Signo

z original weapon was lost. One of its original names was actually "Roman fire," since the Arabs, Russians, and Bulgars against whom it was used saw the Byzantines as Roman rather than Greek.
Flameand incendiary weapons dominated the battlefield for many centuries until the introduction of gunpowder in the fifteenth century. A form of Greek fire was employed by General Patrick Gilmore duringthe American Civil War. When the American Civil War started in 1861, the use of Greek fire was threatened but, in fact, never used. Flame and incendiary weapons have been used in virtually every warsince that time.
The Germans first employed flamethrowers during World War I against the French at Malencourt, and by 1916, Britain and France had fielded flamethrowers as well. Prior to thearmistice and during the inter-war period, the U.S. remained aloof from chemical weapons development. Not until 1940, after the Germans employed flamethrowers in Poland, Belgium, and France, did theSecretary of War direct the development of flamethrowers for the US military.
Following the flamethrower's debut on Guadalcanal in 1943, the Marine Corps found the effectiveness of spewing streams of fireinto well-fortified enemy positions so great that the number of flamethrowers authorized for a division grew from 24 in 1943 to 243 in 1944. On Iwo Jima, Marine flamethrowers served in demolitionteams. Tactically, when combating a Japanese stronghold, a Marine "pin-up" team consisting of a bazooka, 2 automatic riflemen, and an M-1 rifle would direct heavy fire against a target. Once a base offire was laid, the demolition was laid, the demolition teams were sent in. One team was armed with various explosives or bangalore torpedoes; the other team had 2 flamethrowers, which in turn wasprotected by two riflemen. The infantry tactic became known as the "corkscrew and blowtorch" method. However, the assignment as a flamethrower operator was understandably not popular and many suffered...