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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Italian Flame Throwers


bob lembke

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My principal interest is German flame thrower (FW) efforts in WW I. However, I am looking at the flame warfare efforts of the other combatants.

I am currently (painfully) translating the diary of an Italian FW lieutenant. I am also corresponding with an Italian whose grand father was a sergeant in the Italian FW forces in WW I.

It seems that the Italians had a rather large FW effort in WW I, but the knowledge about it seems to be scarce. Like other Allied flame warfare efforts, the Italian effort seems to have been somewhat unsophisticated technically. placing a greater burden on the heroism of the Italian FW troops.

Does anyone have any information or leads on this topic?

Bob Lembke

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Two Italian colleagues provided the following information in answer to this question in another context:

'The Italian Army used the French Schilt 3bis that had a range of 10 to 15 meters. the Arditi had a platoon of flame throwers and it seems they were used starting in 1916.' (Victor)

'I know that in 1917 flamethrowers companies or sections, if any, were attached to divisions.

For instance the 2nd Army of Capello on the eve of Caporetto had 10 divisions, of these one had a full company of flamethrowers, one had 2 sections and two had a single section.

From may 1918 each regiment had permanently assigned a section of flamethrowers.

The section had 27 men with 12 weapons The company had four sections, two with heavy flamethrowers for fixed positions and two with portable flamethrowers for 48 weapons overall.' (Renzo)

Robert

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Robert;

Thanks for that information. I have suspended reading and translating the diary, as so far the lieutenant writes a lot of interesting things, but rarely about flame-throwers. As I have almost no Italian vocabilary I have to look up 80% of words in a dictionary, even after translating 30 pages. So it is slow. I may get a native speaker to skim the diary and locate and record every mention of FW.

I am hoping that the Italian I am corresponding with will provide a statement of oral history; he is asking about in his family. One interesting thing he recalled is that the actual tactical sub-section was a flame-thrower operator, a grenadier to protect the team, and a man armed with a blanket, presumably wet. It seems that the Italians used compressed air as a propellant, not the much safer compressed nitrogen that the Germans used (don't smile, British FW also often used compressed air, and in at least one case compressed oxygen; the latter spontanously exploded during a demonstration; Foulkes, the head of Brit FW, putting the burning demonstrator out with his own (not Foulkes's) overcoat.)

The wet blanket was a pragmatic step and probably a moral-booster.

There is a lot of nonsense written, including by Alistair Horne, about exploding German FW, but after reading hundreds of sources, tens of thousands of pages, I have only come across two or three reliable accounts of this happening. The German FW and their consumables had many safety features and characteristics usually not found in the Allied devices, the principal being the inert and self-extinguishing nitrogen propellant; the use of a self-closing flame valve, like the "dead-man's-throttle" found on railroads; and the use of heavy, relatively less flammable flame oils, in turn made possible by better, hotter ignition devices.

Please keep any info in Italian FWs flowing in; they had quite a large effort. Any sources in Italian are welcome.

Bob Lembke

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Hi Bob

I have just got back from the Brussel's Army Museum which has on display an Italian flame thrower and the outfit worn by the operators. I'll post some photos if they have turned out OK.

regards

Simon

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th_27079_DSCF0045_Italian_Flamethower_12th_27089_DSCF0046_Italian_Flamethower_12th_27096_DSCF0018_Italian_Flamethower_12

Italian flame thrower and suit in the Brussels Army Museum. Flash is not allowed so they are a little out of focus. These are big files. Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the info panel.

Regards

Simon

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Simon;

Many thanks. The photos, which I have not yet looked at in detail, corroborates what I have learned so far. As late as late 1917 the Italians were using compressed air as a propellant, not inert nitrogen, so their devices were much more dangerous, prone to a spontaneous explosion. Hence the protective suit. They also seem to have mostly used large fixed FW, not the French portables that they also had. Those of course are the devices pictured.

Many thanks. I want to visit Belgium; unfortunately the last time a family member was there he was using 30.5 and 42 cm guns, so I may have to go in disguise.

