3-20-17 Garand Picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

Here the Marine M4A3R3 Sherman tank - nicknamed the 'Zippo' by troops goes into action in Iwo Jima in March 1945

Information

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[13Echo]

Effective but my God out of all the hellish ways to die there are in war it may be the worst.

[Bob Womack]

I read an expose on the flamethrower that said that those hit with a flamethrower didn't die via burns but via asphyxia. That's rather quick.

Bob

[matthanne1]

but you have to figure that the part of the reason that they had no oxygen was the superheated plasma and seared tissue. Never wished this on anyone.

[CINDERS]

Given the problems with having to ferret out deep bunker systems the IJA employed on these islands and the extremely robust pill boxes it stands to reason send in a flame throwing tank to spare casualties rather than risk fighting superior numbers in a dark black hole.
Most of the times the flames consumed all the oxygen if they were deep so they suffocated though in the pill boxes well they had no where to hide and suffered the consequences thing is with super heated air your lungs just crisp up and you'd pass out & die through no 02 therefore hopefully being spared the flames.
Plus given what atrocities the IJA had committed in Manila, Singapore and New Guinea against the allies well they really did not expect any quarter did they besides the Germans used the flame thrower as well as gas in the first world war no I reckon those to G.I's in the picture are cheering like Billy 'O at the destruction that Sherman is dishing out to the enemy.

When we did our firefighting they took us into a heat room where they had set a fire up to show incipient flash over and what it looks like, I thought it was pretty cool being shut in that room watching the flames run across the ceiling above us the temp was 300 degree F and we were advised to put our hand up if we wanted out and not to remove your B/A mask as your lungs would just shrivel up and you'd be dead, it was rather warm in there though........

[13Echo]

Cinders what you say is largely true but it still remains napalm and flame throwers are terrible weapons whatever the justification for using. If I were a GI in WWII I'd much rather use a Flame thrower than try to clean out a tunnel full of the enemy but it doesn't diminish the utter cruelty of the weapon. I guess we have the Germans from WWI to thank for that. Like Sherman said " War is cruelty."

[Mark in Rochester]

Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector

Livens Large Gallery Flame Projector - Wikipedia

[CINDERS]

The Livens one I watched on a doco before they were trying to follow the collapsed gallery to where the projector was to have been set up it really was a land of folly in WWI and would have remained so had it not been for the horrendous loss of life and appalling conditions.

[Gil Boyd]

What was the range of the Sherman projectile. That looks awfully close to those you want to toast!!

[Sarge1998]

"The new M4 Sherman flame thrower tank, designated POA-CWS "75" H-1 or POA-CWS-H1 (POA for Pacific Ocean Areas, CWS for Chemical Warfare Service, H for Hawaii), used the US Navy Mark 1 flamethrower system, based on the Q design E14-7R2. It was demonstrated to the Tenth Army about 1 November 1944. The weapon used compressed carbon dioxide gas to propel the fuel, had a fuel capacity of 290 gallons, a range of 40 yards with oily fuel and 60 to 80 yards with thickened fuel. Eight M4A3 Shermans modified with the POA-CWS-H1 were sent to the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, for the Iwo Jima operation and 54 were supplied to the 713th Provisional Flame Thrower Tank Battalion for the Ryukyus operation (Okinawa)."

Note: Material on this page adapted from U.S. Army in WW II: Chemical Warfare Service, Chapter VII Flamethrowers, Flamethrower Tanks on Okinawa, ARMOR: January-February 1994, Steven Zaloga's Armored Thunderbolt , Standard Oil Co. E12-7R1 Report OSRD 6350, 1945 and other sources.