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Text Chapter 472 The Power of the Flamethrower

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    Although in the past bombings, the Japanese army has been continuously replenishing the losses on the front line from the rear, the fortification defense lines on the coast cannot be repaired and reinforced in a short time, but the bombs of the National Defense Air Force are constantly coming in.  They are constantly being produced from inland production lines and even local arsenals in Fuzhou.

    After several days of bombing, although the number of Japanese soldiers on the coastal defense line was still the same as when the war began, the fortifications and defense lines they relied on had been almost damaged.

    Without these things, the resistance of the Japanese army would be much weaker.

    It was under this situation that Wang Yaowu decisively threw in the fire-breathing soldiers using flamethrowers.

    The flamethrower is a weapon with extremely high lethality. Even in this era, the range of the flamethrower still reaches tens of meters, not even less than ten meters like in the movie.

    ??And the range of tens of meters is already higher than the effective killing range of ordinary weapons.

    Even the effective range of ordinary rifles is only two to three hundred meters

    The use of fire-breathing soldiers does not mean that Wang Yaowu likes this unit. After all, this unit is too dangerous.  Just the fuel they carried would definitely cause endless trouble if it exploded. Not to mention anything else, the people in the surrounding circle would probably be burned alive inhumanely.

    Of course, the military experts responsible for researching this weapon have guaranteed that this weapon is still very safe, at least it will not explode if it is hit by a shot, even unless it is hit by a weapon such as an incendiary bomb.  Otherwise there would have been no explosion

    In fact, this has been proven both in actual combat and in testing.

    Otherwise, if this weapon is really that dangerous, no matter how powerful it is.  The National Defense Forces will not equip it, after all, this is no longer just a double-edged sword.  If it's not done right, more of our own people than the enemy will probably be killed by this kind of thing.

    However, despite this, there are still very few people in the National Defense Forces who like this kind of weapon. After all, just because it is difficult to explode does not mean it will not explode. No one wants to get too close to such a thing.  Therefore, although the salary of the flamethrowers in the National Defense Force is relatively high, they do not have many friends in the military.

    “In addition, we are still operating this kind of high-risk weapon——although the degree of danger may not be as high as that of a rifle that can explode.  But there will be some abnormalities among the fire-breathing soldiers, not to mention that the conditions for explosion are not absolute.

    Paratrooper Robert Fraterall.

    4th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 15th Engineer Company; 1944, Monte Cassino, Italy

    "As engineers, we were trained to use the Type 41 flamethrower with a gunpowder tube installed. But am I willing to use this equipment in combat even if it is a last resort? No! Thank you. The reason for rejection is simple. On the battlefield  If you were hit by a gun, a rifle or even a machine gun, it would just leave a hole in your body, but if you were unfortunate enough to be carrying a flamethrower, any small piece of shrapnel could burn you.  A fireball. When enemy soldiers hear the sound of your flamethrower, all the bullets will fall around you. No soldier wants to be burned to death, and all experienced soldiers will prioritize their bullets' care  'The guy who tried to burn them with a flamethrower!"

    It should be noted that the ones who need the most psychiatrists in the entire army are the flamethrowers.  Demining soldiers and several other arms

    ————————————————————

    The development of flamethrowers began during World War I due to the brutality of trench warfare.  Therefore, a new type of weapons is completely needed, such as grenades, mortars, tanks and other weapons specifically designed for trench warfare.  Of course the same goes for shotguns and grenade launchers.

    And powerful weapons like flamethrowers are naturally among the research and development projects.

    In fact, there was no controversy about this cruel weapon during the First World War. After all, the Allies and the Entente were throwing poison gas bombs at each other on the Western Front battlefield at that time. Even poison gas bombs were used, so naturally they would not be interested in flamethrowers.  Any objections.

