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Flammenwerfer M16 | |
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Type | Flamethrower |
Placeoforigin | German Empire |
Service history | |
Usedby | German Empire, Freikorps |
Wars | World War I |
Specifications | |
Crew | 2 |
Sights | None |
The Flammenwerfer M.16. was a German man-portable backpack flamethrower that was used in World War I in trench warfare by the Germans. It was the first flamethrower ever used in combat, in 1916 at Verdun by the Germans. It was also used in 1918 in the battle of Argonne Forest in France against Allied forces by Germans, as featured in the 2001 film The Lost Battalion where the main character fights German, although an account in a 1917 issue of The Living Age suggests eyewitness accounts of it being used at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 by Germans. [1]
Contents
- Development
- Instructional Use
- WW1
- Inter-War Use
- See also
- Citations
Development
As the industrial revolution grew across all of Europe the desire for more powerful and effective weapons continued to grow. In 1901 Germany, a private citizen named Richard Fiedler designed and patented the first modern design of a flamethrower. In the same year the Imperial German army took notice and funded his project. Fiedler would continue to work and design several flamethrowers, and presented them to the German army in 1905. After receiving some feed back, he delivered two versions of the Flammenwerfer for army use. Finally in 1911 the German army accepted his designs into service. About the same time another man named Bernhard Reddemann began his own development of the flamethrower. He was an officer in the German pioneer battalion in the reserves, as well as a firefighter in the civilian world. As his curiosity with the use of kerosene as a weapon of war, he started to blend the pumping power of a hose for fire fighting, with the effectiveness of fire as a defensive weapon. As the First World War started he went back to active duty . By the second year of the war he was commanding a flamethrower pioneer battalion. Thanks to his command and use a whole regiment was installed. Although Fielder was the real inventor of the flamethrower, it was Reddemann who used it to great success on the battlefield.
Instructional Use
The Flammenwerfer M.16 was a two-man operated system, with one man wearing a back pack full of fuel, and the other man holding the nozzle to aim towards the desire target. As the fuel hit the open fire in front of the nozzle, spraying flames about 20-30 yards with a continuous spray for 20–40 seconds. Although very, portable it was not able to be carried by one person.
WW1
At the outbreak of the Great War the German army started to look for towards the Flammenwerfer as a means to break the dead lock facing the western front. During the battle of Verdun in 1916 where German pioneers and shock troopers used it to deadly effect.Citation needed They would be the front of the attack, clearing trenches and piercing soft points in enemy lines, allowing for more troops to enter. An unnamed French officer witnessed the German flamethrower in actions saying they were so terrifying that not even words described could them as he did not speak German, and although as they assaulted and many fell, they still completed their mission.Citation needed The flamethrower pioneers were successful in about 80% of their missions, turning the tide of battle and instilling fear into their enemies hearts.Citation needed
Inter-War Use
After the Treaty of Versailles, Germany became the hot bed for chaos and communist revolutionaries.Citation needed During this time, the German army as well as the Freikorps, a right wing militia, used the Flammenwerfer to disperse crowds.Citation needed
See also
- List of flamethrowers
Citations
- ↑ Freeman, Arnold (26 May 1917). "Liquid-Fire and Poison-Gas". The Living Age. 293 (3803): 496.
[1] [2]
German infantry weapons of World War I | |
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Sidearms |
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Submachine guns |
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Machine guns |
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Grenades |
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Flamethrowers |
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Cartridges |
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- ↑ Johnson, Richard (14 January 2023). "Flammenwerfer — World War I German Flamethrowers". The Armory Life. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ↑ Fratus, Matt (5 April 2022). "A Brief and Violent History of the Modern Flamethrower". Coffee or Die Magazine. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
Related Research Articles
The Battle of Verdun was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916 on the Western Front in France. The battle was the longest of the First World War and took place on the hills north of Verdun-sur-Meuse. The German 5th Army attacked the defences of the Fortified Region of Verdun and those of the French Second Army on the right (east) bank of the Meuse. Using the experience of the Second Battle of Champagne in 1915, the Germans planned to capture the Meuse Heights, an excellent defensive position, with good observation for artillery-fire on Verdun. The Germans hoped that the French would commit their strategic reserve to recapture the position and suffer catastrophic losses at little cost to the German infantry.
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Richard Fiedler was a German scientist who invented the modern flamethrower. This is a weapon that projects a stream of nitrogen. He submitted evaluation models of his Flammenwerfer to the German Army in 1901. The most significant model submitted was a man-portable device, consisting of a vertical single cylinder 4 feet long, horizontally divided in two, with pressurized gas in the lower section and flammable oil in the upper section. On depressing a lever the propellant gas forced the flammable oil into and through a rubber tube and over a simple igniting wick device in a steel nozzle. The weapon projected a jet of fire and enormous clouds of smoke some 20 yards. It was a single-shot weapon - for burst firing, a new igniter section was attached each time it was used for battle or other uses of any sorts. It was first used on the western front both by the Central Powers and the Entente.
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The Einstossflammenwerfer 46 was a handheld single shot flamethrower designed in Germany during the second half of World War II and introduced in 1944; it was engineered to be both cheap and easily mass-produced, falling into the category of throwaway flamethrower. The disposable weapon fired a half-second burst of flame of up to 27 metres (89ft). It was issued to the Volkssturm or the Werwolf movement, but also used by the Fallschirmjäger . It was inspired by the Italian "Lanciafiamme Mod. 41 d'assalto".
The first series of German man-portable flamethrower was called the Kleinflammenwerfer or "Kleif". Fuel oil was stored in a large vertical, cylindrical backpack container. High-pressure propellant was typically stored in another, smaller container within the fuel tank or attached externally depending on model. Most iterations of the Kleif used a long hose which was covered in linen and corrugated by steel wire to prevent kinks and punctures. The hose connected to the fuel tank and fed into a lance tube with an igniting device at the nozzle. With the turn of a valve at the tank, the propellant forced the fuel through the hose and towards the lance. When the lance operator was ready, a second "firing" valve was opened, sending the fuel oil to the igniting device at the nozzle and propelling the burning fuel oil outward. The flamethrower was operated by two soldiers, one carrying the fuel and propellant tanks, another wielding the lance. Contrary to popular culture, the Kleif was too unwieldy to be used effectively by a single operator. The Wechselapparat, a smaller and more refined replacement for the Kleif, was introduced in May 1917.
The Wechselapparat M.1917 (Wex) was a World War I German flamethrower introduced in early May of 1917 to replace the earlier Kleif. It was developed by engineer workshops within the Guards Reserve Pioneer Regiment (Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment), which was the main flamethrower unit of the Imperial German Army. It was the first flamethrower in the German arsenal which could be used by one soldier if needed. The Wex was deployed in a group of four: two operators, one officer, and a grenadier. It had a doughnut-shaped backpack fuel container with a spherical propellant container (nitrogen) in the middle that propelled the flame oil. A corrugated rubber hose led from the tank to a brass stopcock that enables the tank carrier to release the fuel under pressure to the lance which has a brass stopcock for firing. The Wex used a magnesium based igniter system which was held in a housing around the nozzle. When inserted into the housing, the igniter is pressed against a spring and then held in place by a hinged metal fork on the housing. Once the igniter was spent, the fork was removed and the igniter was ejected by the spring. The Wex was used from 1917 until the end of the war in 1918. It saw use in the German Revolution of 1918-1919 by the Friekorps and Reichswehr. Some Wex flamethrowers survived the Revolution despite the Treaty of Versailles and have been used by the Finnish and the Polish armies in the 1920s. The design may have inspired the later Flammenwerfer 40.
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