Smoke tanks

For air delivery, the CWS standardized the first good airplane smoke tank, the MIO, in 1933. This tank held 30 gal of mustard (320 lb), Lewisite (470 lb), or smoke material. The system was rather simple. Electrically fired blasting caps shattered frangible seals in the air inlet and the discharge line, which allowed air and gravity to force the liquid out. The slipstream of the plane then broke up the liquid into a spray.74 Biological Warfare Developments... 

Loading Liquid Smoke Into an MlO Smoke Tank for Aircraft, New Guinea. 

In mid-1940 the only smoke-producing munitions available to the U.S. Army were smoke shells, pots, grenades, and airplane smoke tanks. These munitions were satisfactory for establishing transitory curtains and could be used to a limited extent for blanketing enemy positions, but they were unsuitable for maintaining smoke screens over wide areas of friendly terrain because of the limited amount of smoke they produced and because artillery and mortar shells could not be impacted... 

The smoke phase of the operation, while generally successful, revealed the expected inadequacies in procedure which accompany any such pioneering effort. Each of the seven A-ao s carried four Mio smoke tanks, a versatile munition which served also as a spray tank for toxic agents. Slung under the wings of aircraft, the Mio tank... 

Early devices injected liquid smoke agents into the exhaust of the plane. These soon gave way to simple spray tanks that emptied their contents directly into the air. The development of smoke tanks then received impetus from the fact that they could also be used to spray liquid toxic agents, such as mustard, on enemy troops. In other words, the Army could employ them on defensive missions to drop air curtains, or on offensive missions to drop toxic chemicals. In World War II the Army and Navy employed tanks only for the former purpose, but they were on hand in case gas warfare broke out. 

F. R. Weaver, The Development of a Screening Smoke Generator for Type F-5 Sea Planes. EACD 268, 27 Mar 23. (2) Harry O. Huss, "Airplane Spray Apparatus The Evolution of the Ram Gravity-Type Smoke Tank, Armed Forces Chemical Journal, III (April 1950), 10-15, 32-33. 

Lockheed A-29 Spraving Smoke From M33 Smoke Tanks visibk under wings of craft. Smoke tank protruding from bomb bay is the M33 A-1. 

While the CWS was readying a smoke tank for the Army, the Navy,... 

CWTC Item 13, Tanks, Airplane Chemical Spray, Approval of Military Characteristics, 3 Aug 37. (2) TB 3-255A-1, Airplane Smoke Tank MlO, 8 Nov 44. (3) Capt H. E. Lott and Harry O. Huss, FS Smoke CurtainsTrom Airplane Spray Tanks MlO and M33. TDMR 805, 7 Mar 44. (4) Crawford, Cook, and Whiting, Statistics, "Procurement," p. 24. 

CW TB 13-1-3, Airplane Smoke Tanks, M20 and M21, 18 Jul 42. (2) CWTC Item 503, Standardization of Airplane Smoke Tank, M20A1 and M21A1, 2 Jun 42. (3) Crawford, Cook, and Whiting, Statistics, "Procurement, p. 24. (4) CWTC Item 1129, Obsoletion of Tanks, Airplane, Smoke, M20, M20A1, M21, M21A1, and Related Handling Equipment, 31 Aug 44. 

Airplane spray tanks were not as widely or as frequently employed as smoke pots, grenades, mechanical generators, and other ground smoke munitions. In amphibious landings, paratroop drops, and situations where a wall of protective smoke had to be erected quickly between American and enemy forces, smoke tanks nonetheless proved to be valuable, efficient devices. 

The CWS procured all airplane smoke tanks through its Chicago district. By far the greatest number—over ninety-two thousand—was of the... 

Crates were used for packing a few comparatively bulky CWS items, such as smoke tanks and smoke generators. These had to be specially designed in each case, with particular care to make sure that hard surfaced points on the item or the bracing were not so placed as to abrade the waterproof paper liner. Corrosion prevention for hardware was accomplished by cleaning all ferrous surfaces and coating them with grease or oil. 

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