I picked up a Squadron Signal book covering tanks on Iwo and I’m a little confused as to how the Sherman flame tanks were set up. Apparently there were 2 types in use, one that shot the flame through the main gun tube and one that had some typs of nozzle mounted on the glacis plate? In the caption for one Sherman photo they say even though it was a flame tank it could still fire canister rounds with the main gun. My question is what type of set up did they use to fire the flame through the main gun? If the tank was set up to use the main gun as the flamethrower then they couldn’t fire conventional rounds also correct, or could they switch between the two systems?
As far as I recall, the Iwo flame Shermans used a setup where the flame jet fired thru the main gun tube, making its normal cannon function unusable. The converted tanks held the napalm and air supply inside the tank itself, requiring large scale modifications.
In the ETO, some used a system thru a glacis mounted jet emitter or thru a tube in place of the .30cal. MG.
Later, another setup was used where a coaxial flame jet tube was mounted beside the barrel of a 105mm Howitzer M4A3. These were used extensively in Korea.
The Churchill was called the Crocodile, the Matilda was called a Frog. Did the Sherman flame thrower tanks have a nickname? I have heard they were sometimes refered to/called Ronsons, but that was because they brewed up so quickly.
There a few “kits” that could be used to modify Shermans in to flame tanks. One was a short ranged mounted in place of the hull .30 cal. Due to the short range, it was most survivable/effective on the M4A3E2 Jumbo hull. The muzzle of the hull mounted flamethrower resembled the same as those of the backpack flame thrower. Another longer ranged one was used inside the main 75mm gun tube. These first saw combat on Iwo. More of the Marine flame tanks on Iwo were the hull MG mounted ones. Only a few of the newer turret mounted ones were avaialble. On Okinawa, more of the turret mounted ones were available. A handfull (three I believe) of M4s were modified with a “crocodile” system with a small flame turret outboard of the MG gunners hatch on the glacis and used in combat in the ETO.
Some Sherman flame tanks were called Zippos.
DML made a Sherman flame tank a while back - a M4A3 HVSS POA-CWS H5…don’t know the kit number. It was a 105mm Sherman with the coax flame gun. Nice kit, but the track was a pain to assemble.
Joe
This should help some, this is a Sherman Flame-thrower tank, it can be found on the same side of the railroad tracks and right nest to OCS in Quantico…that is if they haven’t moved it. They had a M41 there in the summer also, but it was moved before I went home for winter break.
Hope this helps…
Very cool pics of that hulk Yg! That looks like a 75mm mounted co-axially with the flame gun and not the 105mm usually seen.