Eli5: What made Napalm so useful as a weapon of war and what were some of the drawbacks of its use in warfare?
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We normally associate Napalm with Vietnam but it was actually developed during WWII and used extensively throughout it, and the Korean war, and the Vietnam War. It burns hotter and longer than fires with more conventional fuel like plain gasoline and can be deployd as air dropped bombs or with man portable flamethrowers.
It’s very effective against personnel, machine gun nests/emplacements, trenches, vehicles and buildings. It’s also cheaper compared to conventional bombs so it can be used in extended bombing campaigns that aim to destroy as much land area as possible. It’s very effective in clearing out dense vegetation and destroying buildings in urban areas.
The downsides are that it’s a very cruel and painful way to kill someone, it burns indicriminately and it’s not accurate, it causes great environmental damage and it’s inneffective against well fortified positions and installations, meaning it’s been mainly used against infantry, bombing raids in urban areas and as a means of destroying forests and anyone inside them. Thousands of civilians have been killed by Napalm in bombing campaigns that otherwise served little strategic purpose.
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