COULD THE FLAMETHROWER WIN WORLD WAR 3?
May 18, 2023Mac Caltrider
flamethrower
Weapons experts demonstrate how M2-Flamethrowers were once used to destroy Japanese bunkers June 7, 2014, during World War II Weekend in Reading, Pa. US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. David Bessey.
By the time the American flag was raised atop Mount Suribachi, Marine Cpl. Hershel Williams had already destroyed seven enemy pillboxes. Throughout the morning of Feb. 23, 1945, Japanese soldiers ensconced in heavily fortified concrete dugouts had slowed the American advance across the island of Iwo Jima. Tanks, explosives, and even aircraft couldn’t destroy the bunkers. Eventually, Williams volunteered to take the flamethrower on his back and knock them out himself.
“Bazookas and that sort of thing had no effect on them, because [the bunkers] were so thick and well-built,” Williams later recalled. “The only way to eliminate the enemy inside those pillboxes was by flamethrower.”
Woody Williams
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Hershel "Woody" Williams speaks during a hangar dedication ceremony at the Capital Jet Center in Charleston, West Virginia, July 26, 2019. US Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. William Holdaway.
It’s been almost eight decades since Williams and other Americans of his ilk wielded man-portable flamethrowers to deadly effect on the battlefields of the Pacific Theater. Today, the fire-breathing weapons are considered relics of a bygone era of warfare. Yet, if the flamethrower’s history teaches us anything, it’s that the need for such a weapon is timeless. Because when it comes to inflicting mass carnage at close range, nothing can replace a gun that spews half a gallon of white-hot napalm every second.
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