Shells, incendiary German

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... 

The first satisfactory incendiary shells suitable for firing from modern high-muzzle-velocity, breach-loading, rifled cannon were developed by the Germans before WWl... 

A more complicated tracer-incendiary shell was used by the British and Germans. In this shell (usually 75mm), the flash from the time fuse was transmitted through a tube (located in the center of the cylinder and extending from the top, near the fuse, almost to the bottom of the shell) to the primer. The primer ignited the incendiary composition, containing Mg, Ba(N03 )2, and binder with or without Sr(N03)2, and blew out the base of the shell. This resulted in emission of flame from the base of the shell, lasting about 15 seconds... 

The largest incendiary shell used during WWI was the German 17.5cm Minenwerferdescribed in detail in Ref 4, p 716... 

A 7.7cm shell developed by the Germans for use against aircraft scattered steel slugs and flaming incendiary units on bursting, called flaming onions by allied aviators... 

Other German Incendiary Shells. German munitions also included incendiary core fragmentation shells. These incorporated a central flash tube which ignited the incendiary filling of each fragment prior to detonation. The shell... 

Many types of incendiary bombs were developed during WWII of which perhaps one of the most effective was the "Elektron Bora fee" (electron bomb), invented by the Germans. It was made in sizes from 1 to 25kg. The most common, 1-kg bomb, is represented here. It consisted of a thick-walled Mg-Al alloy shell ca 9 in length and,2 in diam, weighing ca 0.8kg and was filled with a small amt of thermite mixt. Unlike the thermite-type incendiary... 

F.G. Haverlak, Examination of Unfired Explosive-Incendiary Shell Complete Rounds of German 20MM Solothum Ammunition (FMAM-518) , PATR 1478 (1944)... 

Sodium was used as a filling for the German 17.5-cm. incendiaiy shell. In that shell, which was the largest incendiary shell used during the war, the sodium was ignited by thermite. Sodium w as also used in some of the spontaneously inflammable liquids of the World Warto ignite the mixturt on contact with water. Except for this latter use, sodium was not aa effective incendiaiy material, as it required considerable moisture to... 

If we can judge by the variety of incendiary shells in the German and Japanese armies, both these nations placed a higher value on them. The Japanese army had incendiary 75-mm. artillery and 90-mm. mortar shells Oled with white phosphorus, carbon disulfide, and rubber pellets. This mixture was the same as the one used in Japanese incendiary bombs. The Navy employed a 12-cm. antiaircraft shell loaded with steel pellets filled with white phosphorus. When this shell exploded the pellets streaked through the air and caught fire. ... 

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