Essay On Flamethrowers

I.6.2 Flamethrowers The first modern flamethrower, Flammenwerfer, was invented by German engineer Richard Friedler in 1901. These powerful weapons used pressurized air, carbon dioxide or nitrogen to push oil through a nozzle, which was ignited by a charge, producing a jet of flame. Flame throwers were mainly used to clear enemy soldiers from the trenches. Richard Friedler developed two types of flamethrowers – the smaller version Kleinflammenwerfer was a portable one carried by one person, and the larger version Grossflammenwerfer was suitable for transportation, also by a single person. From 1911 onwards, the German army deployed flamethrowers in three specialized battalions. They used it first against French trenches at Malancourt, north of Verdun on 26 February 1915. The Germans made a surprise attack with the flamethrowers on the British troops at Hooge in Flanders on 30 July 1915. The French also used their portable one-man flamethrower, Schilt, a superior build to the

French Navy also launched a fully functional military submarine ‘Gymonte’ in the same year. The next development was Ireland's ‘Holland VI’ submarine of 1896 which made use of internal combustion power on the surface and electric battery power for submerged operations. In 1900, US Navy purchased this submarine and named it as ‘USS Holland’. Germany completed its fully functional military submarine ‘Forelle’ in 1903. They sold this vessel to Russia in 1904, for use in Russo-Japanese war. German Imperial Navy's first U-boat design 'U1' was commissioned in 1906. In 1914, at the start of the war the super powers of Europe had a significant number of submarines with their Navies: Great Britain (77), Russia (58), France (62), Germany (48), and Ottoman Empire (7). All of them lost a number of submarines during the First World