Incendiary device

“ The effective use of small-bore fire-arms against aircraft was made possible by two inventions, produced under the stress of the war itself, that is to say, of the tracer bullet, which leaves behind it in the air a visible track of its flight, and of the incendiary bullet, which sets fire to anything inflammable that it hits. ”

“ If, however, one happens to be directly underneath where the shrapnel shells are bursting and realizes that all that goes up comes down again, one takes more than a spectacular interest in such an incident. By night aviators afford one even greater excitement, trying to spot the hostile machine and locate it by the sound of its engine. Then perhaps a terrific crash as it drops an incendiary bomb, the explosion of which lights up the whole neighbourhood with a dull red glow. ”

“ We caught the crackle of a machine-gun far up in the air, and a moment later the enemy machine burst into a lurid sheet of flame, and the blazing mass pitched headlong to earth amid a roar of cheering from watchers, who in thousands had braved all possible danger to see the aerial fight heralded by the outburst of machine-gun fire. ”

“ Again, as the projectile was simply a lump of oleaginous matter, it would have been blown by an explosive cartridge into thousands of fragments, each of them so small as to be worthless for incendiary purposes; for the efficacy of an incendiary depends to a great extent on its containing a large quantity of matter. ”

“ Of the incendiary materials the least valuable is the flame thrower. In the Chemical Warfare Service it has been the habit for a long while not to mention the flame thrower at all, unless questions were asked about it. ”

“ Even amid the booming of the anti-aircraft batteries and the sharper staccato reports of the machine guns from various parts of the field, all blending into an unearthly din, the droning of the motors high in the air could be distinctly heard. Like a pyrotechnic display, luminous bullets, searching for the invaders, shot up into the sky, often piercing the low-hanging clouds; and mingling in with them were vicious little spurts of fire which told of the explosion of shrapnel shells. ”

“ The motor unrest increased so much that the persons flung themselves up and then down, rolled their eyes and made meaningless motions with their hands and arms. Finally the agitation subsided, the pupils dilated to the maximum, and the condemned lay motionless. * * * Death occurred 121, 123, and 129 minutes after entry of the projectile.”
L. Incendiary Bomb Experiments These experiments were likewise carried out at Buchenwald, and the Ding diary gives us the facts. In November 1943 five persons were deliberately burned with phosphorous material taken from an English incendiary bomb. ”

“ That is another reason why a huge commercial aerial fleet will always be a tremendous danger and perpetual threat to any contiguous country or neighboring city, because these aerial freighters can be loaded with inextinguishable incendiary bombs as easily as with passengers, and 10,000 such aeroplanes could drop on a city within a hundred miles of its border enough chemical explosives to raze it by fire. ”

“ Figure 14.-German 1 KG. Incendiary Bomb with Explosive Charge in the Nose (N.Exp, I.B)
described above. The first type (I.B.E.N.—Figures 12A and 12B) has a 31⁄2 oz. charge and a total weight of 2.2 kg. which will cause the bomb to penetrate further into buildings than the ordinary type. The overall length without tail is 1 ft. 5 in. A stiff wire 13 in. long with metal disc about 11⁄2 in. diameter at the upper end is passed through the ring at the end of the tail vanes down the side of the bomb and through a hole in a safety pin, projecting from the fuze body. ”

“ She made no attempt to dodge or evade it, struck a bee-line for the row of Hun machines, droned straightly and steadily in and along the line, her bombs crashing amongst them, a sputter of flashes at her bows telling of the machine-gun hard at work putting the finishing touches to the destruction. The light followed her and held her all the way, and through its beam the streaking smoke of the tracer bullets poured incessantly, the shell-bursts flamed and flung billowing clouds of black smoke, the rocket fires reached and clutched at her. ”

