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Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated aluminium salts of na phthenic acid and palm itic acid . [ 1 ]
The bomblet used napalm as an incendiary filler, improving on earlier designs which used thermite or magnesium fillers that burned more intensely, but were less energy- and weight-efficient, and were easier to extinguish. [4] In Germany they were filled with jellied oil and dropped in clusters of 36 in the non-aerodynamic M19 bomb. [5]
It’s one of the most famous photographs ever taken. In it, a 9-year-old girl runs down a road in South Vietnam, naked, her skin burning from a napalm attack as she shrieks in agony.
German village during tests of the M69 incendiary. German Village was the nickname for a range of mock houses constructed in 1943 by the U.S. Army in the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, roughly 85 miles (137 km) southwest of Salt Lake City, in order to conduct experiments used for the bombing of Nazi Germany.
The most successful bomb to come out of the May–September 1943 tests against the mock-up Japanese homes was the napalm-filled M-69 Incendiary cluster bomb. Contenders had been the M-47 (containing coconut oil, rubber, and gasoline) and the M-50 (a blend of magnesium and powdered aluminum and iron oxide).
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These weapons were dropped from B-29s in clusters, and used napalm as their incendiary filler. After the bomb struck the ground, a fuse ignited a charge which first sprayed napalm from the weapon, and then ignited it. [22] Prior to March 1945, stockpiles of incendiary bombs were built up in the Mariana Islands.
Reportedly about 388,000 tons of US napalm bombs were dropped in the region between 1963 and 1973, compared to 32,357 tons used over three years in the Korean War, and 16,500 tons dropped on Japan in 1945. [17] [18] Incendiary bombs used in the late 20th century sometimes contained thermite, made from aluminium and ferric oxide. It takes very ...