Flame fougasse
Flame fougasse | |
---|---|
Second World War | |
Production history | |
Designer | Petroleum Warfare Department and William Howard Livens |
Designed | 1940-41 |
No. built | 50,000 in Britain |
Specifications | |
Rate of fire | Single shot |
Effective firing range | 30 yd (27 m)[1] |
Sights | None |
A flame fougasse (sometimes contracted to
Later in World War II, Germany and Russia developed flame throwing mines that worked on a somewhat different principle. After World War II, flame fougasses similar to the original British design have been used in several conflicts including the Korean and Vietnam Wars where it was improvised from easily available parts.[5] The flame fougasse remains in army field manuals as a battlefield expedient to the present day.[5]
Development history
Following the
The PWD soon received the assistance of William Howard Livens.[10][11] Livens was well known for his First World War invention: the "Livens Gas and Oil Bomb Projector", known more simply as the Livens Projector. The Livens Projector was a large, simple mortar that could throw a projectile containing about 30 pounds (14 kg) of explosives, incendiary oil or, most commonly, poisonous phosgene gas. The great advantage of the Livens Projector was that it was cheap; this allowed hundreds, and on occasions thousands, to be set up and then fired simultaneously catching the enemy by surprise.[12][13][14]
One of Livens' PWD demonstrations, probably first seen about mid-July at
The experiments led to a particularly promising arrangement: a forty-gallon steel drum[nb 2] buried in an earthen bank with just the round front end exposed. At the back of the drum was an explosive which, when triggered, ruptured the drum and shot a jet of flame about 10 feet (3.0 m) wide and 30 yards (27 m) long.[1] The design was reminiscent of a weapon dating from post-medieval times called a fougasse: a hollow in which was placed a barrel of gunpowder covered by rocks, the explosives to be detonated by a fuse at an opportune moment. Livens' new weapon was duly dubbed the flame fougasse.[9] The flame fougasse was demonstrated to Clement Attlee, Maurice Hankey and General Liardet on 20 July 1940.[9]
Experiments by the Fuel Research Station
Design variations
Of the original British flame fougasse designs, there were three main variants: the safety fougasse, the demigasse and the hedge hopper. They all used metal barrels and similar pre-prepared explosive charges, although they varied in the details of construction and the amount of ammonal used for the propelling charge.[19]
Safety fougasse
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a0/Safety_fougasse_installation.jpg/220px-Safety_fougasse_installation.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Fougasse_charge.jpg/220px-Fougasse_charge.jpg)
The most common form of the flame fougasse was the safety fougasse. This design allowed the propelling charge to be stored separately until needed. The safety fougasse was constructed as follows: a small section was excavated from the side of a slope, leaving a shallow platform of earth, and a barrel of incendiary mixture was placed horizontally in a low position with one round face pointing towards the target. At the back, a section of stove or drain pipe was placed vertically against the rear face of the barrel. The lower end of the pipe was blocked off with a thin cover and positioned a few inches above the bottom of the barrel. The top of the pipe was fitted with a loose cap to keep water out. This pipe is what makes it a "safety" fougasse because it allows later installation of the propelling charge. Soil was then built up over the weapon until all that could be seen were the front disk of the barrel and top of the pipe.[19][21]
The propelling charge was prepared with an electrically triggered
Private Harold Wimshurst later recalled:
We had a special job. We had to go all round these villages where there are banks and bends in the road and we had to insert these barrels of inflammable material into the banks. A charge was put behind them with a wire running behind them to the nearest cover. A detonator was put in a pipe down the back of these barrels and the idea was that if the tanks came round on the road, we'd detonate these barrels of flaming liquid over them.[25]
A non-safety fougasse could be built by simply burying the propelling charge behind the fuel drum and running leads through the soil. Instructions for several variants of this design were published but this construction increases the hazard because the leads would have to be left exposed on the surface and any electrical current applied could, theoretically, ignite the charge. Also, underground moisture could also easily ruin the charge over an extended period of time.[19][26]
The safety fougasse design had the advantage that without the propelling charge the fougasse was sufficiently safe that it did not require a guard.
