Incendiary napalm

Incendiaries. AP has been added to Napalm-type flame agents to raise the flame temp and increase the burning intensity (Ref 17). Graphite, 30 parts 20 of AP 13 of polyester 37 of styrene,... 

Na is a very reactive substance which is never found free in nature. It is not generally used as an incendiary agent as such but, because of its tendency not only to float on w, but also to ignite spontaneously in contact with it, it may be added to napalm for use against river targets or enemy positions in rice paddy fields or in snow (Ref 7, p 103 Ref 4, pp 28-29)... 

Napalm is the best incendiary to use against most flammable targets. It will readily ignite paper, straw, flammable solvents, or wooden structures. 

An easy, effective way to use this mixture is to put about a quart of it in a paper bag and place the bag on the target material. The bag can be lit with a match and the mixture will ignite quite readily. It bums as well as napalm. If a longer delay time is required, use one of the igniter mixes described earlier along with time fuse or other delay device. The time fuse alone, however, will not ignite the incendiary mix. 

CA 71, 103746 (1969) claim a match-ignitable, tacky compsn for use in flares, signals incendiaries. Example compsn is made by mixing Mg, AN, Napalm B with an acrylonitriline/ acrylic acid/Me-methacrylate copolymer. It burns with a bright yellow flame... 

Giua, after giving a general description of incendiaries (including Napalm) used during WWII in aerial bombs, lists on p 414 the following incendiaries patented in Italy after WWII ... 

ETN FI Fire bricks Fire gel Flash comp Erythritol tetranitrate Flash incendiary Homemade napalm... 

Incendiary type warhead (with gelled formulations like Napalm and solid formulations based on pyrophoric metals)-used against fuel and ammunition dumps etc. 

Heat (a) Incendiary devices (Flame thrower fuels, Napalm bombs) (b) Igniters (a) For setting fire to combustible targets. (b) For producing intense heat for ignition of subsequent train of formulations and propellants. 

Fire has always been a difficult weapon to handle. One of the oldest uses of fire mentioned in the literature is the throwing of oil on an enemy and setting it alight The flame thrower is a modern device for streamlining this ancient practice. The systematic research and development work on incendiaries started during World War I. Subsequently, the most notable development is that of Napalm and Napalm -based incendiaries which proved to be extremely fatal during World War II, the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf wars. 

With the advent of World War II Fieser was obliged to suspend all previous research and teaching to work on problems for the National Defense Research Committee. Thus for three and one-half years he was involved with the development of new incendiaries (e.g., Napalm), antimalarials, and syntheses of cortisone. He became especially interested in the antimalarial program, which included a large number of collaborators, and which yielded some extremely potent new substances in the naphthoquinone series. 

AN-M-69 Bomb. An incendiary bomb, weighing 6.2 lb used in WW II. It was filled with either Napalm Filling (Napalm 9, gasoline 91%) or IM Filling [isoburylmetacrylate polymer 5.0, fatty acids (such as stearic) 2.5, naphthenic acid 2.5, aq 40% NaOH soln 3-0 gasoline 87%]... 

For example, there are records of the use of mixtures of pitch and/or naphtha with sulfur as a weapon of war during the Battle of Palatea, Greece, in the year 429 BC (Forbes, 1959). There are references to the use of a liquid material, naft (presumably the volatile fraction of petroleum which we now call naphtha and which is used as a solvent or as a precursor to gasoline), as an incendiary material during various battles of the pre-Christian era (James and Thorpe, 1994). This is the so-called Greek fire, a precursor and chemical cousin to napalm. 

Napalm a thickened gasoline used as an incendiary medium that adheres to the surface it strikes. 

At the time of the outbreak of the Second World War the aid of Professor Louis Fieser of Harvard University, a distinguished organic chemist, was enlisted. The Japanese invasion of the East Indies had cut off supplies of rubber which was crucial to the thickener for napalm. The research programme that followed, conducted at Harvard University, saw the first successful napalm detonations on the games field behind the football stadium - an excellent example of applied weapons research in the universities.55 The new napalm gel proved far superior to the original rubber-based gel, and napalm was used extensively by the United States in incendiary raids on Japan in the Second World War.56 Napalm was also used in Korea where it was called the United States best all round weapon 57 and, of course, it was used extensively in Vietnam. SSg-E6 Tom M. Jackson (Vietnam, 12 September 1970 to 12 September 1971) described watching napalm set off from only 50 yards away ... 

The lunch bag incendiary is similar in size and effect to the pocket incendiary used by the Office of Strategic Services OSS) in World War H It consists of a sandwich-sized slab of soap napalm and an ignition packet scaled in a zip-lock sandwich bag. It fits in a pocket, purse, or pack and is easy to handle. 

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