NEW FLAME-THROWERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25625, 28 August 1944, Page 6

NEW FLAME-THROWERS

DEVASTATING WEAPONS MOST POWERFUL IN WORLD LONDON, Aug. 25. Britain’s devastating new flamethrowers—the most powerful in the world—make last war’s flame-throwers look like toy pistols, says the Press Association’s correspondent after watching a demonstration at an English experimental station. The new weapons include the “ Lifebuoy,” a man-carried weapon with a flame range of .50 yards; the “ Wasp,” a light armoured vehicle; and the “ Crocodile," which is fitted to heavy tanks, each with a flame range of 150 yards. A special new type of fuel e'nables the flame guns to Are around corners. “We stood at the edge of a field,” said the correspondent “ Suddenly over a brown hill Wasps appeared, and the field became a mass of flames. Hell was let loose as the carriers bore down, belching out tons of burning oil. The place was alive with fire and the fumes of billowing smoke. We recoiled from the heat as the carriers flashed past. They left behind a smoking ruin pf pillboxes and charred tanks.” The demonstration was watched by Mr Geoffrey Lloyd, parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Fuel, who, it is now revealed, has been for four •years at the head of the secret petroleum warfare department.