Flame fougasses were
British soldier Fred Lord Hilton MM later recalled:
On one occasion digging in and actually blowing a set of Fougasse—these were 50-imperial-gallon (230 L; 60 US gal) oil drums filled with petrol and oil, buried in the side of a defile with a small charge of explosives behind or underneath. The idea was that when a column of enemy tanks [illegible] the spot the Fougasse were blown. I don’t know if they were ever used in action but, at the demonstration we did, the flame covered an area of about 50 square yards (42 m2) and nothing could have lived in it. I think this would have stopped some of the tanks, of course, this was the whole point of the exercise![29]
Demigasse
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Demigasse_installation.jpg/220px-Demigasse_installation.jpg)
The demigasse was a simpler variant of the flame fougasse. It was a barrel of petroleum mixture laid on its side with a cocoa tin charge in a shallow pit just below one of the barrel's ridges. On detonation, the barrel would rupture and flip over spilling its contents over an area of about 36 square yards (30 m2). Left on its own at a roadside, in the open and with no attempt at disguise other than to hide the firing wires, it was indistinguishable from the barrels of tar commonly used in road repair. It was hoped that in addition to the damage done by the weapon itself, experience would cause the enemy to treat every innocent roadside barrel with the greatest caution.[27][17][26][30]
Hedge hopper
Another variant of the flame fougasse was the "hedge hopper". This was a barrel of petroleum mixture placed upright with a cocoa tin charge containing two primers and just one ammonal cartridge buried in an eight-inch (200 mm) deep pit placed underneath and slightly off centre, but carefully aligned with the seam of the barrel. On firing, the barrel would be projected 10 feet (3 m) into the air and 10 yards (9 m) forwards, bounding over a hedge or wall behind which it had been hidden.[31] It was difficult to get the hedge hopper's propelling charge right, but it had the great advantage of being quick to install and easy to conceal.[32]
Home Guard member William Leslie Frost later recalled seeing a hedge hopper in action.
I was most impressed with the full gas [sic] hedge-hopper, which consisted of a forty gallon mixture of tar and oil and all sorts of things like that with a charge underneath it; the ideal thing was you waited until an enemy tank was just the other side of a hedge, and you blew it up. The idea was that you just tried to hawk it over the hedge, set it on fire so it smothered the tank and enveloped it in flame. Unfortunately, (or fortunately as it went a bit wrong) one had a bit too much charge underneath it (it was a delicate operation) and it went up in the air in one big ball of fire about 50 feet (15 m) across, very impressive![33]
Placing the hedge hopper so that it worked properly proved difficult to get right and the War Office discouraged its use in favour of the more conventional flame fougasse installation.[34]
A further variant of the hedge hopper idea was devised for St Margaret's Bay where the barrels would be sent rolling over the cliff edge.[4]
Deployment
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Assorted_Debris_At_Danskine_Brae_Flame_Fougasse_%28geograph_3996448%29.jpg/220px-Assorted_Debris_At_Danskine_Brae_Flame_Fougasse_%28geograph_3996448%29.jpg)
In all 50,000 flame fougasse barrels were distributed of which the great majority were installed in 7,000 batteries, mostly in southern England and a little later at 2,000 sites in Scotland. Some barrels were held in reserve while others were deployed at storage sites to destroy petrol depots at short notice.[4] The size of a battery varied from just one drum to as many as fourteen; a four barrel battery was the most common installation and the recommended minimum.[35][17] Where possible, half the barrels in a battery were to contain the 40/60 mixture and half the sticky 5B mixture.[27][17]
A battery would be placed at a location such as a corner, steep incline or roadblock where vehicles would be obliged to slow.[36]
Later development
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Flame_Fougasse_as_battlefield_expedient.jpg/220px-Flame_Fougasse_as_battlefield_expedient.jpg)
Although the flame fougasse was never used in Britain, the idea was exported to Greece by a couple of PWD officers when, in 1941,
By 1942, there were proposals for completely buried flame fougasses to be used as oil mines[37] but by then the emergency was over. Almost all flame fougasses were removed before the end of the war and in most instances even the slightest traces of their original locations have disappeared. A few instances were missed, and their remains have been found. For example, the rusty remnants of a four-barrel battery, one of which still contained an oily residue, were discovered in 2010 in West Sussex.[38]
Both the Russians and the Germans[4] later used weapons described as fougasse flame throwers or flame thrower mines. They worked on a different principle to the flame fougasse. Fougasse flame throwers comprised a cylinder containing a few gallons of petrol and oil; this would be hidden, typically by being buried. On being triggered electrically, either by an operator or by a booby trap mechanism, a gas generator is ignited. The pressure ruptures a thin metal seal and the liquid is forced up a central pipe and out through one or more nozzles. A squib is automatically fired to ignite the fuel. The range of the flame varied considerably, generally just a few tens of yards and lasted only one to two seconds.[39] The German version, the Abwehrflammenwerfer 42, had an 8 imperial gallons (36 L; 9.6 US gal) fuel tank and were wired back to a control point from where they could be fired individually or together.[40]
The flame fougasse has remained in army field manuals as a battlefield expedient to the present day. Such weapons are improvised from available fuel containers combined with standard explosive charges or
See also
- British anti-invasion preparations of World War II
- British hardened field defences of World War II
- Improvised explosive device
- Lagonda flamethrower
- List of flamethrowers
- Molotov cocktail
- Petroleum Warfare Department
References
Explanatory footnotes
Citations
- ^ a b c Barrel Flame Traps 1942, p. 6.
- ^ "Dictionary". Vietnam. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
- ^ Dear & Foot 2001, p. 296.
- ^ a b c d e f Banks 1946, p. 38.
