Flamethrower History

Contrary to what we had thought, flamethrowers were introduced fairly early on. They were first employed by the Germans at the battle of Hooge on July 30, 1915. Flamethrowers consisted of a backpack with a resevoir of compressed nitrogen and a tank containing about ten pints of "liquid flame", usually a mixture of coal tar and benzine. A hose ran from the fuel tank to a nozzle, on which was an ignition device; on pressing the trigger, gas forced the liquid through the nozzle and at the same time the ignition device fired the liquid. The result was a stream of burning liquid with an effective range of about 45 meters.

Flamethrowers proved to be a terrifyingly effective weapon, and they were quickly adopted by the British, French, and American forces. They had a somewhat shorter range than many of the other weapons of The Great War which, in conjunction with their efficacy, meant that flamethrower operators quickly became targets; no one wanted an enemy flamethrower anywhere near them. It became customary for flamethrower operators to go into combat surrounded by an infantry squad to protect them until they could be usefully deployed.

An advantage of flamethrowers is that they don't require that much skill to operate; anyone who can aim a garden hose can aim a flamethrower, which makes them, oddly enough, a good weapon for novices. Even an untrained combatant can cause massive damage against large numbers of opponents, as long as they can get within range (as a caveat, one should make sure the novices are bright enough to avoid rather literal "friendly fire" casualties, which are somewhat easy to achieve with this weapon.) In addition, their use as a psychological weapon of terror is unparalleled. Katya suspects that flamethrowers might also prove rather effective against creatures which are immune to certain forms of more conventional weaponry.