When war broke out between the Empire of Japan and the United States in December 1941, war planners at the Pentagon knew that US forces would have to take the war to Japan if they were to break the enemy in their island fortress. Between the tenacity of the average Japanese soldier and the nature of the terrain throughout the south and central Pacific, it was quickly realized that the American arsenal would have to be beefed up substantially if they were to assault and seize those enemy-occupied islands deemed important for capture, so the call went out for all manner of weaponry to help fill the void.
One device that was pressed into service was the man-portable flamethrower, a weapon of war that was both terrifying in nature and successful in use. The use of flamethrowers as a means of breaking an enemy’s morale and storm heavily defended fortifications was nothing new in 1941 — in fact they were first used several decades prior in WWI as a means of clearing trenches and other heavily fortified obstacles standing in the way of an advance. Unfortunately for the operator, a man-portable flamethrower became instantly recognizable to the enemy since he was both conspicuous in stance and an obvious target that could be picked out with ease. It was said that the life expectancy of a flamethrower could oftentimes be measure in seconds so it took nerves of steel and a fair bit of luck to serve as an operator.
Recognizing their vulnerability on the battlefield as well as the incorporation of mechanized units on the mid-twentieth century battlefield, war planners eventually developed more potent and better protected means of employing scorched earth tactics. One such result was the flame tank. A flame tank is a type of tank equipped with a flamethrower, most commonly used to supplement combined arms attacks against fortifications, confined spaces, or other obstacles. The type only reached significant use in the Second World War, during which the United States, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom (including members of the British Commonwealth) all produced flamethrower-equipped tanks.
A number of production methods were used. The flamethrowers used were either modified versions of existing infantry flame weapons (Flammpanzer I and II) or specially designed (Flammpanzer III). They were mounted externally (Flammpanzer II), replaced existing machine gun mounts, or replaced the tank’s main armament (Flammpanzer III). Fuel for the flame weapon was either carried inside the tank, in armored external storage, or in some cases in a special trailer behind the tank (Churchill Crocodile).
In contrast to man-portable flamethrowers that were vulnerable to bullets and shrapnel making them extremely dangerous to their operators, flame tanks were extremely difficult to catch on fire or explode unless hit with an armor piercing round or explosive reaching the ammunition and engine fuel inside the tank’s main hull. Tanks such as the Churchill Crocodile, which towed the flamethrower liquid container behind the actual tank, held no greater risk of fire than standard tanks. Although the towed container itself could be easily targeted, the tank and its crew remained well protected. The armored trailer and armored coupling of the Churchill Crocodile could be jettisoned from inside the tank if necessary.
Crews of flame tanks were not necessarily more vulnerable than those crews in the regular tanks, standard version of the tank (a Churchill Crocodile flame tank being more or less as vulnerable to anti-tank weapons as the standard Churchill), but the crews of flamethrowing tanks were often treated differently should they be captured alive by German troops. Due to the perceived inhumanity of the weapon itself, captured crews of such tanks were often treated much less humanely than crews of regular tanks. Instances of flametankers being executed by German troops upon capture were not uncommon. Subsequently, British tank crews received sixpence a day extra “danger money” due to the threat of arbitrary execution. Flame tanks also suffered from the fact, along with flamethrower-armed troops, that all enemy within range would usually open up on them due to the fear of the weapon.
Recently, Dragon announced the imminent release of no less than three flame tanks as part of their burgeoning Neo Dragon Armor range. Look for the first of these to unleash a firestorm on the diecast battlefield later this year.