“ The program of the Chemical Warfare Service included three types of bombs:
Mark II Bomb. The incendiary Mark II drop bomb is designed to be dropped from an aeroplane and is intended for use against buildings, etc., when penetrating effect followed by an intensive incendiary action is sought. [Pg 341]
The bomb case consists of two parts: a body and a nose. The body is a tapering zinc shell which carries the firing mechanism and stabilizing tail fin at the small end and at the large end a threaded ring which screws into the nose. ”

“ A machine or apparatus that will discharge 100 blasts, if needed, durable, and not liable to derangement or wear, is a necessity, and it should evolve enough electricity and of sufficient tension to jump between the wires 1-20th of an inch apart, necessary to fire priming, so as to secure simultaneous firing. ”

“ As the first one approached a black blob fell away from it, and next second there was a rending crash, a leaping cloud of smoke and dust whirling and eddying up from the road. The machine roared over and past, with her machine-gun hailing bullets down the road, and far down the road came another billowing cloud of smoke and the crash of another bomb. The third machine followed close, also machine-gunning hard and also splashing bombs down at intervals, one falling with horrible effect fairly in a little crowd of women and children clustered under and behind a country cart. ”

“ The observer failed to catch the puffing smoke of the battery's first shot and signalled the code to fire again. Before the next shot came, a stutter of machine-gun fire broke out overhead, and pilot and observer glanced quickly up at the clouds that drifted over and hid the fighters. The machine-gun [Pg 223] fire rose and fell in gusts, and then out of the cloud 1,000 feet up a machine whirled and spun down past them, recovered an instant and shot eastward in a steep gliding plunge, fell away suddenly, and crashed amongst the trenches. ”

“ I press my head against the earth and listen to the muffled thunder, like the explosions of quarrying—and raise it again to listen for the sounds on top.
The machine-guns rattle. I know our barbed wire entanglements are strong and almost undamaged;—parts of them are charged with a powerful electric current. The rifle fire increases. They have not broken through; they have to retreat.
I sink down again, huddled, strained to the uttermost. The banging, the creeping, the clanging becomes audible. One single cry yelling amongst it all. They are raked with fire, the attack is repulsed. ”

“ Over this packed scene of activity occasionally appear the white puffs of shrapnel smoke, which dissipate and vanish, while here and there a great spurt of yellow smoke and black earth shoots up as some high explosive shell bursts among the crowded depots and stores. The air is full of noise—the buzz of aeroplanes; the clatter of rifle fire; the staccato hammering of machine-guns; the heavy boom of guns firing; the dull crash of bursting shells; the buzz of flies on deck ”

“ After a rest the enemy opened again, the hills in front spouting flame, and the battery at the foot of our position vomiting death. Between the explosions, however, and they came thick and fast, we saw the figures of men as numerous as ants swarming up the base of the hill. Our machine guns were soon angled upon them, and our rifles sent rattling volleys among them, but the explosions in our position now come so frequently that we are soon choked in clouds of dust, and battered by splinters of gun carriages and even falling sand bags. ”

“ They continued their "giddy-go-round," and a dozen of the Huns at top speed, with engines full out and machine-guns rattling and ripping out a storm of tracer bullets in streaking pencil-lines of flame and blue smoke, came hurtling down like live thunderbolts. The sight alone might well have been a terrifying one to the Fo-Fum men, and the sharp, whip-like smacks and cracks about them of the explosive bullets which began to find their mark on fabric or frame would also have been upsetting to any but the steadiest nerves. ”

“ Only too soon the anti-aircraft started their harassing fire, throwing up a startling number of nerve-racking, high explosive shells, each one a curling black sausage of hate and steel splinters. When we were some way over my machine lagged behind the rest. The engine spluttered intermittently and could not be induced to go at all well. As my machine became more isolated I cast anxious glances about and was soon rewarded by seeing two wicked little enemy scouts waiting for an easy prey (at that time they did not usually attack a formation, but waited behind for the likes o’ me) . ”

