US M2/M2A1 Flamethrower
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- čas přidán 11. 05. 2016
- / forgottenweapons
After a dismal first attempt at designing a flamethrower (the M1) in 1941, the US Chemical Corps along with several universities and industrial partners put in a lot of research to develop a more usable and effective flamethrower. The result was the M2, which went into production in early 1944. It would prove to be an exceptionally effective weapon in the island-hopping campaign towards the end of the war.
The M2 was arguably the best flamethrower fielded by any military during the war, with a number of excellent design features. These included:
* A constant-pressure regulator to ensure that the range stayed the same from the first to the last shot of a tank of fuel
* An on/off main valve easily accessible to the operator
* A supremely waterproof and reliable pyrotechnic cartridge ignition system
* An auto-shutoff valve which sealed at the nozzle, preventing dribble (and cutting off fuel flow should the operator lose control of the weapon)
The M2 would see service into the Vietnam War even as its successor the M9 was being issued. It was a truly outstanding design, and remains viable to this day.
Thanks to Charlie Hobson for showing us the unit and teaching me to fire it, and also thanks to Adaptive Firearms for letting us use their range facilities!
You can find Charlie Hobson's book, "US Portable Flamethrowers" here:
amzn.to/1SP9yc5
I sure am glad they painted it camouflage green. Wouldn't want to alert the enemies when shooting this thing.
Lol, George Carlin reference?
That's so a sniper can't easily pop your tank and turn you into a giant napalm bomb
He didn't show the suppressed model!
right?
Where do you mount the bayonet?
In the last 40 minutes I have learned how to arm and operate an RPG-7, an M9A1 Bazooka, and an M2 Flamethrower.
your officialy more trained than a standered infantry grunt
Don’t do anything stupid though… 😂😬
Just to check, are you a very dissatisfied citizen as well?
based
@@Noukz37 not today, fed! J/k... Sort of.
"Why would you need a flamethrower?" Well I don't need a Lamborghini either, but I still want one.
Xenomorphs, obviously.
Clearing Weeds and wild brush.
Well, if you don't have a lighter on you, just whip out your flamethrower
'Nuff said.
Also these are really good at clearing out weeds and bushes like extremely good easily the best Plus lighting a fire with one's pretty cool
"When you shoot it, you notice it gets hot!" - Ian reviews a flamethrower
Light a man a fire, he is warm for a day. Light a man afire and he is warm for the rest of his life.
So funny
about 30 seconds
That was a pretty *hot* statement you made
lightoftheworld1932 or Senior Crispen
Lady, that's gold
"Shooting people with guns is inhumane!"
"Okay, this weapon uses no bullets, try that one then"
Bullets are far more humane than this. But I doubt there’s anyone out there with such a thick skull to think otherwise
@@anthonyjh02 wOOOOOOsh
Blitz 2.0 -
Damn I really did take this at face value. I’m usually better then that.
@@anthonyjh02 🤔
@@anthonyjh02 ok
in WWII my dad was trained in these, probably the M2. When he got to his unit in the South Pacific he found out that the operators had short life spans. Not from the flame thrower but the enemy did not like to get set alight so they would concentrate their fire on any one wearing one of these. So he ditched that and got an M1 Garand. Found that to be rather heavy for jungle fighting. Ditched that for the M1 carbine that he carried the rest of his war. He was wounded after he helped in the recapture of Manila but not from an enemy bullet. Directly. He carried his carbine ammo in a medical pouch on his belt. The bullet hit that and the ammo blew up. Almost blew his ass off. Spent 6 months in the hospital and carried carbine brass in his hip the rest of his life. Occasionally a bit would work it's way out. I think one came out a year or two before he died in 2013.
I wouldn't want to use one of them either
Damn....some bad luck...and that had to mean a lot of lifelong miserable pain...
@@edoedo8686 He farmed all his life. VA called him 100% disabled some time in the 60s. About that time I watched as a guy attacked him with a chain. Wrong move as my dad proceeded to beat the snot out of him. The guy's buddy was in the bed of a farm truck ready to jump on top of dad. Luckily he looked up and saw he was looking down the barrel of my rifle. He did not move as my dad finished his work
Randy Phillips savage
Randy "Savage" Phillips
*The* weapon--more than any other--that earns the name "firearm."
Get out of there,please
even though it technically isn't one!
