The ''Einstossflammenwerfer'' 46 was a handheld single shot

flamethrower A flamethrower is a ranged incendiary device designed to project a controllable jet of fire. First deployed by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, flamethrowers saw use in modern times during World War I, and more widely in World W ...

designed in Germany during the second half of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and introduced in 1944; it was engineered to be both cheap and easily mass-produced, falling into the category of throwaway flamethrower. The disposable weapon fired a half-second burst of flame of up to .''German Airborne Troops 1939-45''
(excerpt via

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

) - Quarrie, Bruce & Chappell, Mike; Osprey Publishing, 1983, Page 22, It was issued to the ''

Volkssturm The (, ) was a ''levée en masse'' national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was set up by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler and established on 25 September 1944. It was staffed by conscri ...

'' or the ''

Werwolf ''Werwolf'' (, German for "werewolf") was a Nazi plan which began development in 1944, to create a resistance force which would operate behind enemy lines as the Allies advanced through Germany in parallel with the ''Wehrmacht'' fighting in ...

'' movement, but also used by the ''

Fallschirmjäger The () were the airborne forces branch of the Luftwaffe before and during World War II. They were the first paratroopers to be committed in large-scale airborne operations. They were commanded by Kurt Student, the Luftwaffe's second-in-comman ...

'' (German paratroopers). It was inspired by the Italian "

Lanciafiamme Mod. 41 d'assalto The ''Lanciafiamme Mod. 41 d'assalto'' was a flamethrower used by the Royal Italian Army during World War II. The Mod. 41 was meant to be an extremely light and compact flamethrower to equip paratroopers and Assault Engineers, The flamethrower re ...

". The weapon was developed during the second half of World War II and used as a substitute to the much more effective but expensive Flammenwerfer 35. The weapon was relatively cheap, armed with a simple container full of gas that would then be shot out of the tube, which allowed the user to shoot a burst of flame, with temperatures exceeding over 1500 degrees Celsius (2700 Fahrenheit) and shooting as far as 27 meters for a split-second, after which the weapon would be discarded. Due to its simplicity and low requirement of training, the weapon was commonly used by the

militia along with several German paratrooper units due to its portability. Little information is known about the weapon, but many speculate that at least 30,700 were manufactured.

References

External links

An original image of the weapon
World War II infantry weapons of Germany Flamethrowers of Germany Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1944 Disposable products {{Germany-WWII-stub

See also

References

External links