides of your rubber boots I miscued directing the steam straight down my right foot.
I had woolen socks on but as I peeled the sock off so practically all the skin came off my foot it was pain beyond belief only to get worse when the bl**dy doctor in ED tried to debride (pull off with tweezers) the remaining dead flesh from it FFS!
Anyway really powerful drugs had me hallucinating a 3 foot space ship was at the end of my bed with a green person trying to talk to me ! had a week in hospital and 7 weeks off work initially placing my foot from the bed to vertical not standing was like a 1000 pins and rampant pain.
I was their last hot foot the insurance would not pay out on any more so they went to troughs for the boots and other equipment.

[Mark in Rochester]