    The history of flamethrowers is much earlier than muskets and artillery. As early as the seventh century AD, the Byzantines used a liquid burning agent called "Greek fire" in naval battles with the Arabs.  This kind of incendiary agent is usually packaged in wooden barrels, and when used, it is sprayed from a hand pump to enemy warships through a pipe.  "Greek Fire" has a special formula of liquid fuel that ignites spontaneously when exposed to air.

    The inventor of the modern flamethrower is recognized as the German Richard Federer. In 1901, he built a flamethrower sample for the German army to evaluate.  Federer's device is basically everything a modern flamethrower can be.Symptoms: The device is carried by humans and is equipped with a cylindrical container with a circumference of 1.2 meters. The interior of the container is horizontally divided into two parts, the lower half is a compressed air bottle, and the upper half is a combustion agent bottle.

    When the shooter presses the throttle handle on the fuel cylinder, the compressed air sprays the liquid fuel from the steel launch tube mouth through a rubber tube. The launch tube mouth has a simple ignition device. After the liquid fuel is ignited  , forming a mushroom-shaped fireball and spraying it towards the target.  This equipment has a range of 18 meters and can continue to spray for two minutes, but the ignition signal tube is one-time use and must be replaced with a new one every time it is fired.  It was not adopted by the German army until 1911. The German army formed a special regiment with 12 companies, equipped with the first flamethrower in modern history.  However, it was not until 4 years later that the flamethrower showed its terrifying power on the battlefield.

    In February 1915, the French were the first to taste the German fire at Verdun. Two months later, on July 30, 1915, the British also tasted it in the trenches of Hoog in Flanders.  There was a smell of hellfire mixed with gasoline, rubber and sulfur. During the two days of fighting, the British army lost a total of 31 officers and 751 soldiers.  After the Battle of Hogg, the flamethrower's huge close-range lethality was written into combat reports for the first time.

    The British and French, who had suffered a lot, also began to develop their own flamethrowers. The French were more realistic.  Their design was basically copied from the Germans and was put into use between 1917 and 1918.  The British were too whimsical. The flamethrower they built was a behemoth weighing 2 tons.  In the Somme area, the British deployed four of these monsters.  It is fixedly installed in the defense fortification 55 meters away from the German front line. In front of it is the no-man's land where the two sides are confronting each other.  These four large flamethrowers were specially used for the Battle of the Somme, with a range of 80 meters, and were used to clear the German first line of defense before infantry charges.  However, after the Battle of the Somme started on July 1, 1917, the German counterattack artillery fire destroyed two of the four flamethrowers, and the other two also lost their function after capturing the German first line of defense.

    After the success of Hogg, the German army paid more attention to the role of flamethrowers.  They organized the Pyrotroopers into teams of six, each with three flamethrowers.  Distributed throughout the front line, the main task is to clear the Allied forces' forward defense line when the German army launches an offensive.  In 1917, the German army improved its flamethrowers and reduced their weight.  And the use of a signal tube that can be ignited multiple times greatly increases the mobility and firing frequency of the flamethrower.  Nevertheless, because the British and French forces were already alert to the German flamethrowers, when the German flamethrowers fired, the British and French forces concentrated their fire on them.  Once the German flamethrower is captured, he is immediately shot on the spot.  Coupled with the weapon's inability to provide sustained firepower over a wide front at long range, this excellent trench warfare weapon never played as decisive a role as it did at the Battle of Hog.  Throughout World War I, the Germans conducted more than 650 flamethrower attacks.  The similar offensives by the British and French coalition forces were almost zero.

    Indeed, the casualties caused by flamethrowers to both sides in this war were far less than those of machine guns and heavy artillery.  But in the near-hand-to-hand trench warfare, the German flamethrowers undoubtedly brought a huge psychological shock to the Allied soldiers shivering in the muddy water.

    During the First World War.  In other words, it was towards the end of World War I that the National Socialist Government began to conduct research on the flamethrower, which had just begun to show its appearance on the battlefield.  There have been no Chinese flamethrowers on the European battlefields.

