Flamethrower - a weapon that strikes a target with a fire mixture (a burning substance that burns or sets fire to a target). There are also agricultural flamethrowers (gas burners) used to kill weeds and pests.
Content
Types of Flamethrowers
According to the principle of action, flamethrowers are divided into jet ( high-explosive separate type), capsule-jet , capsule . Jet flamethrowers are divided into knapsack (also “wearable”, “light”; served by one flamethrower ), heavy (served by several flamethrowers), mechanized (mounted on cars and various armored vehicles ) and tank (designed specifically for use as main or auxiliary armament of flamethrowers tanks ); capsule - for ampoules and jet flamethrowers (the latter can also have a capsule-jet principle of action) [1] [2] [3] .
History
Flamethrower Prototypes
The prototype of the flamethrower can be considered the famous " Greek fire " - an ancient weapon with which the Byzantines , in particular, set fire to enemy ships in naval battles. At the beginning of the 18th century, engineer Vasily Korchmin armed Russian ships with flamethrower pipes designed by him and, together with Peter I, developed a manual for their use [4] .
Jet Flamethrowers
Flamethrowers of the modern type appeared at the beginning of the XX century . The first knapsack flamethrower was created by the German scientist Richard Fiedler in 1901 [5] . Flamethrowers were used as far back as the Balkan war and were widely used already in World War I to destroy enemy firing points. It turned out that the flamethrower has not only high efficiency, but also a strong psychological effect: there were cases when soldiers rushed to flight only when the flamethrowers appeared .
By the beginning of World War II, flamethrowers were in service with most developed countries. In the chemical troops of the Red Army, the engineering and assault units of the RVGK were armed with backpack flamethrowers. Tank flamethrowers equipped vehicles based on the T-26 , T-34 , KV (in the USSR they were called "chemical tanks").
Knapsack flamethrowers had a very mediocre firing range: the flame mixture was thrown out of them under the influence of compressed air. However, by the beginning of World War II, powerful high-explosive flamethrowers were developed in which the required pressure was created by the explosion of a powder bomb. The flamethrower has become easier to manufacture, while the range of destruction has increased. In new tank flamethrowers (for example, the Soviet ATO-41 , ATO-42 ), a blank shot from a 45 mm gun was used instead of a powder checker.
If knapsack and tank flamethrowers are primarily used to destroy firing points, as well as openly located enemy manpower , high-explosive flamethrowers can also be used against tanks.
Jet Flamethrowers
The problem of the "classic" flamethrower is the insignificant effective firing range: 50-200 meters. The reasons are as follows: firstly, the combustible mixture ignites when it is released to the outside. In flight, it burns and dissipates. Thus, not all liquid reaches its goal. Secondly, due to technical and physical limitations, it is impossible to infinitely increase the working pressure.
The solution was found in the form of a jet flamethrower. With this scheme, the fire mixture leaves the launcher in a special projectile. The liquid ignites when the projectile passes near the target (usually above it). Examples of jet flamethrowers are the Soviet RPO Lynx and RPO-A Bumblebee , as well as the Russian MPO-A and Varna-S. The RFBHF Troops are armed with unique TOS-1 "Pinocchio" heavy rocket-propelled flamethrowers and its modification TOS-1A "Solntsepyok" on a caterpillar track.
In modern RPO, both incendiary and thermobaric compositions are used as flame mixtures.
See also
- Flamethrower tank
- Separate high-explosive flamethrower company
- Separate company of knapsack flamethrowers
- Siphonophore - medieval Byzantine flamethrower
- Fire Spear - a medieval Chinese powder weapon that spews a combustible mixture instead of a bullet
- - a special shotgun ammunition that turns it into a flamethrower for a few seconds
Notes
- ↑ Flamethrower // Military Objects - Radio Compass / [under the general. ed. N.V. Ogarkova ]. - M .: Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR , 1978. - S. 13-14. - ( Soviet military encyclopedia : [in 8 vols.]; 1976-1980, vol. 6).
- ↑ Flamethrower // Military Encyclopedia in 8 volumes / Ed. P.S. Gracheva , I.N. Rodionova et al. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1994. - T. 6. - P. 12-13. - 639 p. - 10,000 copies.
- ↑ Sergey Monetchikov. Smashing by fire. // Brother : magazine. - March 2007.
- ↑ Interesting facts from the history of the fleet.
- ↑ Supotnitsky M.V. Engineer Richard Fidler and his flamethrower epic in Russia on the eve of the First World War // Bulletin of the Russian Army Chemical Defense Forces. - 2018. - T. 2. - No. 3. - S. 64-89.
Literature
- Flamethrower // Military Objects - Radio Compass / [under the total. ed. N.V. Ogarkova ]. - M .: Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR , 1978. - ( Soviet Military Encyclopedia : [in 8 vols.]; 1976-1980, vol. 6).
- Ardashev A.N. , Fedoseev S.L. Flamethrower tanks and hand flamethrowers in battle. - M .: Eksmo , Yauza, 2013 .-- 256 p. - (War and us. Tank collection). - 1100 copies. - ISBN 978-5-699-68594-3 .