The FmW 41 was fielded during all major German-Soviet engagements of the East Front such as at Stalingrad and utilized through to the end of the war into 1945. Such weapons also proved helpful in flushing out stubborn defenders, the flames reaching every crevasse when fired into confined spaces such as those of a pillbox. Against flammable fortifications, a flamethrower could make short work of structures, burning them down within minutes as proved the case across the vast Russian countryside. Range was only slightly improved out to approximately 30 yards.Īs in with any battlefield flame projector of the war, the operator could fire a direct stream at a target/target area or arch the stream to "rain" fire down on entrenched enemy positions. The streamlining of the tanks also produced a much lighter system at 63lbs compared to the 80lbs of the FmW 35. This new ignition system proved more reliable in the operating temperatures expected and gave better service everywhere else. Early forms retained the same hydrogen-based ignition system though experiences in the harsh winter of 1941 heading into 1942 soon forced an adoption of a cartridge-based ignition system. A line was drawn from the two tanks into a hand-held projector system and flushed through a nozzle with ignition found at the point of exit.
The FmW 41 retained the twin-tank arrangement set upon the operators back (held in place via traditional straps) and generally followed the same form and function of the preceding design.
This also brought adoption of a new, streamlined flamethrowing system to replace the aging FmW 35 series in the "Flammenwerfer 41". In 1941, the Germans opened the second front to the east, the "Eastern Front", by invading the Soviet Union in June. Comparatively, flamethrowers were one of the ultimate psychological tools of war - if one could get within range of the enemy that is. Additionally, the system, as a whole and fully filled, weighed close to 80lbs and this on the back of a sole operator - making for one cumbersome weapon. While effective in testing and early war usage, the German Army soon learned that the unforgiving Soviet winter played havoc on their many well-engineered weapons including the FmW 35 series - ignition becoming the primary problem. Both were combined at the projector and ignited via a hydrogen based system. One tank held the fuel whilst the other held the required propellant. The FmW 35 series incorporated a twin-tank backpack configuration with a line running to the hand-held projector. The type was a single-user evolution of the three-man, team-based system of World War 1 to which the German Army debuted against the French in 1914. All major powers of World War 2 fielded some sort of man-portable flamethrower (or "flame projector") during the conflict - the Germans developing and adopting the "Flammenwerfer 35" of 1935.
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