US Flamethrower Tanks of World War II
The US Army and Marine Corps experimented with a wide range of flame-thrower tanks through World War II in both the European and Pacific theaters.
Although the US Army deployment of flame-thrower tanks in the ETO was problematic at best, flamethrowers were much more widely used in the Pacific theater and became ubiquitous by 1945, including an entire Army flamethrower tank battalion on Okinawa in 1945, the largest single use of flamethrower tanks in World War II.
This illustrated guide explores initial attempts at the use of auxiliary flamethrowers by both the US Army and Marine Corps in 1943, the standardized adoption of the Satan flamethrower tank by the Marines in 1944, the development of main gun flamethrowers by the Marines and US Army based on the POA-CWS designs, and the myriad other types tested in combat including the powerful LVT-4 design using Navy flamethrowers at Peleliu in 1944.
Alongside specially-commissioned artwork, this in-depth study charts the course of innovation on these tanks, up to the final year of the Pacific war, where Flamethrower tanks became one of the most important solutions in American tactics.
Steven J Zaloga has worked as an analyst in the aerospace industry for over two decades, covering missile systems and the international arms trade, and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federal think tank. He is the author of numerous books on military technology and military history, with an accent on the US Army in World War II as well as Russia and the former Soviet Union.
Richard Chasemore has worked on a huge variety of projects in publishing and advertising, using both traditional and digital media. He has written six educational books on digital art and has spent 10 years working on the best-selling Star Wars Incredible Cross Sections series