Bob Lembke

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Bob:

The Italians created elite assault units, the Reparti d’Assalto, on 26 June, 1917. A Reparto was made up of three companies of 700 men, including one 27-man flamethrower section armed with 15 portable devices. Flamethrower operators were recruited from the engineers and designated flammieri.

Following an army reorganization in May of 1918, the assault detachments were expanded to 900 men each. A Reparto d’Assalto would now include three flamethrower sections, each composed of 15 men armed with six Italian or modified French devices.

Flammieri were trained at the flamethrower school at Montecchio Emilia, near Parma. They were initially equipped with French Schilt portable and static flamethrowers, as well as modified Schilt flamethrowers called the Schilt Nr. 3 bis OFC. By the end of 1917, most of these had been replaced by the Italian-designed DLF (named after the Direzione Lanciafiamme or Flamethrower Department) and the Apparato tipo italiano a due serbatoi accoppiati (“Italian Twin-tank Apparatus”). They also used the massive two-wheeled Hersent-Thiriont flamethrower seen in Simon's photos.

post-13112-1166041741.jpg

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Edward;

Fantastic information. Can't respond in detail; having computer problems and am using my wife's laptop.

The diary of an Italian flame thrower officer that I am (slowly) translating indicates that they were using compressed air as a propellant in late 1917. Although the guy was an engineer, he is quite vague technically. What do you know about the propellants that the Italians used? And the fuel? The French seemed to have used quite different fuels than the Germans did. As they adopted French equipment, perhaps they also used French-type fuel.

(I have an e-friend who has a quite usable and legal German FW, and who plans to try it out; we have been discussing fuel types. The Germans had at least five differet types for the same device, color-coded to prevent mistakes.

Bob Lembke

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Bob:

The French used a naptha-gasoline mixture as fuel. Their propellant was carbonic acid and water, which produced carbon dioxide.

I assume the Italians used the same fuel and propellants in their French flamethrowers, but I don't know what they used in the Italian models.

Interestingly, the lance in the first image I posted used spun platinum and a dry-cell battery to ignite the fuel. I recently saw a TV show in which people started a campfire using steel wool and a 9-volt battery. You just touch the steel wool to both terminals of the battery and it bursts into flame.

The Italian lance must have used the same principle.

Ed

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Ed;

Again, very interesting info. The Germans used at least five different "flame oils"; generally based mostly on oil, the most usual being one compounded to create thick black smoke, for several reasons, including providing cover for the advancing troops; a special lighter mix that burned hotter and produced little smoke to allow a "stealth"attack (The lighter oil necessitated tighting up certain junctions of the mechanism); and a cheaper mixture for training but that required careful cleaning of the FW after use.

The Germans used inert nitrogen as a propellant.

The German ignitor was a sort of cylinder that fitted on the end of the "fire tube"; the rush of oil and nitrogen drove a piston into an ignitor, which in turn ignited a chemical mix lining the internal tube that burned very hot for about 90 seconds. Once ignited, it would ignite several successive bursts of oil. When burned out, a fork attached to the fire tube by a chain allowed the extremely hot ignitor to be popped off. The operator of a portable FW wore a belt pouch with three more ignitors.

Some photos of German FW operators of large FW show them holding a stick with an oil-soaked rag tied to the end, ignited, it could ignite the flame. This led some to state that the large FW had no automatic ignition; this is false, but a large FW, which might have two or three large tanks of flame oil, would easily spray oil longer than an ignitor would burn; the primitive second ignitor could ignite the spray faster than a fresh ignitor could be attached.

The very hot ignitor allowed reliable ignition of a heavier flame oil, providing several advantages, including more safety, and more range.

Since the work on modern FW began in 1901 in Germany and the work was conducted by a chemical engineer and a scientist, the German FWs had a degree of technical sophistication much higher than most Allied FW, tossed together in a short period, sometimes by men who I call "gentlemen tinkerers". (I'm sorry, I am a design snob, as I am a mechanical engineer.) In fact, the final portable design, the Wex, was in my opinion a more sophisticated design than the equivalent German WW II design, which resembled the German 1915/16 model with a different ignition system.

Bob Lembke

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