Flamethrowers of World War I
The first uses of a terrifying weapon
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1915-1918
Though projected incendiary weapons such as Greek fire were used in naval engagements by ancient Byzantines and Chinese, the modern flamethrower made its debut in 1901, when Richard Fiedler submitted his "Flammenwerfer" design to the German Army. Most flamethrower designs consisted of two tanks carried on a soldier’s back, one filled with a flammable liquid, the other with propellant gas. The squeeze of a trigger would send the liquid shooting across an igniter, projecting a jet of burning fuel at targets up to 18 meters away. The first combat use of the flamethrower came on Feb. 26, 1915, against the French near Verdun. The usefulness of the weapon was limited by its short range and limited mobility. On July 30, 1915, flamethrowers were used effectively against British positions to flush soldiers out of their trenches and into the open. The flamethrower, like poison gas, was a psychologically terrifying weapon, leading to its use by the German Army in more than 300 battles in the war. It was also adopted by the British and French over the course of the conflict.
