The M1 flamethrower is an American man-portable backpack flamethrower developed by the United States Army Chemical Warfare Service used during World War II, and was the first flamethrower to be fielded by the United States army.
History[]
The M1 was used during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars by American Troops. The M1 flamethrower was known to have been used during D-Day, with 150 flamethrowers used and a 100 recovered.
The M1 was developed due to the Americans noticing the Germans using flamethrowers like the Kleinflammenwerfer, GroĆflammenwerfer and Wex 1917 during World War I. Originally developed in 1940 under the name of E1, the E1 was refined to become the E1R1 flamethrower, which was developed again into the M1 flamethrower.
Design details[]
The M1 is a man-portable backpack flamethrower connected to a backpack containing two tanks of fuel and a nitrogen propellant. The weapon's wand was in the shape of a long, thin pipe, with a valve on it which is used to discharge the flames; the nozzle itself had a hydrogen-powered igniter and a hydrogen tank attached parallel to the pipe. When the valve is opened, the hydrogen ignites the fuel and is forced out the nozzle and pipe via the propellant pressure.
Variants[]
- E1
Standing for Experiment 1, the E1 flamethrower was the prototype of the M1 flamethrower that would later follow. Weighing in at a whopping 70 pounds (32 kilograms) and manufactured by the Kincaid Company of New York, the E1 was deemed unfit for military service and work later began to update the weapon.
- E1R1
Standing for Experiment 1: Revision 1, the E1R1 flamethrower is a revision of the E1 flamethrower, redesigned by the Chemical Warfare Service. The E1R1 had various improvements over the E1 it was based on, such as a new wand and being made lighter; the E1R1 weighed 57 pounds (26 kilograms) loaded when compared to the E1's 70, and weighed only 28 pounds (13 kilograms) when empty. However, problems like easily damageable parts and poor ergonomics were identified during testing.
- M1
The M1 was developed fixing most of the problems as seen with the E1 and E1R1 designs. It was identified as having a longer range and better build quality than both the E1 and E1R1 prototypes, but was still considered rather heavy and was refined yet again.
- M1A1
The final iteration of the M1 flamethrower, the M1A1 used the then-newly invented napalm as a flamethrowing agent; initial tests using the M1 showed that the original M1 design was incapable of handling napalm as a flame thickening agent, and the M1A1 was developed as a response to a request to develop a weapon based on the M1 platform that could handle napalm.