Incendiary warfare

Incendiary Liquids and Gels. See under Incendiary Warfare and under Flame Thrower Liquids... 

Incendiary warfare accomplishes the purpose of causing fires in enemy territory and burning... 

Incendiary warfare is one of the most ancient methods of conducting war and was used as early as biblical times... 

The history of evolution on incendiary warfare may be divided into three periods ... 

First Period, Before the Introduction of the Gun In this period of incendiary warfare, incendiaries were thrown first by hand and later by special machines, called catapults and ballistae. 

Bows and arrows were also used for throwing incendiary missiles. The earliest account of incendiary warfare may be found in the Bible, where mention is made of burning oil and ignited fireballs, consisting of resin and straw, that were thrown by both defenders and attackers of fortified towns. The Bible also mentions (Judges 15, 3-5) that Samson used foxes with firebrands attached to their tails to burn cornfields of the Philistines... 

The idea of propelling incendiaries by means of a composition containing saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur is presumed to have been discovered by the Chinese. The introduction of substances, resembling the present Black Powder as rocket propellants and incendiaries, was a great improvement in incendiary warfare and for a while these weapons were of prime importance... 

After that war, the Germans decided to improve the compositions and weapons used in incendiary warfare and especially to construct an incendiary projectile suitable for shooting from rifled, high-muzzle-velocity guns, invented in the 1860 s. After many trials, they succeeded in developing several types of incendiary shells, some of which were used later in WWI. Other countries followed the German example and also developed incendiary shells... 

IT or IncT. Abbreviation for Incendiary Tracer. See Incendiary Warfare in this Vol... 

Fisher, "Incendiary Warfare , McGraw-Hill, NY (1946), p 112 4) J.F.C. Fuller... 

Fisher, G.J.B. (1946) Incendiary Warfare, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, USA. 

Under the term of "chemical agents are also understood items used for starting fires in enemy installations, houses, ships, or vehicles(see under INCENDIARY WARFARE) as well as substances producing smokes serving for screening movements of troops, ships, trains, or vehicles(See under SMOKES IN WARFARE)... 

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