Naval flamethrower

[centurion]

Apologies if this picture has been posted before. Is this the model flamethrower used at Zeebrugge?

[SiegeGunner]

That pic certainly appears in one or more books on Zeebrugge and depicts, I believe, a Hayes portable FW apparatus.

[britman]

That pic certainly appears in one or more books on Zeebrugge and depicts, I believe, a Hayes portable FW apparatus.

Crikey, I feel sorry for the poor blokes that had to use it.

[centurion]

Crikey, I feel sorry for the poor blokes that had to use it.

Not to mention those it was used on

[Mike_H]

The IWM have 2 of these flamethrowers that were actully brought back from the raid. I think that one of them was displayed in the permanent WW1 gallery.

M

[Tom W.]

That's the Hay Flame Gun, created by Captain P. S. Hay of the Ministry of Munitions in December of 1917. He worked at Wembley Experimental Station as assistant to Captain H. V. Vincent of the Ministry of Munitions, who invented a large battery flamethrower that the British and Russians used.

The operator slung the Hay Flame Gun from a shoulder strap so that it hung in front of his chest. He pressed a button on a dry-cell battery mounted on the lance, which ignited a portfire under the nozzle. He then squeezed the oil-release valve at the base of the lance, which was identical to the brake handle on automobiles of the era. The oil was pressurized with deoxygenated air pumped directly into the tank. When the operator ran or jumped, the propellant gas mixed with the oil and produced a foam, which greatly limited the range. For this reason other flamethrowers had either separate internal propellant chambers or bottles attached externally to the oil tank.

The Hay Flame Gun was 35 inches tall by 5.5 inches in diameter. It carried 2.6 gallons of oil, which gave it a laden weight of 66 lbs. It had a range of about 66 feet and a duration of 15 seconds. A total of 40 were manufactured during the war, 36 of which were used at Zeebrugge.

In June of 1918 Captain Hay demonstrated the weapon to General Pershing in France, and then demonstrated it to French and Italian officials in Paris. The Americans and the British cooperated in designing a device based in part on the Hay Flame Gun, but it wasn't completed before the war ended.

[SiegeGunner]

Thanks for that information, Tom. Hay, not Hayes (I was almost right). 36 Hay flame guns may have been taken to Zeebrugge, but how many were actually used in action is a different matter. Bearing in mind that it was dark, 36 flame guns would have been hard to overlook.

[Peter and Ellen]

I agree with Centurion, pity those poor souls that it got used on. I always cringe when I see one in use from old footage and that includes the use of Napalm.

Now, after being close to the bushfires here in Victoria that killed so many recently, I am especially sensitive. What a bloody awful death.

My father in law got his hands on a German Flame thrower that he pinched from them in Norway when he was a kid. He fired it off in a wood and said he pooed his pants (not his exact words) so much he hid it and ran.

Peter

[Tom W.]

I mistyped above when I said that 36 Hay Flame Guns were used at Zeebrugge. I meant to write that 36 were ordered by the Admiralty for use at Zeebrugge.

Thirty-four volunteers from the Admiralty Experimental Station were designated the Experimental Party, also called the Pyrotechnic Party. They operated the two "Vincent" flamethrowers on the Vindictive as well as the Hay Flame Guns in the naval and marine storming parties that landed on the Mole, and they also fired signal flares and operated smoke machines on the ships.

Each "Vincent" required a five-man squad on land; I don't know if the shipboard versions had the same number of operators. If you subtract the men needed for the "Vincent" flamethrowers, the signal flares, and the smoke machines, you are indeed left with far fewer than 36. In fact, there were only 34 flamethrower operators to begin with.

Probably about 15 Hay Flame Guns were used in the raid.

[Tom W.]

My father in law got his hands on a German Flame thrower that he pinched from them in Norway when he was a kid. He fired it off in a wood and said he pooed his pants (not his exact words) so much he hid it and ran.

Imagine the Livens "Large Gallery" Flammenwerfer the British used at the Somme. It was fifty feet long, weighed two tons, and produced a flame almost 300 feet long.

One thing people don't think about too often is that flamethrowers are loud. I have a postcard that shows a German flamethrower squad.

The handwritten note on the back, dated August 18, 1917, says in German, "Dear parents and sister! I send you a card with a dangerous killing machine. It is a flamethrower. There is loud smoke and fire that come out from the front. If there is a spark you are lost beyond rescue. Everything else is fine. Goodbye. Best wishes from your son and brother Karl."

I wonder how Karl's family reacted when they got that card.

[GrenPen]

The IWM have 2 of these flamethrowers that were actully brought back from the raid. I think that one of them was displayed in the permanent WW1 gallery.

M

As the anniversary of the Zeebrugge Raid gets closer, I have been trawling through various articles and pictures on the web.

The IWM has this picture taken in the 1920s at Crystal Palace:

Catalogue Reference: Q 20549

Object description: Flame throwers and Stores mortars used by a landing party on the Mole at Zeebrugge. Also shown in then photograph; a piece of the Mole brought back by HMS Vindictive after an attack on 23rd April 1918, a rum measure and an alarm gong from the Jetty.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205191578

If gives a clearer picture of the Hay portable flamethrower.

There is also a colour photograph of the Morriss static flamethrower and its pedestal.

[GrenPen]

I had neglected to upload the picture.

[GrenPen]

There are several pictures of the Morriss static flamethrower being tested in a field, presumably near Stratford (or Wormwood Scrubs?) which are in the IWM Collection. I liked this one the most (IWM Catalogue number: Q 64465) and thought I'd reproduce it in this thread.