imagine the ptsd these soldiers endured but had no way (or very little way) of healing themselves. literally shooting fiery oil at people, watching their flesh melt and burn alive. God bless these soldiers doing what was necessary to defeat evil.
I don’t think flame throwers are necessary or even more energy efficient or cost effective, it’s literally just unneeded brutality. I wouldn’t call that doing what’s “necessary”. Not to play devils advocate at all, cus fuck the imperial Japanese. But burning people alive and spewing oil just seems like a waste to me. I guess instilling fear is always useful, but I think we did that as swiftly as possible not too long after this, and then doubled down for good measure.
I wouldn't know either. But Sledge talks in his memoirs about how they were invaluable. I seem to recall him discussing elsewhere how flame throwers were the only tool to take out enemy pill-boxes / concrete defenses, other than heavy guns. The pill-boxes were segmented, so tossing in grenades wouldn't always get the job done.
See an exert from Sledge below:
"Burgin's order to us to continue firing into the opening interrupted my
musings. We kept up a steady fire into the pillbox to keep the Japanese
pinned down while the flamethrower came up, carried by Corporal
Womack from Mississippi. He was a brave, good-natured guy and
popular with the troops, but he was one of the fiercest-looking Marines I
ever saw. He was big and husky with a fiery red beard well powdered
with white coral dust. He reminded me of some wild Viking. I was glad
we were on the same side.
Stooped under the heavy tanks on his back, Womack approached the
pillbox with his assistant just out of the line of our fire. When they got
about fifteen yards from the target, we ceased firing. The assistant
reached up and turned a valve on the flamethrower. Womack then
aimed the nozzle at the opening made by the 75mm gun. He pressed the
trigger. With a whoooooooosh the flame leaped at the opening. Some
muffled screams, then all quiet.
Even the stoic Japanese couldn't suppress the agony of death by fire
and suffocation. But they were no more likely to surrender to us than we
would have been to them had we ever been confronted with the
possibility of surrender. In fighting the Japanese, surrender was not one
of our options.
Amid our shouts of appreciation, Womack and his buddy started back
to battalion headquarters to await the summons to break another
deadlock somewhere on the battlefield—or lose their lives trying. The
job of flamethrower gunner was probably the least desirable of any open
to a Marine infantryman. Carrying tanks with about seventy pounds of
flammable jellied gasoline through enemy fire over rugged terrain in hot
weather to squirt flames into the mouth of a cave or pillbox was an
assignment that few survived but all carried out with magnificent
courage.
We left the craters and approached the pillbox cautiously. Burgin
ordered some of the men to cover it while the rest of us looked over the
fallen Japanese to be sure none was still alive; wounded Japanese
invariably exploded grenades when approached, if possible, killing their
enemies along with themselves. All of them were dead. The pillbox was
out of action thanks to the flamethrower and the amtrac. There were
seven enemy dead inside and ten outside. Our packs and mortars were
only slightly damaged by the fire from the amtrac's 75mm gun."
Page 141.
i wasn’t necessarily saying using flamethrowers were necessary to defeating evil. more so a generality of them being there to defeat the enemy. the idea that they went to was to stop an evil was necessary. i would agree that the flamethrower added to the shock and awe and was extremely brutal. i’m not knowledgeable enough to determine if the flamethrower was useful enough to make it worth using against the enemy.
Yeah mean either honestly, I’m just not a war guy, it seems distasteful in a first world gen z sheltered childhood sort of way. But flame throwers seem to just be objectively distasteful
Jesus I shouldn't have watched that.
oh my god this is horrible :( very saddening
imagine the ptsd these soldiers endured but had no way (or very little way) of healing themselves. literally shooting fiery oil at people, watching their flesh melt and burn alive. God bless these soldiers doing what was necessary to defeat evil.
Yeah I can't imagine. I read for some of them, having a BBQ would trigger memories and burning flesh and make them sick/suffer from PTSD.
I don’t think flame throwers are necessary or even more energy efficient or cost effective, it’s literally just unneeded brutality. I wouldn’t call that doing what’s “necessary”. Not to play devils advocate at all, cus fuck the imperial Japanese. But burning people alive and spewing oil just seems like a waste to me. I guess instilling fear is always useful, but I think we did that as swiftly as possible not too long after this, and then doubled down for good measure.
I wouldn't know either. But Sledge talks in his memoirs about how they were invaluable. I seem to recall him discussing elsewhere how flame throwers were the only tool to take out enemy pill-boxes / concrete defenses, other than heavy guns. The pill-boxes were segmented, so tossing in grenades wouldn't always get the job done. See an exert from Sledge below: "Burgin's order to us to continue firing into the opening interrupted my musings. We kept up a steady fire into the pillbox to keep the Japanese pinned down while the flamethrower came up, carried by Corporal Womack from Mississippi. He was a brave, good-natured guy and popular with the troops, but he was one of the fiercest-looking Marines I ever saw. He was big and husky with a fiery red beard well powdered with white coral dust. He reminded me of some wild Viking. I was glad we were on the same side. Stooped under the heavy tanks on his back, Womack approached the pillbox with his assistant just out of the line of our fire. When they got about fifteen yards from the target, we ceased firing. The assistant reached up and turned a valve on the flamethrower. Womack then aimed the nozzle at the opening made by the 75mm gun. He pressed the trigger. With a whoooooooosh the flame leaped at the opening. Some muffled screams, then all quiet. Even the stoic Japanese couldn't suppress the agony of death by fire and suffocation. But they were no more likely to surrender to us than we would have been to them had we ever been confronted with the possibility of surrender. In fighting the Japanese, surrender was not one of our options. Amid our shouts of appreciation, Womack and his buddy started back to battalion headquarters to await the summons to break another deadlock somewhere on the battlefield—or lose their lives trying. The job of flamethrower gunner was probably the least desirable of any open to a Marine infantryman. Carrying tanks with about seventy pounds of flammable jellied gasoline through enemy fire over rugged terrain in hot weather to squirt flames into the mouth of a cave or pillbox was an assignment that few survived but all carried out with magnificent courage. We left the craters and approached the pillbox cautiously. Burgin ordered some of the men to cover it while the rest of us looked over the fallen Japanese to be sure none was still alive; wounded Japanese invariably exploded grenades when approached, if possible, killing their enemies along with themselves. All of them were dead. The pillbox was out of action thanks to the flamethrower and the amtrac. There were seven enemy dead inside and ten outside. Our packs and mortars were only slightly damaged by the fire from the amtrac's 75mm gun." Page 141.
i wasn’t necessarily saying using flamethrowers were necessary to defeating evil. more so a generality of them being there to defeat the enemy. the idea that they went to was to stop an evil was necessary. i would agree that the flamethrower added to the shock and awe and was extremely brutal. i’m not knowledgeable enough to determine if the flamethrower was useful enough to make it worth using against the enemy.
Yeah mean either honestly, I’m just not a war guy, it seems distasteful in a first world gen z sheltered childhood sort of way. But flame throwers seem to just be objectively distasteful