The Einstossflammenwerfer 46 was a hand held single shot flamethrower designed in Germany during World War II. Fear of fire, of burning to death, was an ancient one, and one not easily controlled by the Allied soldiers who had to face this new nightmarish German weapon. German M35 Flamethrower & Kleine Flammenwerfer. We still had them in our war stocks/training ammo depot in Berlin Brigade, along with M67 90mm Recoilless Rifles.
However it possessed a psychological power to terrify enemy soldiers far in excess of these practical facts. M202A1/M202A2 FLASH 4-shot Incendiary Rocket Launcher was intended to be a replacement for the Flammenwerfer, but they even took those away. The flamethrower was not a super weapon - its short range and the small amount of fuel a single man could carry on his back meant it had to be used sparingly. The flamethrower made its combat debut on 26 February 1915 when the German 3rd Guard Pioneer Regiment used them in a successful small-scale attack against French trenches near Verdun on the Western Front. Originally invented by a German engineer, Richard Fiedler, in 1900 the flamethrower was accepted into service by the German Army in 1911 and was used by specialist assault engineer units. The German flamethrower – or flammenwerfer – was capable of firing a jet of flame out to a distance of 20 yards (18 meters) and was designed to be carried and operated by a single soldier.
German troops being trained to use a flamethrower, 1917.
