I know napalm usage was quite common in wartime between WW2 and Vietnam, and I’m also very aware of just how damaging the substance was to the people affected. Internal damage, skin essentially melting, burning underwater (cue Phil Swift), etc. My question is, how were soldiers able to, for lack of a better word, safely use napalm without harming themselves as well as their targets?
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Napalm is relatively safe when not burning. So you can load it into bombs and flamethrowers without much risks. Just make sure to keep away from any sources of flames like lit cigarettes or running engines. When stored in these containers the napalm is also quite safe as there is no air for it to burn with. So even if a bullet were to hit the bomb or flamethrower tank it will not ignite and just spill out on the ground. The napalm is primarily dangerous when you spread it out over a larger area, either with an incendiary bomb or with a flamethrower. These weapons systems also have ways to ignite the napalm. Most flamethrowers even had the ability to spread napalm without igniting it allowing it to go further, it could find another source of ignition or it could be ignited by a followup burst but more then often the enemies surrendered after getting covered in napalm and no fire was needed.
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