    After the end of World War I, although there were constant border conflicts between China and Russia, because it was still in a relatively peaceful period, the National Defense Forces were not equipped with flamethrowers. However, after understanding  After realizing the power of this weapon, the military has been conducting research on this weapon.

    It was not until 1935 that the Wehrmacht began to officially equip the first flamethrower.

    That is, the Type 35 flamethrower. Different from the cumbersome ones during World War I, the Type 35 flamethrower is a single-soldier flamethrower. Because the design is based on the experience of World War I, its total weight is "  Weighing only "38 kilograms," the tank contains 11.8 liters of No. 19 fuel and compressed nitrogen, with a spray distance of 25 to 30 meters.  The Type 35 flamethrower can inject all the stored oil at one time or perform fifteen short bursts. During short bursts, the fuel flow restriction valve and the ignition signal tube in the liner are opened and closed at the same time to control the amount of fuel injection.  Production of the Type 35 flamethrower continued until 1941.

    After being equipped with the Type 35 flamethrower, the National Defense Forces have been improving and researching this weapon.  Of course, the focus is on range, safety and weight. After all, with a weight of 38 kilograms and a set of equipment, the flamethrower is no different from fighting with a woman on his back.

    So this kind of weapon continued to develop, andThe current Type 42.

    The weight of the Type 42 flamethrower is only 18 kilograms. Of course, this is without fuel. Loading fuel can reduce the weight to 30 kilograms. At the same time, the range reaches 40 meters, which is similar to the Type 35 flamethrower.  It's a huge improvement over that.

    ??The main equipment currently used by the National Defense Forces is the current Type 42 flamethrower.

    Well, I don’t know if it should be said that the production capacity of the National Socialist Government is strong, or that the number of flamethrowers is too small. Anyway, less than half a year after the war started, all the flamethrowers have been equipped with type 42.  Flamethrowers, as for the original Type 35, all went to support Russia or other allies

    On the other hand, flamethrowers also made a great contribution to the use of diesel as fuel for tanks of the Wehrmacht.

    As a melee weapon, the use of flamethrowers on the battlefield of World War II is not fundamentally different from that of World War I.  It is mainly used to attack buildings, bunkers and fortifications and to clear out remaining enemies.

    However, in the history of World War II, German infantry flamethrowers were often used as close-range anti-armor weapons.  The flames ejected by the flamethrower cannot burn through the armor of most tanks, especially the later Soviet tanks, but the fluid flame jet ejected by the flamethrower can penetrate some openings on the surface of the armored target.  For example, the top cover of a tank engine compartment flows into the interior of the vehicle body, igniting its fuel or ammunition, thereby disabling or completely destroying the armored target.  The army's combat report shows that the flamethrower has a significant destructive effect on vehicles using gasoline engines and US military M4 tanks, but its destructive effect on Soviet tanks using diesel engines is limited.

    The early National Defense Army was also equipped with gasoline engine tanks, but after discovering this obvious shortcoming, all later tanks were replaced with diesel engines.  Such as 15 modification, zt40, zt41, etc

    In addition, most of the flamethrowers of the National Defense Force can be carried by individual soldiers, but a fire-throwing team still consists of two to three soldiers, one of whom is a flamethrower and the other to two are observers.  In addition to the flamethrower, the fire-breathing hand is only equipped with self-defense weapons.  The observer is usually equipped with a submachine gun to provide cover for the flamethrower.

    There is no way, after all, the priority target of every opponent is definitely the fire-breathing soldiers. Without the cover of the observer and other comrades, I am afraid that the fire-breathing soldiers will have become a stopper as soon as they appear on the stage.

    ————————————————————

    have to say.  Just like machine guns and incendiary bombs, flamethrowers are also cruel killing machines. Especially in terms of cruelty, they are superior to machine guns and probably second only to incendiary bombs and chemical weapons.

