(February 3, 2017 at 10:58 pm)Sterben Wrote:(February 3, 2017 at 5:20 am)Wyrd of Gawd Wrote: Remember how we roasted people in Dresden Germany and Tokyo? We used flame throwers on enemy soldiers. If it hadn't been for the nukes (which vaporized people) we would have burned Japan to the ground.I would agree to certain extent, napalm was used to help clear the jungles out in The Vietnam war; beyond that it was cruel to use to in war. The flame thrower it self has always been questionable weapon, it had limited use other then for short range purposes. I'm sure some did enjoy dropping napalm, and setting people on fire to get their jolly's. I've seen the pictures and rare footage of burning men, woman, and children in both wars. The flame thrower was also used in the first world war by the Germans. Where i disagree with you is the fact we liked it seeing people on fire. If you set a city or a village on fire your sending a strong message that an invading army is going to burn as many as we can out of a deep rooted hatred.
You can Google the pictures. The Draft feature isn't working so I can't do multiple links.
Personally I think it takes someone who enjoys burning people alive to use a flame thrower on someone instead of just shooting him or blowing him up with a grenade.
Blowing someone up with a high explosive bomb dropped from an airplane is bad but necessary. However, to willingly drop firebombs on people requires that you like it. We even did it in Vietnam.
Seeing it with your eyes happening right in front of you must been horrifying. Those mental scars will last a life time, I'm also willing to bet that a lot solders regretted having to set another human being on fire. The smell of rotting human flesh must been of been something you got use to though. As long as you masked it behind the thought *I'm doing the right thing for my country.*
Remember, the GIs who used flamethrowers in the Pacific war were fighting an enemy very willing to fight to the last man (of 3,636 Japanese troops defending Tarawa, only 17 were captured -- all the rest had to be killed), who was usually honeycombed into the ground. Even though that war in particular was a deeply racist war from both sides, I agree with you that most Americans did not enjoy using flamethrowers ... or enjoy any other aspect of the war, for that matter.
