Flame throwers improvised

The poor results of flame thrower improvisation in the Pacific theaters was no cause for criticism of the responsible chemical officers and tank commanders the portable flame thrower was basically unsuited for tank adaption. If nothing else, these efforts clearly indicated that improvisation was not the answer and underlined the real need for a mechanized flame thrower in the Pacific fighting. 

When not busy with emergency improvisations, the CWS laboratory analyzed and described captured Japanese materials, such as gas masks and canisters, explosive charges, and flame throwers, brought in by men of the Philippine Chemical Depot. These analyses and descriptions were radioed to OCCWS, and samples of captured equipment were shipped to the United States. When surrender seemed inevitable, the CWS destroyed all remaining chemical materials. Colonel Hamilton and his surviving men were taken prisoner after the surrender of Corregidor on 6 May 1942 and remained in Japanese prison camps for the rest of the war. 

There were several attempts in the Pacific to mount portable flame throwers in some sort of armored vehicle, a combination made the more appealing by the lack thus far of cannon or other antitank weapons in the enemy bunkers. In the South Pacific Area, for example, the commander of a tank battalion in New Caledonia installed a flame gun in the pistol port of a tank, and a chemical officer on New Georgia modified the flame gun so that it could be fitted into the aperture for the tank s bow machine gun. The tst Marine Tank Battalion, serving in the Southwest Pacific, mounted several portable flame throwers on its tanks in preparation for the New Britain operation. None of these improvisions could have been called successful. The portable flame thrower was not constructed to withstand the vibrations and jarrings... 

Ltr, Col Stuart A. Hamilton, USFIP, to C CWS, sub Status of Improvised Flame Thrower, Philippine Islands, 16 Apr 42. Copy in Activities Chemical Warfare Service. Philippine Islands, World War II, sec. A, p. 64. 

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