JunoReactor Posted March 15, 2001 Share Posted March 15, 2001 Trust it to Germans to take an idea, overengineer it and come up with something that completely defeats the purpose of the original.. from www.geocities.com/Augusta/8172/panzerfaust9.htm: --------------- Although the german forces like any other, especially the russian, forces made up their own ad-hoc Molotov weapons of glass bottles filled with flammable liquids, the germans also standardised this weapon and factory - mass-produced them in large quantities. The first such weapon was the Brandflasche ("flame/incendiary bottle"). It was a glass bottle that was 25cm high and had a diameter of 7cm. It was filled with one third of the same flaming liquid that was also used by the flamethrowers and called Flammöl ("flame oil") and two thirds gasoline. The other Molotov - weapon was the Brandhandgranate 48/57 ("flame/incendiary hand grenade"). It was a glass container of 10cm height and 8cm diameter. It contained 0.5 liters of a mixture of gasoline fuel and benzole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmaker Posted March 15, 2001 Share Posted March 15, 2001 Your link is bad. ------------------ "Uncommon valor was a common virtue"-Adm.Chester Nimitz of the Marines on Iwo Jima Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ciks Posted March 15, 2001 Share Posted March 15, 2001 there is a ":" at the end of the link remove it and it works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tss Posted March 15, 2001 Share Posted March 15, 2001 JunoReactor: Trust it to Germans to take an idea, overengineer it and come up with something that completely defeats the purpose of the original.. I don't see how factory-made Molotov coctails somehow "defeat the purpose of the original". The need of infantry close-defence AT weapons was acute. Before the advent of Panzerfausts and -shrecks, the only viable methods were demolition charges and Molotov coctails. They are both useful and one cannot replace the other (Molotov coctails have longer range but are more sensitive to the spot where they hit). So why not make Molotov coctails industrially, so you get much better mixture (pure gasoline is quite bad) and more uniform quality. BTW, I just came upon one account where a Finnish platoon met KV-tanks the first time. Two KV-Is had broken through Finnish lines and surprised the platoon. (Well, surprised and surprised, KVs could be heard from quite a distance, but anyway). There was a 45 mm AT gun in the area that scored ~10 hits on one of the tanks before being knocked out. No effect. Also, on 20 mm ATR fired 5-6 hits with no effect. Then, several teams tried to destroy the tanks with demolition charges and Molotov coctails. First of the tanks was hit by three demolition charges and two Molotov coctails but it was still in good enough shape to withdraw to the own lines. The second one got a demolition charge on its rear deck, but again, no effect and it too got away. The only concrete result was that the first KV lost several kgs of metal of its tracks. And probably the men of the second KV were deaf for some time. The demolition charges were probably of 2 kg variety, perhaps 4 kg. Both sizes were used in the early Continuation War and they could knock out all usual tank types. It was later found out that a charge had to weight at least 6 kg before it could take out a KV. - Tommi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zakalwe Posted March 15, 2001 Share Posted March 15, 2001 Originally posted by tss: I don't see how factory-made Molotov coctails somehow "defeat the purpose of the original". The need of infantry close-defence AT weapons was acute. Before the advent of Panzerfausts and -shrecks, the only viable methods were demolition charges and Molotov coctails. They are both useful and one cannot replace the other (Molotov coctails have longer range but are more sensitive to the spot where they hit). So why not make Molotov coctails industrially, so you get much better mixture (pure gasoline is quite bad) and more uniform quality. - Tommi Years ago my grandfather told me story about factory produced Molotov cocktails. I'm not entirely sure if it's fabricated - his war stories had to be taken with a grain of salt, but it did sound plausible enough. He arrived at his unit's lodgings to be greeted very joyously. Apparently one of his unit mates had 'liberated' a crate full of liquor; at least the ALKO stamps on the crate indicated it as such. (ALKO was the state owned alcohol company - responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of alcohol in Finland). However, the thirsty men were unpleasantly surprised when the pried the case open - it was full of Molotov cocktails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tss Posted March 15, 2001 Share Posted March 15, 2001 Zakalwe wrote: Apparently one of his unit mates had 'liberated' a crate full of liquor; at least the ALKO stamps on the crate indicated it as such. (ALKO was the state owned alcohol company - responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of alcohol in Finland). A very plausible story. ALKO did manufacture Molotov coctails and they put the flaming stuff into liquor bottles. - Tommi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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