John W. Mountcastle - Flame On: U.S. Incendiary Weapons, 1918-1945

Special Aids to Research

Those interested in the development and employment of incendiary weapons during World War II may wish to begin their inquiry by looking at generally available sources of information on the subject. There is, unfortunately, no single good bibliography that deals exclusively with flame weapons utilized by the United States armed forces. Lacking such a guide, the researcher must depend upon published works that contain well-documented footnotes and suitable bibliographical notes. A recommended starting place would be the three-volume history of the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Service during World War II. The books are as follows:

Brophy, Leo P., and George Fisher. The Chemical Warfare Service: Organizing for War. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1959.

Deals primarily with the prewar organization of the CWS and the tremendous changes wrought in this small technical branch by the entry of the USA into World War II. Little information about flame weapons per se, but valuable for the picture it presents of organizational problems of the CWS.

Brophy, Leo P., Wyndham D. Miles, and Rexmond C. Cochrane. The Chemical Warfare Service: From Laboratory to Field. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1959.

Research and development of CWS weapons and material provides the focus for this, the second volume. While the testing of flame throwers and incendiary bombs by the CWS and civilian scientists is thoroughly covered, very little is said in explaining why the U.S. Army neglected incendiary weapons prior to 1940.

Kleber, Brooks E., and Dale Birdsell. The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966.

The most important published source in this bibliography. Chapters 1417 deal exclusively with flame throwers and aerial incendiaries in combat, but critical insight into the role of the CWS overseas is provided throughout this very well-written and carefully annotated history. If the researcher has time for only one book on the subject of U.S. incendiary weapons, this is the one he must read.

The official wartime histories of the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Army Air Forces contain a good deal of information about the use of flame weapons by their respective services, but require an index search of each volume. Incendiaries, Flame Throwers, Napalm, and Weapons are the most fruitful index topics. Most major libraries will have these multivolume histories. Look to:

Historical Branch, HQ, USMC. History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II. 5 vols. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1969.

These five volumes recount the operational history of the USMC prior to Pearl Harbor to the period following V-J Day. The enthusiastic response of Marines to incendiaries and numerous accounts of flame weapon employment are chronicled in each volume.

Craven, Wesley F., and James L. Cate, eds. The Army Air Forces in World War II. 5 vols. Office of Air Force History. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1952.

Weapons development, the growth of a body of tactical doctrine based on combat experience, and organizational evolution are as important to this five-volume history as strictly operational matters. Well footnoted and served by a carefully constructed index for each volume.

A nicely organized index may also be found in the official British history of the Royal Air Force during World War II. By investigating the role that incendiaries played in the Allied bomber offensive against Germany, the student may gain an appreciation for the development, employment, and effects of aerial incendiaries. See:

Webster, [Sir] Charles K., and Noble Frankland. The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany, 19391945. 4 vols. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1961.

Good indexes and a text remarkably free of jargon. Volume 4, Appendices, has a number of documents of German origin that speak to the effectiveness of area bombing in general, and to incendiary bombs in particular.

Several other sources of information that may be found in the well-stocked library will shed some light on the past history of fire in warfare and upon the modern concerns being expressed over the morality of flame weapons. Suggested are the Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th Edition. Volumes 5 and 29 for good descriptions of Greek Fire; and Partington, J. R. A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder. Cambridge, England: W. Heffer, 1960. See also, Napalm and Incendiary Weapons. Stockholm: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 1972. (Also published by the author, Malvern Lumsden. Incendiary Weapons. Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1975.) The researcher with access to United Nations publications will find a helpful, though incomplete, bibliography dealing with incendiary weapons in Annex 2 of the Report to the Secretary General: Napalm and Other Incendiary Weapons and All Aspects of their Use. New York: U.N., 1973.

For those able to travel in pursuit of information on this topic, the archival collections listed in Section 2 of this bibliography (Primary Sources) will prove indispensable to a full appreciation of the difficulties encountered by the American military forces in fielding effective flame weapons. Among the many archival collections examined during the preparation of this book, two stood out as being absolutely essential to the study. These two collections deserve special attention here.

Foremost in importance and wealth of material is the voluminous accumulation of correspondence, reports, monographs, and notes compiled by the authors of the three-volume history of the CWS during World War II. Located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, this treasure trove of information was maintained by the Historians Office, Chemical Warfare Center, until 1976. Upon the retirement of the historian, Dr. Sherman Davis, the files were moved to Washington until recently, when they were returned to Aberdeen Proving Ground. Within this mass of paper, two groups of files are most germane to the topic of flame weapons. File No. 314.7 on flame throwers and File No. 228.1 on aerial incendiaries have been painstakingly indexed and sorted and remain virtually undisturbed. Access to the unclassified material which makes up the bulk of the Edgewood Arsenal collection may be obtained through application to the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

Second only to the Aberdeen files in importance is the extensive collection of information concerning aerial incendiaries maintained in the archives of the Albert F. Simpson Historical Center at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. Located in the library of the Air University, the Simpson Center has a wealth of after-action reports, correspondence, test reports, British and German intelligence summaries, and U.S. combat narratives. A trip to the Simpson Center is time well spent, thanks in large part to the team of competent and helpful archivists who are anxious to assist the researcher in any way possible.

Before concluding this section on Special Aids to Research, I must mention the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). As a major component of the Department of Defense (DOD) Scientific and Technical Information Program, DTIC contributes to the management and conduct of defense research by DOD personnel and organizations. Universities involved in federally funded research are also eligible to receive DTIC services. The public can apply for access to DTIC through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS). For further information, contact NTIS at 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Va. 22161.