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napalm

Napalm is flammable liquid used in warfare. It is a mixture of a gelling agent and petroleum or a similar fuel. It was initially used as an incendiary deviceagainst buildings and later primarily as an anti-personnel weapon, as it sticks to skin and causes severe burns when on fire. Napalm was developed in 1942 in a secret laboratory at Harvard University by a team led by chemist Louis Fieser.[1] Its first recorded use was in the European theatre of warduring World War II. It was used extensively by the United States in incendiary attacks on Japanese cities in the Pacific War as well as during theVietnam War.

"Napalm" is a combination of the names of two of the constituents of the thickening/gelling agent: co-precipitated aluminium salts of **na**phthenic and**palm**itic acids. [2] "Napalm B" is the more modern version of napalm and, although distinctly different in its chemical composition, is often referred to simply as "napalm".[3]

Contents

Forms

Napalm was used in flamethrowers, bombs and tanks in World War II. It is believed to have been formulated to burn at a specific rate and to adhere to surfaces to increase its stopping power. During combustion, napalm rapidly deoxygenates the available air and generates large amounts of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Napalm bombs were used during the Vietnam War.[3]

Napalm was also used during the Korean War, most notably during the defense of "Outpost Harry" in South Korea during the night of June 10–11, 1953.[citation needed]

Alternative compositions exist for different uses, e.g. triethylaluminium, a pyrophoric compound that aids ignition.

Development

Use of fire in warfare has a long history. Greek fire, also described as "sticky fire" (πῦρ κολλητικόν, pýr kolletikón), is believed to have had a petroleum base. The development of napalm was precipitated by the use of jellied gasoline mixtures by the Allied forces during World War II.[3] The supply of latex that had been used in these early forms of incendiary devices became scarce in the Pacific Theater of Operations, since natural rubber was almost impossible to obtain after the Japanese army captured the rubber plantations in Malaya, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

This shortage of natural rubber prompted chemists at US companies such as Du Pont and Standard Oil, and researchers at Harvard University, to develop factory-made alternatives - artificial rubber for all uses, including vehicle tires, tank tracks, gaskets, hoses, medical supplies and rain clothing. A team of chemists led by Louis Fieser at Harvard University was the first to develop synthetic napalm, during 1942.[4]

 "The production of napalm was first entrusted to Nuodex Products, and by the middle of April 1942 they had developed a brown, dry powder that was not sticky by itself, but when mixed with gasoline turned into an extremely sticky and flammable substance." One of Fieser's colleagues suggested adding phosphorus to the mix which increased the "ability to penetrate deeply...into the musculature, where it would continue to burn day after day."[5]

On 4 July 1942, the first test occurred on the football field near the Harvard Business School.[5] Tests under operational conditions were carried out at Jefferson Proving Ground on condemned farm buildings, and subsequently at Dugway Proving Ground on buildings designed and constructed to represent those to be found in German and Japanese towns.[6][7] This new mixture of chemicals was widely used in the Second World War in incendiary bombs and in flamethrowers.

From 1965 to 1969, the Dow Chemical Company manufactured napalm B for the American armed forces. After news reports of napalm B's deadly and disfiguring effects were published, Dow Chemical experienced boycotts of its products, and its recruiters for new chemists, chemical engineers, etc., graduating from college were subject to campus boycotts. The management of the company decided that its "first obligation was the government." Meanwhile, napalm B became a symbol for the Vietnam War.[8]

Military use

The French Aviation navale drops napalm over Viet Minh guerrilla positions during an ambush (December 1953).

Napalm was first employed in incendiary bombs and went on to be used as fuel for flamethrowers.[9]

The first recorded strategic use of napalm incendiary bombs occurred in an attack by the US Army Air Force on Berlin on 6 March 1944, using American AN-M76 incendiary bombs with PT-1 (Pyrogel) filler.[10][11] The first known tactical operation was by De Havilland D.H.98 Mosquito FB Mk.VIsof No. 140 Wing RAF, Second Tactical Air Force on 14 July 1944, which also employed the AN-M76 incendiary in a reprisal attack on the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division „Götz von Berlichingen“ in Bonneuil-Matours.

Soldiers of this Waffen SS unit had captured and then killed a British SASprisoner-of-war, Lt. Tomos Stephens, taking part in Operation Bulbasket, and seven local Resistance fighters. Although it was not known at the time of the air strike, 31 other POWs from the same SAS unit, and an American airman who had joined up with the SAS unit, had also been executed.[12]

Further use of napalm by American forces occurred in the Pacific Theater of Operations, where in 1944 and 1945, napalm was used as a tactical weapon against Japanese bunkers, pillboxes, tunnels, and other fortifications, especially on Saipan, Iwo Jima, the Philippines, and Okinawa, where deeply dug-in Japanese troops refused to surrender. Napalm bombs were dropped by aviators of the U.S. Navy, the United States Army Air Forces, and the U.S. Marine Corps in support of their ground troops.[13]

Then, when the U.S. Army Air Forces on the Marianas Islands ran out of conventional thermite incendiary bombs for their B-29 Superfortresses to drop on Japanese cities, its top commanders, such as General Curtis LeMay, turned to napalm bombs to continue fire raids on the large Japanese cities.[14]

In the European Theater of Operations napalm was used by American forces[15] in the siege of La Rochelle in April 1945 against German soldiers (and inadvertently French civilians in Royan) - about two weeks before the end of the war.[16]

Napalm B was also used during the Greek Civil War between the Greek Army and Communist rebels. During 1949, the last year of the war, the United States increased its military aid to theGreek Government by introducing a new weapon to finish off the war: napalm B. The first napalm attack in Greece took place on the mountain of Grammos, which was the stronghold of the Communist rebels....

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