The Flamethrower (Weapon, 41)

This Osprey Weapon Series book is about the military use of the man-portable flamethrower. It is an inherently squeamish topic, as the author acknowledges upfront, but flamethrowers have been around since the First World War because they undeniably have military utility on the battlefield, as the author demonstrates. In a brisk 80 pages, author Chris McNab walks the reader up through the development of a man-portable flamethrower during the First World War, and its refinement in the Second World War, Korea, and other conflicts. The narrative includes a fascinating analysis of the technical difficulties involved in building a safe and portable weapon, and of the tactical challenge of including it within a unit scheme of maneuver. The concluding chapter touches, briefly, on the legality of the use of incendiary weapons in combat. The book does not address, other than in passing, the use of flamethrowers on military vehicles, apparently a subject for another book. The text is nicely supported by a interesting collection of period photographs and modern illustrations. Recommended as a good introduction to the topic.

Great book, reasoned price and way better than damn eBay!

Interesting stuff about flamethrowers.

Considering the size of the book it does a good job of describing the evolution and deployment of the flamethrower.

very nicely focused reference edition....

very interesting

Much enjoying reading on this rarely written about weapon. Note only hand held flamethrowers are dealt with in this book which it covers well with just about the right level of detail for me.

A well written book, with one flaw - the author advocates the production of the weapon. Otherwise the book is excellent.

When I was in the army (around 1966) I saw an officer of ours showing one such weapon but he said it was empty. Now, reading this book, I see that the man said a lot of silly informations. the biggest one was that the flamethrower couldn't throw its liquid far beyond 15m. This book says that almost all flamethrowers were (or are) able to reach almost 30m ans some of them even further.This book is something for experts to read and understand.Galland5