Скачать или смотреть Flamethrower, a weapon considered inhumane?

Flamethrowers in World War II were often regarded as highly inhumane weapons because of the extreme physical and psychological suffering they inflicted, whether used by infantry or mounted on armored vehicles. Flamethrower tanks, which were specially modified to project fire into bunkers, trenches, and caves, amplified the scale of destruction due to their greater range, volume of flame, and higher level of protection. The fire they discharged could cause fatal burns, deplete oxygen in enclosed spaces, and result in agonizing deaths. Psychologically, the combination of fire and the presence of a tank created overwhelming terror; many enemy soldiers surrendered or panicked at the mere sight of it, while victims had almost no chance of escape.

Nevertheless, judgments of “inhumanity” must be placed within the context of total war. Flamethrowers—including those mounted on tanks—were employed as tactical solutions to destroy fortified positions that were difficult to neutralize with conventional weapons, with the aim of accelerating combat and avoiding prolonged frontal assaults that could result in even greater casualties among attacking forces. Under the laws of war at the time, such weapons were not explicitly prohibited and were treated as conventional arms within the framework of the Geneva Conventions. Thus, the flamethrower reflects a central paradox of modern warfare: it is extraordinarily brutal at the level of individual experience, yet it emerged from a military logic seeking to win wars as efficiently as possible within a system of warfare that was, as a whole, already profoundly inhumane.


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other credits : Free Documentary - History