Few weapons strike as much visceral fear and horror as the flamethrower. A mainstay in the arsenals of many armies during the Second World War, the flamethrower was a potent psychological and physical weapon – but what was it like to actually wield one of these terrifying devices in the heat of battle?
For the men tasked with operating flamethrowers, it was an immensely dangerous and daunting assignment. Flamethrower operators had to get within close range of enemy positions to unleash their liquid fire, often exposing themselves to intense enemy fire in the process. The weapon itself was heavy and cumbersome, weighing up to 70 pounds, and the tanks of flammable fuel on their backs made them walking bombs – one stray bullet or piece of shrapnel could cause the pressurized napalm to explode, immolating the user.
The experience of firing the weapon was intense and overwhelming. Squeezing the trigger unleashed a blazing stream of jellied gasoline up to 130 feet long. The noise was deafening, the smell of the burning fuel acrid and choking. The roiling flames consumed the oxygen, making it hard to breathe. Burning globs of napalm would cling to surfaces, refusing to be extinguished. Enemies caught in the conflagration would flail and scream as they burned alive, a sight and sound that would haunt the dreams of many a flamethrower operator for years after the war.
Despite the trauma and peril, flamethrowers were grimly effective at dislodging entrenched enemies from bunkers, caves and fortifications when other weapons could not. This made them an essential asset, albeit a double-edged one, for many infantry units. For the men wielding these infernal devices, being a flamethrower operator was a heavy burden – the weight of the weapon on their backs paled in comparison to the psychological weight of the grim task they were charged with. It’s hard for us to imagine the kind of nerves of steel it took to knowingly walk into the teeth of the enemy’s guns with a flamethrower, accepting the likelihood of an excruciating death, in order to burn enemy soldiers alive to open the way for an infantry advance. But that is exactly what was asked of these men, and many of them did it again and again.
So when we think of flamethrowers in WWII, it’s important to remember not just the fear they struck in the hearts of the enemy, but the incredible strain and trauma inflicted on the operators themselves. Manning a flamethrower was one of the most harrowing, dangerous jobs any infantryman could be tasked with. Those who took up the flamethrower in WWII were among the bravest of the brave – men of tremendous fortitude who faced some of the worst horrors of the war, who risked agonizing immolation with every shot fired, in order to root out a stubborn and fanatical enemy. It was a job that no one would envy, but one that took remarkable courage and grit. That is the grim reality of what it was like to be a flamethrower operator in World War II.