Provisional Flame Thrower Tank Battalion

Army about 1 November. The weapon used compressed carbon dioxide gas to propel the fuel, had a fuel capacity of 290 gallons, a range of 40 yards with oily fuel and 60 to 80 yards with thickened fuel. Eight tanks were sent to the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, for the Iwo Jima operation and 54 were supplied to the 713th Provisional Flame Thrower Tank Battalion for the Ryukyus operation. 

Okinawa was the last battle of the war and one of the hardest. Conducted by Tenth Army on the very doorstep of Japan, it was to involve more CWS equipment than any other Pacific campaign. Each of the four Army divisions of XXIV Corps had 141 portable flame throwers each of the three Marine divisions of III Amphibious Corps had 243, the same number as had been taken to Iwo Jima. The 713 th Tank Battalion, converted to a provisional flame thrower unit for the operation, received a complement of 34 POA main armament flame throwers. ... 

Each of the four Army tank battalions had eighteen periscope flame throwers each Marine tank battalion carried sixteen E4R2-jRi s. Tenth Army Action Rpt, Ryukyus, 26 Mar-30 June 4J, p. 4< 713th Tank Bn Armored Flame Thrower (Provisional) AAR ch. IX, in McKinney, Mechanized Flame Thrower Opns, app. 6, p. 374. 

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