Emplaced Flame Throwers

Company B of the 27th Engineer Combat Battalion, attached to the 158th Infantry, did equally well with flame throwers in the Maffin Bay area of the New Guinea mainland, across from Wakde Island. On 24 May the engineers, supported by two tanks, destroyed a machine gun emplacement, which had pinned down an infantry company for over three hours. This was the first recorded instance of a co-ordinated tank-flame thrower attack in the Southwest Pacific. A month later, farther to the east at Lone Tree Hill, the pattern was repeated. On 18 June 2d Lt. Theodore Frankel, antitank platoon leader, ist Infantry, 6th Division, supported by two tanks, knocked out three... 

Portable throwers went into action on 20 November 1943 when the 165th RCT, 27th Division, landed on Makin Atoll and the 2d Marine Division attacked Betio Island of the Tarawa Atoll. On the former, enemy opposition was fortunately limited, for flame throwers, drenched in the landings, failed to function. On Betio marines faced strong Japanese positions. Here, enemy beach fortifications consisted of numerous concrete, steel, and sand and coconut log pillboxes, plus a number of excellent bombproof shelters. These emplacements were con-... 

Flame thrower assaults by other units on Leyte, though less bizarre, were no less successful. Regiments of the 96th Division, equipped with the new M2-2 flame thrower, found it useful in burning off kunai grass which hid Japanese emplacements. On one occasion a flame... 

Reports from the ist Cavalry Division and the 3 2d Infantry Division substantiated this estimate of the portable flame thrower. In mid-December an element of the ist Cavalry Division encoxmtered an enemy emplacement on a narrow ridge in the Mount Minoro sector which commanded the approach along the mountain trail. Repulsed in several frontal attacks cavalrymen, supported by an assault team, circled wide and approached the position from the rear. The flame thrower sprayed the emplacement, and the defenders were cut down by small arms fire as they fled from their position. ... 

Because enemy emplacements were difficult to approach, flame thrower operator casualties shot upward. The casualty rate on Iwo Jima was probably higher than in any other campaign in the Pacific. 

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