@@cousinzeke4888 that’s just because they don’t want to classify it as something that is protected by the second amendment so people are taking ownership of these things lol
@@Sc0rch91 You're still legally allowed to own a flamethrower in most states. Farmers use them all the time for controlled burns.
"I didn't ask how big the room was, I said I cast fireball"
Proceeds to roll a 99. :'D
That 20 foot radius(IIRC old basic/ADD ) can really come back and bite you in the butt , in a regular 10 foot high room/tunnel/cave, using actual physics rules , instead of "magic" rules.
I fucking died reading this.
@@saltymcginger2027 you and the rest of the party
More like agonasiers scorcher
Fun fact: These are legal in 48 states.
Have fun.
Huh. Never new that. Grandpa uses his for Gopher's
Screw California, we can't even have real fireworks here legally
Yup Maryland and California are the 2 exceptions
@@igostupidfast3 given California's semi recent history...seems fair tbh
@@dELTA13579111315 Can't really blame Cali. The state's on fire half the time as it is.
If he would have said “nice hiss” when he opened the can, then “let’s get this out on a tray, nice” that would have been the best thing ever.
I actually said "nice hiss" to myself when he opened the can
"Tastes of diesel", takes another bite, "yup, that's definitely diesel", takes another bite etc.
ah, i see you’re a man of culture as well
Oh, this tastes awful......takes another bite.
@@LavishButtocks Me too.
Ian is so mild mannered, seeing him so giddy and excited about something is awesome xD
I suspect a low survival rate for captured operators.
@@MPal24 I watched a hungarian footage about WW1 where one of the guy explained that he became a flamethrower guy, because those ones got extra free days. The reason was that flamethrowers were primary target, and later the fighting parties (hungarian vs italian) agreed not to use it because of it's inhumanity. And yes, if someone got captured normally he was threated well, and the only exceptions were the flamethrower operators. I will try to find the video and provide a full translation.
The video I mentioned starts from here czcams.com/video/OF8W_8GGths/video.html
Hungarian transcript, not 100% but very close...
Csapos, mint a permetezőknek van. Minden katonájuk rohant be a bunkerükbe, nekünk meg az volt a kötelességünk, hogy minden bunkerükbe be kellett spriccelni. Ott pusztultak el. A gyalogság meg jött utánunk és foglalta el a helyet. Két támadásban vettem részt, amely sikerrel járt. Mindig ilyen más jelzéssel kellett felvonulni? Az állandóan rajtunk volt az utász jelvény. Utász jelvény volt. De azt megmondták az első támadásnál hogy úgy számoljunk, hogy nincs fogoly náluk. Ha megtudják hogy lángszóróval vagyunk akkor az egyszerű közkatonájuk is ott a helyszinen agyonlő. Elpusztithat bennünket. Szóval, két támadás sikerrel járt. Igen ám, de nagy lángja, nagy füstje volt a mi munkánknak, és a harmadik támadás, amikor felkészültünk volna, olyan pergőtüzet kaptunk... angol, francia tüzérséget kapott az olasz ellenség akkor. Úgyhogy vagy 10-15-20-an ha megmaradtunk, a többi ott pusztult el. Olyan tüzérségi össztüzet kaptunk hogy meg se tudtuk közelíteni a helyszínt. Evvel vége volt ... de közben jött Svájcból állitólag a parancs hogy nemzetközileg letiltották a lángszórónak az alkalmazását, tehát ez ez megszünt. De miért? Ez nemzetközileg valahogy embertelennek találták, és ezt nem engedélyezték. De miért? A lángszórót, hát élő embereket benzinnel elégettünk.
@@MPal24 It had a tap, like the sprayer. Their soliders ran into their bunker, and we had a duty to spray in every bunker.
They died there. The infantry came after us and occupied the place. I was involved in two attacks that were successful.
Did you always had to wear your badge? Yes, we carried it all the time, it was a pioneer badge/insignia. But they told
us at the first attack that we shall count on that they (the italians) will take no prisoners. If they find out that we are with a flamethrower
even the lowest ranking private will shoot us on spot. He can destroy us. So, we had two successful attacks. Yeah, but our work
came with a big flame and smoke, and at the third attack, when we were preparing we received such a artillery barrage. The italian
enemy received british, and french artillery support. So around 10, 15, 20 of us remained alive, the rest died on the spot.
