"713th Flame Throwing Tank Battalion" Topic

"The 713th Flame Throwing Tank Battalion was created from the 42nd Armored Regiment of the 11th Armored Division. The regiment was organized on August 15, 1942, at Camp Polk, Louisiana. Later it was broken into battalions. The 713th Battalion was the Third Battalion of the 42nd Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas L. McCrary of Arlington, Virginia.

While the rest of the 11th Armored Division fought in Europe in World War II, the 713th Battalion headed for the Pacific, where it was attached to the 7th Infantry Division. The battalion was organized, equipped and trained as the only armored flame throwing battalion in the army.

On November 10, 1944, the battalion moved to Oahu, Hawaii, where it was converted from standard tank battalion to a flamethrowing unit Ronson-type flamethrowers were inserted in the barrels of 75-millimeter Sherman tank guns. The flamethrower guns would be operated under high pressure with a 300- gallon fuel capacity. The effective range of each flamethrower tank was 80 to 100 yards. All 54 tanks in the battalion were made over as flamethrowers…."
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Amicalement
Armand

With the IJF's predilection for digging in/hiding out in bunkers caves, etc. And the few AFVs of any type they had in their inventory. And those that they did have were not generally very "good" at fighting other AFVs, etc.

Flame Thrower Tanks would probably come in "handy" in the PTO more so than in the ETO. Even thought Flame Tanks, etc., were used in small numbers in Europe, etc.