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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]
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 Mark 77 bomb (MK-77) is a United States 750-pound (340 kg) air-dropped incendiary bomb carrying 110 U.S. gallons (416 L; 92 imp gal) of a fuel gel mix which is the direct successor to napalm. The MK-77 is the primary incendiary weapon currently in use by the United States military. Instead of the gasoline, polystyrene, and benzene mixture ...
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 ...
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).
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.
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.
Incendiary improvised devices were also proven by the republican paramilitaries, such as an IRA grenade attack on a British Army patrol on 4 April 1993 in Carrickmore, County Tyrone; the device consisted of 0.9 kg (2 lb) of semtex and 22.5 litres (4.9 imp gal; 5.9 US gal) of petrol; the bomb exploded, but the fuel failed to ignite. A soldier ...