The barrage was so heavy that we could not even approach the scene. This stopped it... meanwhile the order came from Switzerland
that the use of the flamethrower was banned internationally. so that stopped it (the use of the flamethrower). But why? This
was somehow found inhuman internationally, and was forbidden. The flamethrower? Yes, well, we burned people alive with gasoline...
If someone as my enemy came on the battlefield with that he would be my primary target to shoot. If he was running he would he my primary target. If we was wounded he would be my primary target. If he was begging for his life all the better.
So can you load this thing with water and have the coolest super soaker ever?
Yes, Charlie has actually don exactly that to use with firefighting crews. The high pressure makes it good for use on smoldering stumps, apparently. I have also heard stories about large paintball games... ;)
Forgotten Weapons where did you buy that? please i Need it
Dick Fageroni Charlie is the owner of the actual flamethrower Ian was using/reviewing. He was not referring to the VC or NVA. Also as a side note what would make it racist? Charlie was derived from the NATO phonetic alphabet. VC was shortened from Victor Charlie (VC) to just Charlie or C. And it stuck and was later applied to all communist forces not just the VC.
Yes
Dan Smith yes it’s called a garden hose.
My father was in the 18th combat engineers in the US Marine Corps 2nd Division in WW2. Combat engineers were trained in flamethrowers and demolition. He carried his flamethrower on Tarawa, Saipan, and Tinian. He was in combat at Guadalcanal but that was before we used flamethrowers. He trained as a combat engineer in Wellington NZ before the landing on Tarawa. How he survived 4 battles I do not know. He had nightmares his entire life. Ordinary men did extraordinary things.
interesting
@Alex Luca he told me he always had a rifleman nearby so they could kill the enemy and put them out of their misery. Years ago he just out of no where blurted out “ you don’t know how terrible it was to set human beings on fire. I hated them and they were trying to kill me but they were still human beings”. He was a kind gentle man and great father to me and my brother. I miss him every day
My neighbor was a combat engineer and I interviewed him for an assignment I had in elementary school. He was in at least as many battles, including Iwo Jima and Okinawa. It was an uphill battle trying to get him to tell me about his experiences but once he opened up there was no stopping. He told me his first night he was in a 5 man team and by morning he was one of 2 men left alive. He passed away a few years ago, I can only imagine the stories he took to his grave.
@@iUseMyUnderwearToWipe these men were extraordinary yet humble and as my father always said “ I was just doing my job and doing what the Marines taught me to do”. He was wounded on Saipan, he had a hole in his shin for the rest of his life and I have the bullet he picked out of a coconut tree, and he never accepted the Purple Heart awarded to him. I contacted the Marine Corps and they sent me the documents. When I asked why he did not want it he said “ medals don’t matter, the only guys who are hero’s are guy who don’t make it home. A few years before he died I found a 9x12 envelope in a drawer. Inside was a medal and commendation signed by the commander of the Pacific fleet. The commendation explained what he did and why he was awarded this. He never told anyone he had it. Again he said medals aren’t important.
Ordinary men did extraordinary things
And like your neighbor my dads 5 man team was down to 2 men at Tarawa.
Men like that made possible the world we live in today.
People in fortified concrete bunkers could hide inside from bullets. But it's hard to hide from a flamethower. The destructive power is immense.
"And now I've lit the ground on fire, so excuse me one moment."
I'm going to use that line to get out of boring phone calls...
Did that in a public bathroom one time it was a good time.
Me at 2am: i need to sleep.
Also me at 2am: i NEED to know how the M2 flamethrower works.
Love this comment.
I need to stop this 🤪
No lie it’s 2am and I just read this
@@marshwiggle9676 100% true, not fake
Bruh... Legit 02.02am... I'm 12min in the video already 😂😂😂😂 wtf for real
It's a shame the igniters are ignored by most media representations on the M2. It's cool seeing all those sparks fly out before the flame jet erupts and I feel like the limited ignitors could add a nice historical way to add more balance in a multiplayer game other than the typical unrealistically short range they get
The high speed of the initial "shot" of the M2 was probably one of the coolest things I've seen all year
"The first thing you notice about firing this [flamethrower] is the flame."
- Gun Jesus, 2016
"you dona wanna do pfffpfpfpff with flaming napalm"
-Ian 2016
I mean, he's not wrong.
The last time i pfffpffpfppfff'd with napalm I did not have a good time, lemme tell ya.
Ian's parents when he was a kid: "Don't play with matches! It's dangerous!"
