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Post Info TOPIC: French Flamethrowers
Ironsides


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French Flamethrowers
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Hi all, what id like to know is did the French use this weapon any help would be appreciated...Cheers

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Centurion


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I'm curently trying to put together an article on flamethrowers. The French certainly at least trialed them as I have found photos. However from what I can find so far they didn't have the range the French wanted. Patience mon brave. I hope to complete soon.

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Ironsides


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Centurion wrote:
I'm curently trying to put together an article on flamethrowers. The French certainly at least trialed them as I have found photos. However from what I can find so far they didn't have the range the French wanted. Patience mon brave. I hope to complete soon.
Hi Centurion thanks for the reply, does this mean they did'nt use them in combat? so far I've been unable to locate any info either way....I'm only really interested in weapons actually used in combat....Cheers

I'll Rephrase that "weapons that actually saw service" since it doesnt follow that a weapon in service was actually used in combat although it would be interesting to hear of it...cheers

-- Edited by Ironsides at 18:07, 2007-01-31

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Centurion


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I'm still trying to bottom this out - there are contradictory accounts one of which says they tried them in action in 1914 but found them too short range and the other that they only trialed them. They certainly had them and the first British flamethrower was based on the french one.

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eugene


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Robert,

 

do you need information on Russian flame throwers for your article?

 



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James H


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I've got a little bit on this. A French company called Hersent filed two patents in March and November 1915 for a flamethrower. Some features of it were borrowed by a British Captain Vincent, who was already working on the idea, and trialed in December. Britain began investigating the idea in July 1915, when the Germans used them at Ypres, but they were used against the French and on the Eastern front before that. The French captured and trialed some - I've seen a pic of that - but were not impressed. It doeesn't seem as if the French would have had them in 1914, although I've seen a design from 1910. Hersent's design of March was for twin drums mounted on a two-wheeled carriage.

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Centurion


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Maybe
The photos I have of French with Flamethrowers are not showing captured German equipment nor Hersent being single cylinder back packs.
I've also a photo of a British naval flame thrower also back pack - said but not verified to be taken in 1914.

There is a hard copy source I can possibly access for more info but not until later this week

Eugene

Any information will be of use.

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Centurion


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I am still working on that article but thought it worth reporting that the French most definitely did use flamethrowers in combat. Developing a one man portable unit superior to the German flamenwerfer, these were used in support of both British and American troops in 1918

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Tim R


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Robert

 

Sorry for the delay in getting you the information I promised, I have been a little busy, I will send some tonight. Are you just interested in just  French equipment, or are you working on all countries that used flame throwers?

All the Best
Tim R



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Centurion


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Tim

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James H


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Centurion wrote:

I am still working on that article but thought it worth reporting that the French most definitely did use flamethrowers in combat. Developing a one man portable unit superior to the German flamenwerfer, these were used in support of both British and American troops in 1918
Brilliant. I'm looking forward to that.



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Ironsides


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Hi all, found these Pics of French flamethrowers, They dont look to bad to me
but also I dont think they are combat pics probarbly the trials earlier mentioned.....

Cheers

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Centurion


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Still working on this

I think that the first photo represents a demo made by the French to the Americans when the option of attaching French flame throwing units to US forces was being discussed.

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James H


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Happened to spot this in Martin Gilbert's First World War.

On September 15th, 1918 a combined Serb/French/Italian attack took place against Bulgarian and German units. "So tenacious were the Bulgarian machine-gunners, however, that the French used flamethrowers, for the first time on the Salonica Front, to dislodge them . . . "

So for the first time on that Front, but not for the first time.

Here's a pic of a French job. The date (in the top r-h) seems to be March 1916.

-- Edited by James H at 22:33, 2007-04-01

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James H


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A bit more:

"Portable flamethrowers were employed in about equal quantities by Germany and France; the British patterns (Norris-Menchen and Lawrence) were not used in combat save for a smaller version at Zeebrugge (I suspect that would be the RN  one). The French portable projector, carried on the back of the single crewman, was styled the Schilt (after its inventor, Captain Schilt of the Paris Fire Brigade, who also organised the flamethrower companies. It carried 3 gallons of fuel and could project 8 or 10 bursts up to 30 yards' range, or a single burst up to 100 yards."

That sounds like the one in the picture above. Why a fireman should invent a flamethrower is something I would have thought might need looking into.

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Centurion


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James H wrote:

A bit more:

"Portable flamethrowers were employed in about equal quantities by Germany and France; the British patterns (Norris-Menchen and Lawrence) were not used in combat save for a smaller version at Zeebrugge (I suspect that would be the RN  one). The French portable projector, carried on the back of the single crewman, was styled the Schilt (after its inventor, Captain Schilt of the Paris Fire Brigade, who also organised the flamethrower companies. It carried 3 gallons of fuel and could project 8 or 10 bursts up to 30 yards' range, or a single burst up to 100 yards."

That sounds like the one in the picture above. Why a fireman should invent a flamethrower is something I would have thought might need looking into.
The Paris fire brigade first produced a flame thrower during the Siege in 1870. It was actually used by the Communards during the following uprising. Schilt produced a number of large flame throwers before he came up with his one man portable. Why a fireman would produce a flamethrower is disapointingly obvious - the first flame throwers were essentially man powered pumps that could project a jet or spray of liquid, early fire engines were based on a man powered pump that could project a jet or spray of liquid. In one case inflammable in the other water but the mechanisms were very similar.



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Runflat


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This may be of interest to some of you:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Foto-Deut-Soldaten-mit-Franz-Beute-Flammenwerfer-1-WK_W0QQitemZ290288114335QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMilitaria?hash=item290288114335&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A1|39%3A1|240%3A1318



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Tanker


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Bonjour,

Two good photos of the French flamethrowers in Ecpa-D photos collection : n° SPA 127 R 4537 and n° SPA 127 R 4538.

Photos taken on May 28th, 1918 during battle of Cantigny. A French flamethrowers unit was supporting the Big Red One during this fight.

Bonne journée - Michel

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