When near enough, your pal [or comrade-in-arms] lights the petrol soaked corner of the blanket. Throw the bottle and blanket as soon as this corner is flaring. You cannot throw it far. See that it drops in front of the tank. The blanket should catch in the tracks or in a cog-wheel, or wind itself round an axle. The bottle will smash, but the petrol should soak the blanket well enough to make a really healthy fire which will burn the rubber wheels on which the tank track runs, set fire to the carburettor or frizzle the crew.
Do not play with these things. They are highly dangerous. The Battle of Khalkhin Gol , a border conflict of ostensibly between Mongolia and Manchukuo , saw heavy fighting between Japanese and Soviet forces.
Short of anti-tank equipment, Japanese infantry attacked Soviet tanks with gasoline-filled bottles. Japanese infantrymen claimed that several hundred Soviet tanks had been destroyed this way, though Soviet loss records do not support this assessment. Soviet cluster bomb ironically called a "Molotov bread basket".
The "Molotov cocktail" was the Finns' response — "a drink to go with the food". The Finnish Army faced large numbers of Red Army tanks. Being short on anti-tank guns , they improvised incendiary devices to use against them. During the Winter War, the Soviet air force made extensive use of incendiaries and cluster bombs against Finnish troops and fortifications. When Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov claimed in domestic propaganda broadcasts that the USSR was not bombing Finland, but merely delivering food to the citizens, the Finns, who were not starving, started sarcastically to call the air bombs Molotov bread baskets.
At first, the term was used to describe only the burning mixture itself, but in practical use the term was soon applied to the combination of both the bottle and its contents. This Finnish use of the hand- or sling-thrown explosive against Soviet tanks was repeated in the subsequent Continuation War between the two countries. The original design of the Molotov cocktail produced by the Finnish alcohol monopoly Alko during the Winter War of — The bottle has storm matches instead of a rag for a fuse.
The Finns perfected the design and tactical use of the petrol bomb. The fuel for the Molotov cocktail was refined to a slightly sticky mixture of gasoline, kerosene, tar , and potassium chlorate.
Further refinements included the attachment of wind-proof matches or a phial of chemicals that would ignite on breakage, thereby removing the need to pre-ignite the bottle, and leaving the bottle about one-third empty was found to make breaking more likely. A British War Office report dated June noted that:. The Finns' policy was to allow the Russian tanks to penetrate their defences, even inducing them to do so by 'canalising' them through gaps and concentrating their small arms fire on the infantry following them.
The tanks that penetrated were taken on by gun fire in the open and by small parties of men armed with explosive charges and petrol bombs in the forests and villages The essence of the policy was the separation of the AFVs from the infantry, as once on their own the tank has many blind spots and once brought to a stop can be disposed of at leisure.
Production totalled , during the Winter War. The original design of the Molotov cocktail was a mixture of ethanol, tar and gasoline in a millilitres 0. The bottle had two long pyrotechnic storm matches attached to either side. Before use, one or both of the matches was lit; when the bottle broke on impact, the mixture ignited. The storm matches were found to be safer to use than a burning rag on the mouth of the bottle. Early in , with the prospect of immediate invasion , the possibilities of the petrol bomb gripped the imagination of the British public.
For the layman, the petrol bomb had the benefit of using entirely familiar and available materials, [11] and they were quickly improvised in large numbers, with the intention of using them against enemy tanks. When used in the right way and in sufficient numbers, the Finns had found that they were effective. Although the experience of the Spanish Civil War received more publicity, the more sophisticated petroleum warfare tactics of the Finns were not lost on British commanders.
I want to develop this thing they developed in Finland, called the "Molotov cocktail", a bottle filled with resin, petrol and tar which if thrown on top of a tank will ignite, and if you throw half a dozen or more on it you have them cooked. It is quite an effective thing.
If you can use your ingenuity, I give you a picture of a [road] block with two houses close to the block, overlooking it. There are many villages like that. Out of the top windows is the place to drop these things on the tank as it passes the block. It may only stop it for two minutes there, but it will be quite effective. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content.
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Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph. Chemistry Expert. Helmenstine holds a Ph. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels.
Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter. Featured Video. The matches were safer and more reliable than the fuel-soaked cloth fuses. When making a molotov mixture, one of the easiest mixtures is filling half the bottle with gasoline, and the other half of the bottle with motor oil. Mix well! The oil is very flammable and sticks very well to the surface that it lands on.
Modern variations of the Molotov cocktail also contain laundry detergent, liquid dish soap, or crushed up styrofoam cups. The Molotov cocktail is closely related to the same principle of Napalm bombs. Napalm is a contraction of the words naphtha the flammable part of petrol and palm oil.
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