Ian as an adult: "This flamethrower is so fun!"😀
I’ve never saw Ian so excited to shoot something that he giggles and his legs start to shake. It actually brings a smile to my face to see someone so excited for something.
I'm actually surprised at how user-friendly that flamethrower is. Plus it's just awesome seeing it in action.
ikr I thought that shit would burn your hands really easily.
It's user-friendly but very very unfriendly to the person on the receiving end
@@TeamFortressFag It's perfect friendly, you're just inviting your enemy over for a BBQ. Might have forgotten to tell him that he was on the menu though...
For that slow mo shot you should of been chomping down on a cigar.
This ^
Brilliant
"Should've" = Should + have
Judson Joist good ol James bond (From Russia with love)
should "have"
Ian is kind of adorable when he is excited. Like a kid in a toy store.
My dad was a flame thrower tech in a chemical weapons unit in the Solomon islands in WW2. My dad said the only thing the M1s were good for were parts and they needed to be checked out pretty close. He could explain the entire sequence of recharging the system like he did it yesterday. He'd get that far away glazed look in his eyes and mime the entire sequence as if the parts were in his hands.
UNCLE OWEN??????? AUNT BERU???????????
Lmao
LOL!
Ouch... that was dark
You can laugh of the little orphan Ani joke now!
:(
In the mid 70's I was a RSO for the flame thrower instruction and range at SOI (0351) for the Marines. That's me in the avatar. Lots of misconceptions about how these were employed. First gasoline was jelled using plain boxed Ivory soap. Mixed in a 55gal barrel and allowed to jell for a short period. This is is a very heavy weapon with only 50' range. It was operated by a two man team. It was not employed against troops in the open but against bunkers or other enclosures. The target was wet down and then fired up. The flames sucked oxygen out of the enclosure and suffocated the enemy. It was this limited nature of its usefulness that ended its deployment. It's not illegal under the rules of war. I had a SNCO at the time who used them in the RVN and found them effective against NVA spider holes but yes you sure did not put the operator on point with this. The team would be called forward for a specific target and return to renew fuel and air pressure. A really fun weapon on the trigger end, a great video
Very cool to hear from someone who's used one
Fired one those in 1965 at Camp Pendleton. I was the safety person that day, which meant that I had to stand behind the guys shooting with a blanket in a bucket of water. I watch 60+ guys shoot that thing before I got to. Learning from watching the other guys I had fun with it.
Civvies don't realize that incendiary weapons are still considered fair game for use against explicit military targets. Flamethrowers, WP, thermobaric bombs, etc. Same goes for land mines.
@@dyveira Lands mines are a bit weirder, because IIRC, you can use them, but you can't legally produce them anymore nowadays
@@neitherman9997 We are technically allowed to use them in the army, but they have to be marked and have to be removed later. Same thing goes for claymore AP mines, but those have to be command-detonated only.
My wife: "Honey there's a huge spider in the garage."
Me: 19:30
Wife:
Me: "Got him."
Can't have a spider in your garage if you don't have a garage. *taps forehead*
One of the many weapons I trained on at Ft Dix, New Jersey in 1962. We 'dry fired' the unit just for feel on how it operated. For the 'dry fire' exercise, the igniter module had been adapted to use kitchen matches in place of the proper igniter. When the trigger was operated it caused the match to ignite and burn just the head of the match producing a small flash and puff of smoke, verifying you had actually operated the mechanism.
"Brother, get the flamer... *THE HEAVY FLAMER.* "
Alfatazer _ we must purge the heretic with the cleansing flames of the God Emperors holy promethium.
*_PURGE THE UNCLEAN!_*
BURN IN HOLY FIRE
WE ARE THE ANGELS OF DEATH!
UNTO THE ANVIL OF WAR
In WW2, it became common practice to have two BAR men to provide suppressive fire for one flamethrower. Tank support was also necessary too.The flamethrower guys became high value targets for enemy gunners and snipers. The flamethrower guy was someone who the had the words "TARGET" on their backs. It is good to remember lots of flamethrower guys became grave registration candidates. Also, the flamethrower guy wasn't taken prisoner by the enemy. These flamethrower guys were usually shot on sight by their captors. Infantry jobs are hard but one of the hardest ones was the flamethrower guy. The flamethrower guy also got to smell the burnt flesh of half cremated enemy soldiers. No one in their right mind wanted to be the flamethrower guy. You just ran the flamethrower because you absolutely were ordered to and had to for your unit's survival.
