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The first use of napalm in combat was in August 1943 during the Allied invasion of Sicily, when American troops, using napalm-fueled flamethrowers, burned down a wheat field where German forces were believed to be hiding. [10] Napalm incendiary bombs were first used the following year, although the exact date and battle are disputed. [a]
The MK-77 is the primary incendiary weapon currently in use by the United States military. Instead of the gasoline, polystyrene, and benzene mixture used in napalm bombs, the MK-77 uses kerosene-based fuel with a lower concentration of benzene. The Pentagon has claimed that the MK-77 has less impact on the environment than napalm.
Thickened triethylaluminium, a napalm-like substance that ignites in contact with air, is known as thickened pyrophoric agent, or TPA. Napalm proper is no longer used by the United States, although the kerosene-fuelled Mark 77 MOD 5 firebomb is currently in use. The United States has confirmed the use of Mark 77s in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
The first such raid was against Kobe on 4 February 1945. Tokyo was hit by incendiaries on 25 February 1945 when 174 B-29s flew a high altitude raid during daylight hours and destroyed around 643 acres (260 ha) (2.6 km 2 ) of the snow-covered city, using 453.7 tons of mostly incendiaries with some fragmentation bombs. [ 14 ]
Greek fire was used to great effect against the Muslim fleets, helping to repel the Muslims at the first and second Arab sieges of the city. [19] Records of its use in later naval battles against the Saracens are more sporadic, but it secured victories during the Byzantine expansion in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. [20]
The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans Under the Command of Titus, A.D. 70, by David Roberts (1850), shows the city burning. Early thermal weapons, which used heat or burning action to destroy or damage enemy personnel, fortifications or territories, were employed in warfare during the classical and medieval periods (approximately the 8th century BC until the mid-16th century AD).
An American aircraft drops napalm on Viet Cong positions in 1965. A German World War II incendiary bomb remnant. Firebombing is a bombing technique designed to damage a target, generally an urban area, through the use of fire, caused by incendiary devices, rather than from the blast effect of large bombs. In popular usage, any act in which an ...
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]