Troops Landing at Elba, June

Troops Landing at Elba, June 1944. Note HC floating moke pot at left of the LCI s. 

The German Army did not have floating munitions of the American 

Japanese and German forces did not employ floating smoke pots as extensively as American troops did. Early in the war enemy troops advanced and made amphibious landings without serious resistance, so that such aids as floating pots seemed unnecessary to them. Later as they retreated stubbornly and the American forces advanced, it was the Americans who used smoke pots to the best advantage. 

Smoke produced by the combustion of chemical mixtures was not the perfect answer to screening because mixtures were expensive, the smoke nauseated the troops, pots burned out in a short time, and many men were needed to maintain a large screen. On the other hand, it was easy and cheap to produce smoke by burning oil, and in 1941 the CWS stand- 

Mechanical smoke generators came into existence through the co-operative efforts of industry, the National Defense Research Committee, and the CWS. The principle behind the device was simple. It vaporized a mixture of water and oil (the CWS used a special oil commonly referred to as fog oil), and then discharged the mixed vapors into the air. When the hot vapor hit the cool air it condensed back into tiny liquid droplets. 

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