Most enemy didn't stick around in their holes but fled a flamethrower guy. More fleeing enemy soldiers were shotdown by the accompanying BAR teams and other riflemen than by the flamethrower guy himself.. Satchel charge guys and grenades always went with the flamethrower guy. The enemy target first was given torch medicine. Then grenade and satchel charge guys went forward to give a final cure of medicine. Grenades and satchel charges were placed to finish off the entrenched enemy target. These flamethrower-BAR teams worked closely with satchel charge men and soldiers with grenades. These teams were used to clear put pillboxes, fortified bunkers, caves and trenches. The Marines and U.S. Army troops called these tactics "blow torch and corkscrew" tactics. It was always bloody, costly, slow, difficult work flaming out and blasting the entrenched enemy.
I truly appreciate the fact that you give us the history of the weapon in these videos. You make great content. Thank you!
Thanks for the education on these old weapons. No one has done such a detailed instruction and shown the usage in such an educational manner before. This is a treasure of knowledge which none of us would have been able to get from a book.
Hope, you´ll never need to use it :)
"Gee, I sure would like to set those people on fire over there, but I'm way too far away to get the job done." -George Carlin
"Far away" is a bit relative here when it means- "i'm 40 yards away"
And it wouldn't have gone any farther, except he happened to mention it to his friend who was good with tools.
"You don't wanna doing fppfhpfpfhphf with a flaming napalm" - that got me :D
A very scientific term for sure. Lol
LOL, yeah at 11:55 I started to laugh. I put that in my comment to Ian with my question. Answer: He used liquid (not jellied) fuel.
Gun Jesus is always good to us
A great video. I actually fired one of these during training at Indian Town Gap MR in the summer of 1963. My reaction was the same. It is a really impressive and fearsome weapon. But that also inspires every enemy soldier want to take down the operator of this weapon in real combat.
When he opened the igniter can:
“No hiss”
because it wasnt on a tray ^^
16:11 I've seen too many of Steve's MRE videos... I immediately expected a hiss....
LOL I thought the same thing! If you look for my comment I said nice hiss to pay homage to that brave man
Pull off that key.......and lift that tab.
NICE!
let's get this out on to a flame
@@scooter9537 Now that thing's really doing it's job.
Man, I thought the Exact same thing! LOL
18:50 That laugh is a laugh of a man elated that he's shooting a flamethrower.
He's giddy like a little kid, I know I would be too
None of us would respond any different.
Typical response for a man from Krieg........Ordo Sinister is proud.
Pyro unmasked
First time I've seen Ian giggle like a child when letting loose a weapon lol
A lot of US Military weapons that I see I can think of at least a few changes to the design that would make them better, but with this, I think they nailed it. Pretty amazing that they designed and started producing these so quickly.
Thanks Ian. I actually had already read a Marine Corps manual on how to use a flame thrower but - never actually fired one. My familiarization training didn't include flame throwers. So - it was really interesting to see a video of one in operation rather than just pictures in a manual.
.
"Is there anything you can do about... about that heat?"
"It's a flamethrower, Rick"
"...Yeah, yeah"
DID ANYONE ORDER FRIED SOURKRAUT?
Chilling in a pool some fucking crazy women breaks through your door, what's the #1 solution
Gloves and some type of facedshjield
Texas Patriot r/woooosh
@@albeerawding9847 burning her alive, obviously.
Nobody wanted flamethrower duty, it made you a prime target against the enemy.
I'll do it, but paint the tanks orange
That and...They all heard the stories about the previous operators dying or breaking down completely once they saw the horrors this thing could inflict.
@@MegaRazorback Yeah, I imagine that using this weapon at the close ranges it required not only required a lot of supporting fire to keep the enemy pinned down for you to get close enough to use it, but the screams and wounds this elicited likely gave the operators nightmares in the way few other weapons would. I wonder how many soldiers who used these ended up with horrible PTSD. You'd almost have to be inhuman to use this weapon and not have it quickly get to you no matter how bad your enemy is. Plus, you likely knew that if you were spotted wearing one every opposing solider that saw you was going to be targeting you.
