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Chemical Warfare Service: Flame Tank Group Seabees

The 117th Naval Construction Battalion insignia of the Seabees with the Flame Tank Group.[1]
Cross section through a CB-H1 flame thrower[2]
Marines use a "Satan" to incinerate a Japanese pillbox on Saipan.
The CWS-POA-H1-H2 Shermans used on Iwo Jima had a flame throwing range of 150 yards[3]
Night demonstration at Schofield Barracks 3 weeks prior to Iwo Jima.
The Seabees' training model of a coaxial H1a-H5a flamethrower shown by Col Unmacht's staff to visitors would not see combat until Korea

Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, the United States had no mechanized flamethrowing capability. It is believed that an officer in the U.S. Army's 754th Tank Battalion came up with the idea of mounting a flame thrower on a M3 Light tank on the island of New Caledonia.[4] The Army used the idea on New Georgia and the Marines during the Battle of Bougainville, after which further development passed to the Army Chemical Warfare Service at Schofield Barracks, Territory of Hawaii. There the Army reached out to the United States Naval Construction Force for assistance. The Seabees accepted the offer and converted or modified nearly 400 tanks for the Army. These weapons set the standard for the U.S. through the Korean War. It was not until 1955 that a superior flame throwing tank replaced the Shermans the Seabees created.

  1. ^ 117th Naval Construction Battalion Cruisebook, NHHC, Seabee Museum website, Port Hueneme CA, Jan. 2020, p. 22,23 [1]
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference NEWTANKS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ LVT4 Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Unarmored (Mark IV), John Pike, GlobalSecurity.Org, July 2011, paragraph 5[LVT4 Landing Vehicle, Tracked, Unarmored (Mark IV)]
  4. ^ Hellfire on the Hornet's Nest: Flamethrower Tanks at Bougainville, Steve Zaloga, Warfare History Network, April 2013 [2]
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