    The flamethrower is under the cover of the observer.  Rush to the entrance of fortifications, bunkers and other facilities and spray flames at the entrance.  The flames pouring in from the entrance turned the Japanese soldiers inside into burning men. Looking at this scene, the fire-breathing soldiers laughed heartily.

    This kind of laughter.  It somewhat made the surrounding Defense Force soldiers feel a little chilly.

    Although as a soldier, when they set foot on the battlefield, they had a little bit of consciousness, but having consciousness does not mean that they like to be burned to death. In fact, this is another reason why they don't like the flamethrowers.

    The fire-breathing soldier didn't pay much attention to the strange looks from his comrades. After all, such looks often appeared when he was in the army, and he got used to it after a long time.

    After burning all the enemies in the fortification, the fire-breathing soldiers also turned their target to the next fortification.

    Flamethrowers are not only used to burn stubborn enemies in fortifications. During the Pacific War, every time the U.S. military landed on an island, they faced countless Japanese bunkers and bunkers hidden in the complex environment of the tropical rainforest.  Tunnel fortifications can only be conquered at a heavy price.  Due to the complex terrain, naval guns were often unable to support the landings. Heavy artillery was almost non-existent during the landing. It was difficult for light artillery to destroy the fortifications, and it was difficult for bullets to hit the Japanese troops in the fortifications.  Therefore, flamethrowers that can rely on high temperatures to kill enemies hidden in solid bunkers, fortifications, caves or trenches, and can also be used to ignite enemy flammable weapons, equipment and supplies have become an important force in the US military's offensive.

    By burning the Japanese troops in the fortifications at high temperatures and consuming the oxygen in the narrow fortifications in a short period of time through intense combustion, causing them to suffocate, the enemies in the target fortifications can quickly lose their resistance, thereby conquering the Japanese positions at a very small cost.

    In fact, this is one of the reasons why Wang Yaowu will let the fire-breathing soldiers appear.

    Basically, as long as the flamethrower is pointed at the exit, the Japanese soldiers inside have only three choices, either to run out and risk their lives, or to wait to be burned to death, or to die of suffocation————  - Of course, suffocation does not necessarily mean death, but even if they don't die, it is probably about the same. After all, when they suffocate, they lose it.resistance.

    After the flamethrowers completed routine work on a concrete fortification, the flamethrowers moved towards another target under the cover of observers, while the soldiers who were originally far away from them hurriedly poured into the fortification from the entrance. If  If the enemies inside are all dead, then it won't matter, but if there is still resistance, their task is to give these enemies a shot or capture them

    After the flamethrowers entered the battlefield, due to the huge power of the flamethrowers, the few remaining Japanese troops resisting in fortifications and bunkers were quickly disintegrated under the bombing.

    Taking advantage of this opportunity, the National Defense Force occupied the defense line that originally belonged to the Japanese army, and helped the engineers sent by Wang Yaowu to re-reinforce and repair the fortifications in preparation for the Japanese counterattack. Until now, the Air Force was still behind the defense line.  In this place, the Japanese troops who came to support were bombed and blocked, which delayed the speed of Japanese support. Otherwise, the defense line would not have fallen so easily.

    After taking the defense line, the task of the National Defense Forces is to hold the defense line and wait for the arrival and arrival of more reinforcements.

    However, no matter what, since a landing point has been secured along the coast, Taiwan has fallen into the hands of the National Defense Forces.  After all, for the Japanese army on Taiwan Island, the gap in strength between the two sides was really too big.

    On the other hand, after learning of this result, Hideki Tojo ordered the Japanese troops stationed in Taiwan to retake the defense line, and at the same time, he was also mentally prepared to lose Taiwan.

    At the same time, Tojo Hideki also understood very well that losing Taiwan would be equivalent to opening a door for China.  Next, the Chinese navy can break through the blockade formed by Taiwan, Ryukyu and other places, and directly pose a threat to the Philippines and other places

    "Next, will it all depend on the navy"

    Standing in the office, looking at the sun flag behind him, Hideki Tojo murmured.  To be continued.  .

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