Even worse is that ~90% of the time, it wasn’t the flame that killed you, but rather the fact that it burnt away the oxygen this suffocating the target. That’s like two minutes of hell
@@kentvesser9484 That, and on a battlefield it's statistically unlikely that most of the people who you, an individual soldier, are fighting are guilty of any of the things that your enemies are known for. Most likely they are completely innocent conscripts who were forced into duty without a choice or were volunteers who joined their country's military with no intentions of committing any kind of atrocities that their military might be known for. So basically you might as well be fighting random people, most of the time, on behalf of your government.
Probably my favorite episode you've ever done! Fantastic!
One of the best of a peerless series, thanks Ian
My father was a SeaBee on Tinian and had to clean-out the pill boxes after the Marines had taken the island. The runways he helped build for the B29s to use can still be seen on Google Earth view.
Bet he saw him some crispy critters
Fake and gay
I can't help but think of George Carlin's routine on the flamethrower.
The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."
"Well, it might have ended it right there, but he mentioned it to his friend. His friend, who was good with tools. And about a month later, he was back. "Hey, quite a concept!" *FWOOOOOOOOOOOOSH* "
@wargent99 I bet you're so fun at parties.
@wargent99 Since when did I mention anything about police kneeling on suspects' necks? And why you had to bring this here in the first place? And what are you aiming to achieve? The flamethrower skit was nothing more than... well... a skit. It was not about proving a point. It was to make people laugh.
@wargent99 I wasn't even arguing in the first place. I was just wondering behind your attitude towards a simple comedy skit.
@wargent99 Imagine being such a snowflake sjw that you pick apart minor parts of a comedy routine.
Memories of a hot late summer day at Camp Pendleton in 1963. You did an excellent job. Anyone wanting to have the experience should pick a calm day without gusting winds. It is possible to be a self-immolating target dummy if the wind is too brisk and/or you don\t keep full pressure on the stream.
"I hope you enjoyed the video"
Not nearly as much as you did, I'm sure
"...And now I've lit the ground on fire, so excuse me one moment." xddd
"XD" really makes no sense lowercase.
it's funnier that way
its not normie when its lowercase
That happens before the cool stuff starts
champimuros Dry grass is not easy to light
17:35 that safety latch has no business sounding as cool as it did when you pulled it up
i think that was the strap link rattling against the frame holding the tanks, not the latch itself
2:39 puts it all in perspective, a 0.75 gal/sec rate on a tank that only holds 4.5 gal total, that’s a whole 6 seconds of firing and you’d be dry.
Out of fuel, with a +40 lb tank on your back that has just enough fumes left inside to explode if shot, after just getting done being the most recognizable thing on the battlefield for 6 seconds...no wonder you didn’t last long operating the thing.
You could have dodged the personal danger to yourself from the heat of just firing it, somehow managed to find and hit some enemy emplacements without getting shot, and you’d still have an incredibly flammable tank on your back and essentially nowhere to go until your unit finishes the objective and then pulls back.
I’d seriously consider being a trench rat if they offered me a flamethrower, at least head-first in a tunnel I can hope/pray that anything destined to hit me just kills me quickly when it (most likely) hits me right in the head.
16:05 "let's pull that key, lift that tab.... huh. No hiss."
"And now I've lit the ground on fire, so excuse me for a moment"
*5 minutes later*
I love how this guy's hair and beard make him look like he makes artisanal Birkenstocks out of hemp but he's on CZcams gleefully discussing weapons.
Sir, this is gun jesus.
I agree that its pretty awesome that this has survived this long, and is still in working condition.
man you look so bad ass in that slowmo footage!! great video
Can you imagine being on the receiving end of that flame?
Ouch is a DRASTIC understatement. A friend of my fathers said the guy that used his fighting the Japanese in the Pacific needed counseling when he got home!
I cannot imagine!!!
I expect he would. Dying by flamethrower is perhaps the worst way to go. The body will continue to burn until the fuel is completely gone, which can be for a very long time with gelled fuel.
@@zatchbell622 also consider how many times he was probably called up to burn out a hole of japanese. A flamethrower or a sherman with wp shells were the most effective way of removing entrenched japanese positions.
I don’t think anyone can imagine what it must be like being hit by one of these, unless you’ve actually been hit and survived to tell the tale. The pain you must feel, the agony and panic.... yikes on trikes! Or why not napalm bombs, where your whole surroundings are engulfed in flames instantly. These are some horrifying weapons
@@olisk-jy9rz OP's comment is about people burning alive, as in, getting dozed in flames, not their effectiveness or ranges.