- ^ a b c d FM 20-33. Combat Flame Operations.
- ^ Banks 1946, p. 27.
- ^ Roskill 1974, p. 471.
- ^ a b c d Roskill 1974, p. 472.
- ^ a b c d e f g Banks 1946, p. 34.
- ^ a b Banks 1946, p. 33.
- The National Archives
- ^ Jones 2007, p. 27.
- ^ Palazzo 2002, p. 103.
- The National Archives
- ^ Foulkes 2001, p. 167.
- ^ Fuel Research 1917-1958. A review of the Fuel Research Organisation of the DSIR. London: HMSO. 1960. pp. 105–6.
- ^ The National Archives
- ^ Clarke 2011, p. 176.
- ^ a b c Barrel Flame Traps 1942, p. 8.
- ^ a b c d Barrel Flame Traps 1942.
- ^ IWM Film MGH 6799, time: 1:02.
- ^ Barrel Flame Traps 1942, pp. 13–18.
- ^ IWM Film MGH 6799, time: 0:02.
- ^ a b Barrel Flame Traps 1942, pp. 20–21.
- ^ Levine 2007, Private Harold Wilmshurst, p. 63.
- ^ a b Imperial War Museum. Film WOY35: Flame Fougasse & Barrel Flame Traps.
- ^ a b c Banks 1946, p. 36.
- ^ Barrel Flame Traps 1942, p. 15.
- ^ "Recollections (joining forces and training prior to invasion of Normandy)". WW2 People's War. BBC History. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
- ^ IWM Film MGH 6799, time: 3:18.
- ^ IWM Film MGH 6799, time: 2:57.
- ^ Barrel Flame Traps 1942, pp. 10–12.
- ^ "Memoirs of William Leslie Frost, a member of the Home Guard who recalled the hedge hopper weapon in action". South Staffordshire Home Guard website. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
- ^ Clarke 2011, p. 174.
- ^ Fleming 1957, p. 208.
- ^ Adrian Armishaw. "Flame Fougasse (surviving remains)". Pillbox Study Group. Archived from the original on 18 January 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
- The National Archives
- ^ Adrian Armishaw. "Flame Fougasse (surviving remains)". Pillbox Study Group. Archived from the original on 18 January 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
- ^ ""Fougasse Flame Throwers" from Intelligence Bulletin, November 1944". lonesentry.com. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
- ^ Westwood 2005, p. 48.
- ^ "Flame Field Expedients". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
General and cited references
- Banks, Sir Donald (1946). Flame Over Britain. Sampson Low, Marston and Co.
- Clarke, D. M. (2011). "Arming the British Home Guard, 1940–1944". Cranfield University. hdl:1826/6164.
- Dear, Ian; Foot, MRD (2001). The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860446-4.
- Fleming, Peter (1957). Invasion 1940. Rupert Hart-Davis.
- ISBN 1-84342-088-0.
- Jones, Simon (2007). World War I Gas Warfare Tactics and Equipment. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-151-9. Archived from the originalon 16 October 2006. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
- Levine, Joshua (2007). Forgotten Voices of the Blitz and the Battle of Britain. Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-191004-4.
- Palazzo, Albert (2002). Seeking Victory on the Western Front: The British Army and Chemical Warfare in World War I. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-8774-7.
- ISBN 0-00-211332-5.
- Westwood, David (2005). German Infantryman (3) Eastern Front 1943–45. Warrior. ISBN 978-1-84176-780-2.
- Barrel Flame Traps, Flame Warfare. Military Training Pamphlet No. 53. Part 1. War Office. July 1942.
- Application for Appointment to a Temporary Commission in the Regular Army for the Period of the War: William Howard Livens. National ArchivesWO 339/19021. War Office. 1914.
- Minutes of Proceedings Before the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors. National ArchivesT 173/702. Treasury. 29 May 1922.
- FM 20-33: Combat Flame Operations. Headquarters Department of the Army. 1967.
- Livens Projector M1. United States Department of War. 1942.
Collections
- "The National Archives". Repository of UK government records. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
- "WW2 People's War". BBC. Retrieved 26 August 2010. WW2 People's War is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.
Imperial War Museum documents
- MGH 6799 – Petroleum Warfare (Film). Imperial War Museum. 1941. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
Further reading
- "British Fire Traps Awaited Invaders". Now It Can Be Told. Popular Science. August 1945. p. 66.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- "WARTIME SECRETS: FLAME FOUGASSE". Discovery Channel.
- "Home Guard 'Fougasse' Demonstration". Photo gallery. King's Own Royal Regiment Museum Lancaster.
- Defence by Fire. British Pathe. 1945. Retrieved 31 May 2015. Burning seas (from the start), flame barrage (from 2:10), hedge hopper (from 3:28), fougasse (from 3:59), Cockatrice (from 4:32). Note that the narrator gives an exaggerated account and repeats some propaganda as fact.