Infantry Board

The Report of the Engineer Board is quoted in Capt. L. W. Russem, Theodore Loew, and C. T. Mitchell, Development of the Portable Flame Thrower MI, MIAl, and M2-2. TDMR 1069, 19 Jun 45, p. 6. (2) Service Tests of Portable Flame Thrower EB 109. Report of the Engineer Board, Report No. 621, 16 May 41. (3) Report on Service Tests of Portable Flame Thrower ElRl, Repon of the Infantry Board No. 1225, 20 Jun 4l. 

Rpt, Infantry Board, Ft Benning, Ga., Cart Mounted Flame Thrower, 28 Sep 45. 

Assisting the Chief, CWS, were an Advisory Committee of fifteen civilian authorities in chemistry and chemical engineering, a CWS Technical Committee, and a Chemical Warfare Board. The Advisory Committee, which was unofficial in capacity, was set up in the American Chemical Society in 1920. The members of the committee met periodically with CWS scientists and administrators to discuss policies and problems of research and development. The CWS Technical Committee, also set up in 1920, came into existence as the result of a need for co-ordination among interested branches of the armed forces in the development and standardization of chemical warfare items.On the Technical Committee sat representatives of CWS and of the following Field Artillery, Coast Artillery, Infantry, Air Corps, Cavalry, General Staff, National Guard Bureau, and the Assistant Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments. The Chemical Warfare Board was established at Edgewood Arsenal in 1923 to study and co-ordinate technical developments with tactical doctrine and methods. 

The CWS in the meantime had on its hands four obsolete light tanks that it had rigged up with flame throwers for Armored Board tests. The service did not wish to abandon these tanks since they were serviceable as flame weapons. It had the turrets strengthened and shipped the tanks to Manila early in 1945. The Sixth Army attached them to the 27th Division for assault operations on Myoko Mountain, and to the 38th Infantry Division in the Ipo Dam area. They were the only main armament flame throwers produced in continental United States to see combat. ... 

---