It's almost more merciful to get suffocated from the flames using up all the oxygen first.
On Okinawa, the flame thrower guys were big targets...they had a high casualty rate....one said he was using the flame thrower and heard shots hitting the tanks....fortunately the air tank.
@Steven Jones could have been flanking fire or he turned around to ask a fellow squad member to check the tanks for him due to possible damage already sustained or one other thing falls into the second one i mentioned, could have had low fuel/air and needed an emergency refill (6 seconds is not a lot so in-field refills were not all that uncommon)
Glad you finally did a video on my EDC
What an impressively badass weapon. Simply fantastic!
My Grandfather was a flamethrower operator in Europe during WWII. It was very cool to learn the actual details about the weapon. Thanks once again Ian!
Danke to youn Herr De Wald
i can smell the freedom
I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like...Victory!
The Zone needs a flamethrower
...now all I can think about is Apocalypse Now...great movie.
@@Ignisan_66 Yep, that's what freedom smells like!
i like the smell of napalm in the morning
Her: please dont be weird
Me: 11:50
Also Me: 18:49
@@deadpixelc also: 19:09
Very interesting video on a rarely discussed subject. One thing not mentioned though was the psychological effect on those armed with these things. Granted, they were deployed for those situations where normal firepower was ineffective, such as pill boxes or tunnels. But from what I've read, the operators were often traumatised by the act of setting people on fire, and viewing the aftermath first hand. They were allegedly an unpopular weapon to use for this reason. I don't think I'd like to find out for myself, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Love this guy, such manners "And now I've lit the ground on fire, excuse me one second". Please never stop making videos good sir!
The first time I fired a Flamethrower in Infantry Training I was very surprised how much heat came back in the face of the operator. Any solder who operated one of these on a regular bases must have had a constant sun burn.
This is a very cool review. I don’t even know how I ended up here but I’m glad I did.
the most impressive hand held weapon ive ever seen cheers
Time to werf some flammen.
Zis is a Flammenwerfer it werfs Flammen!
You don't understand german ICH LIEBE WIENER SCHNITZEL !!!
Spaceballs the flamethrower! *Fwooom*
The kids love this stuff.
+Nathan Peterson May the schwartz be with you.
I see your schwartz is as big as mine.
We'll meet again in Spaceballs 2: The Quest for More Money!
BAAARF!!!
yogurt i hate yogurt even with straw berry's
I am surprised about the short amount of time these can be used before refilling. Very interesting about the ignition system.
This is probably the coolest thing he’s covered on this channel.
Never seen Ian so giddy :P
I would think it a rare treat to break the seals on those '67 igniters.
Would love to see the lighting this generates at night
very well designed ! Wow ! simple , tough and effective.
My father mentioned that my grandfather didn't like having to listen to the Japanese screaming in their holes when the M2 lit them up.
Now that is a reality for this new generation to chew on.
I think it's very easy for a generation not so exposed to the so-called human element of war to forget about it. Stories like yours are very important and thank you for sharing. :)
At the end of my life, I'm probably going to be cremated, and kept on a mantelpiece. Were you referring to that bronze-age goat-herder afterlife of praising-a-tyrant claptrap?
Ian Macfarlane, I don't know how environmentally friendly it is, but it is at least efficient
@Pacem Terris you don't understand you don't analyze whats the point of view. The Japanese first do violent killing mankind in war . And that is the answer weapon to counter attack . Use your brain sometimes👷
Earplugs
Very cool stuff thank you.
Horrifying but extremely cool.
(There are practical uses for flamethrowers outside of combat, Roasting alien lifeforms is just one example)
I bet it works good on huge anthills too..
Of course they do...haven't you seen the sci-fi classic movie 'Them', 1954?!!! Giant ant killin' mofos!
Roasting a rats hideout too
PoppaBlue59 Kent Or when the thing appears agsin
BirdyLegs It's most notable use is to roast weebs
Totally amazing. Thank you for the video
Ian's face is priceless, he's so excited
In 1970 in the South African Infantry we still trained with the British ackpack flamethrower, or at least a development of it. What was great about this one was that you could fire "dry" shots -- just fuel, no fire -- to soak your target before sending a jet of flame to ignite the whole shebang. It was super fun!
I've seen a lot of your vids bur you have NEVER been that excited! haha
Love your videos, keep 'em coming!
spidermann5000 i was gonna say the same thing
Very cool video. In the Warsaw Uprising quite a few units were designed and knocked together by insurgents - see the K pattern flamethrower. Impressive considering they were built in conspiratorial conditions with whatever was lying around.