“ It was not so much the gun reports which thrilled us as the resonant echoes which, crackling like very dry fagots in a fierce fire as the bullets sped down the long, straight street, made us realise their destroying power. Have you ever heard a high-velocity machine-gun firing down deserted and gloomy thorough-fares? It crackles all over your body in electrical shocks as powerful as those of a galvanic battery; it stimulates the brain as nothing else can do ”

“ The pistol tinder-box may readily be made to perform the whole of what is here described. A bell rope attached to the trigger will suffice to elicit fire, which, communicating with a quick-match or fusee, will quickly ignite and produce the required light. If the fire is previously prepared with wood or some other combustible material, and a small quantity of inflammable spirits sprinkled over it, the slightest spark will throw the whole into a blaze. ”

“ It was nothing to them that every now and again the house above them shook and quivered to the shock of a heavy shell exploding somewhere on the ground round the house, that the rattle of rifle fire dwindled away at times to separate and scattered shots, brisked up again and rose to a long roll, the devil's tattoo of the machine guns rattling through it with exactly the sound a boy makes running a stick rapidly along a railing. ”

“ But suddenly, before, behind and on the sides, white smoke clouds appeared bursting shrapnel. Still flying above the enemy's position, we were directly exposed to their artillery fire. Devil with it! The fire [315] grew worse. I knew from the little trembles that the machine was getting blow upon blow, but it never entered my mind that those shrapnel balls meant death to me. Something in man remains unmoved by logic and knowledge—especially when you're in the air. There, of a sudden, a white-yellow fire in front of me. The machine reared up. The major seemed to reel to his feet. ”

“ One after one now the twin-engined machines come roaring up the coast. One after one they lay across the docks their deadly line of bombs. Fire after fire is started, and in many places beyond the roofs can be seen the red glow of the flames. Each attacker in turn is greeted with the useless activity of the searchlights and the erratic flashes of scattered shells. ”

“ It may be said that whereas the hand-grenade, in common with the machine-gun, is only suitable for injuring personnel, the legitimate objective of the bomb is materiel. Thus the depots, magazines, arsenals, oil stores, etc., of the enemy cannot be effectively destroyed by gun-fire, at least from present-day aircraft ”

“ Electric flash lights, batteries for setting off dynamite and other explosives used for blowing out trenches and other fortifications, searchlights, mirror signaling devices, illuminating bombs, which are shot high in the air to explode and illuminate the field for hundreds of yards, signal bombs, and many ingenious contraptions never dreamed of are part of the army's equipment used on the battlefields of the greatest war that the world has ever known. ”

“ We hear terrific explosions, the falling of roofs, and fires break out everywhere.
An order from the commander of the sector reaches us, “Maintain the position and hold on until the companies of reinforcements arrive.”
The bombardment becomes more and more violent. As the sound of each shell whistles through the air we wonder if this infernal machine is going to strike in our dugout this time. And every two minutes, mathematically, the uproar comes again and this unimaginable suffering continues some hours. At the sound of each shell we close our eyes. ”

“ It is the sulkiest and the most abominable sound of this war—a perpetual reminder that machine guns can spray more death and wounds than shell fire. You can't be sure of the source or direction of machine gun fire. It may be after a number of targets, including your self. The red-headed brigade officer, experienced in such estimates, walked a little faster and hesitated before answering my question. ”

“ A bomb from a Zeppelin could not cause greater injury to life and property than that ingeniously contrived machine, the delicately constructed fuse of which, fashioned on the lathe by her father’s own hands, could be arranged to detonate at any given time. ”

“ In an attack, the advance of the company is covered by machine-gun fire from each side, converging at a point on the opposing [198] trenches. In the triangle thus formed the attacking force, the “Kleiftruppe” in front, then a party of bombers, and finally the raiding or attacking party take up their positions in No Man’s Land and crawl as far forward as possible in the “protected area.” As soon as the flame projectors are within range, the machine guns switch outward to each side, the flame is discharged and the bombers rush in and try their luck in the trench. ”