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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Who said they didn’t hurt themselves?
Based on your description I think you might be conflating napalm and white phosphorus.
Napalm is just jellied gasoline, it doesn’t really burn underwater(would just float on top and burn), and it’s also not any more harmful than normal fuels (so dont shower in it every day or drink/huff it and you’d be fine).
WP however does reignite even if doused in water, and it’s also poisonous as far as I’m aware, way nastier shit than napalm.
The way people stay safe from these things is by staying the fuck away from them, pretty much how you deal with any area effect weapons.
Army Technical Manual TM 3-375, section VIII details several safety precautions with regard to handling napalm and napalm dispensing equipment. For example:
“Do not permit flames, sparks, or ignition from the flame thrower or other source to come in contact with the hose.”
“Care should be taken that gasoline is not spilled.”
“Gasoline fumes are somewhat toxic and should not be inhaled.”
Not the sexiest answer, I know, but read it, study it, and god willing before you know it we’ll be kicking up our heels and eating grechka in Stolovaya 57.
Well, if you drop it from a plane and you are in the plane and there are no Americans under the plane, odds are you will be good.
It was mostly dropped from planes. Forces on the ground would call out target coordinates and planes would drop canisters of napalm.
There were accidents. Planes would either mistake US troops for the enemy, or napalm drops would have defective hardware affecting their drop trajectory and causing them to fall short.
Napalm is basically sticky gasoline. How do you use gasoline now without harming yourself? If not ignited, napalm is moderately safe to handle, just like gasoline.
When used by soldiers in weapons, the backpacks are pressurized with a flame at the tip of the “rifle”. The napalm shoots out of the nozzle, gets ignited, then flies 50, 75, 100ft to the target, making it catch on fire. If napalm is spilled and not ignited and burning, you just smelled like gas, like you do now if you spill some gas at the gas station.
Like most chemicals, long term exposure (months/years) is problematic, but day to day, it was moderately safe to handle.
It’s fine if it’s not on fire. It’s just gasoline with naphthalic and palmitic (Na-Palm) acids added to thicken it.
My family lived in the Canadian Camp Gagetown area when they tested Agent Orange in the woods there. A lot of the particles blew back into their community. Years later, the government admitted to this fact and settled with anyone who could prove they lived in the area at the time, and had any one of the litany of possible medical issues. My whole family each got $20,000. Keep in mind, that they lived miles away from the actual spraying, and we still had residual effects. Scary stuff.
napalm isn’t harmful until it’s on fire. it’s not on fire until it’s dropped out of a plane. they weren’t just handling flaming napalm. they were able to safely use it by being thousands of feet up in the air when the bombs went off.
Funfact: The napalm scene in *Apocalypse Now* was actually a ditch full of gasoline they set of fire.
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