1974 I was sent to a 1 week school to be qualified on the M2 there was 4 of them in the Arms Room .
When I was young and silly, I got to fire one of these (with a whole lot less instruction or info than was given by Ian). I remember the heat but the overwhelming memory is the weight and cumbersomeness of the setup, and the backpressure that nearly puts you on your arse (and would if you won't braced for it).
This weapon was hated by friend and foe alike. The firer was walking around with an uncomfortable cumbersome bomb on his back. The firer was a standout and loathed target for every in range enemy combatant. And friendly infantry didn't want to be near the incoming shit and attention that the weapon draw.
U.S Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes
dwoodman26 1 roast sausage
2:hungarian goolash
3. Sushi but fried
4.smoked soviet
5.vietnamese street food
6. This is a risky one, french fries
7.im out of jokes
+1 big guns
Hellfire troopers
Why do I suddenly hear American patriotic music?
🤣😂🤣 thank you for this comment lmao. 🤣😂
Your goofy laugh when you´re really having fun with something is so adorable dude :)
REALLY cool! thanks for the video
Didn't light a cigar: 0/10
They talked about that in the Q&A session. It probably isn't to healthy to light something you're putting in your body that ignites with a bunch of chemicals.
+Salokin Sekwah Spoils the taste. :-D
+Jmike3543 Well, tobacco isn't particularly good for your body to begin with..
you would need a big ass cigar for this puppy ahaha a regular sized cigar would be obliterated as soon as it got close enough to light....
they do realise what smoking entails?...
It was a pleasure to burn.
It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history. With his symbolic helmet numbered 451 on his stolid head, and his eyes all orange flame with the thought of what came next, he flicked the igniter and the house jumped up in a gorging fire that burned the evening sky red and yellow and black. He strode in a swarm of fireflies. He wanted above all, like the old joke, to shove a marshmallow on a stick in the furnace, while the flapping pigeon-winged books died on the porch and lawn of the house. While the books went up in sparkling whirls and blew away on a wind turned dark with burning.
Is that Fahrenheit 451?
@@LS-sp5hr Yes
San Sone good book
@@falloutman3424 thanks, an appropriate novel to this man
Wow, great quote and great book. 😁👍🏻
After a dismal first attempt at designing a flamethrower (the M1) in 1941, the US Chemical Corps along with several universities and industrial partners put in a lot of research to develop a more usable and effective flamethrower. The result was the M2, which went into production in early 1944. It would prove to be an exceptionally effective weapon in the island-hopping campaign towards the end of the war.
The M2 was arguably the best flamethrower fielded by any military during the war, with a number of excellent design features. These included:
* A constant-pressure regulator to ensure that the range stayed the same from the first to the last shot of a tank of fuel
* An on/off main valve easily accessible to the operator
* A supremely waterproof and reliable pyrotechnic cartridge ignition system
* An auto-shutoff valve which sealed at the nozzle, preventing dribble (and cutting off fuel flow should the operator lose control of the weapon)
The M2 would see service into the Vietnam War even as its successor the M9 was being issued. It was a truly outstanding design, and remains viable to this day.
Thanks to Charlie Hobson for showing us the unit and teaching me to fire it, and also thanks to Adaptive Firearms for letting us use their range facilities!
I've watched a lot of these videos and i don't think i've ever seen Ian so giddy over a weapon lol
It's funny, every time i power wash something i can't help but think of a flame thrower
You know I think I like calling it a Firearm , better than flamethower
its not a fire arm though : )
@@MrSimondaniel3 he uses his arms to pick it up and it fires,it's a firearm.
@@SW-ii5gg ''A firearm is a portable gun that inflicts damage on targets by launching one or more projectiles'' i dont think fire counts as projectile
It really is a fire arm
@@WickdPerfekT Proof?
When he opened that can, was waiting for steve1989 to come out and say "let's get this out on to a tray.... NICE!"
zelashi zzz nice hiss
Hi, Ian. Now I understand pyromania a little better. Since gasoline floats on water, I guess this would work in a swamp. I would want to replace the flare with a modern high voltage starter though. Thanks for sharing! Stay healthy!
Πολυ καλο και ευχρηστο εργαλειο αδερφε στα οπλα!!!!!!!!