laststandonzombieisland

Early 1969 U.S. Navy images from the National Archives, show a “Zippo” flamethrower installed on a 56-foot Armored Troop Carrier monitor– an armored LCM (6) landing craft–  in testing along an unnamed river in the Republic of Vietnam.

As detailed in War in the Shallows: U.S. Navy Coastal & Riverine Warfare in Vietnam, 1965-68 by John Sherwood page 178:

In the summer of 1967, when the Viet Cong constructed bunkers capable of withstanding 40mm rounds, RIVFLOT 1 began exploring the idea of deploying flamethrowers on riverboats as a potential bunker buster. On 4 October, the M132A1, an Army flamethrower, was shoehorned into an ATC. Commanders hoped the M132A1’s 32-second burst and 150-yard range would not only neutralize enemy bunkers but also deter river ambushes. Tests proved satisfactory, but the M132A1, weighing 23,000 pounds, was too heavy for the Navy’s needs. Instead, lighter M10-8 flamethrowers were installed on six monitors delivered in May of 1968.

Nicknamed “Zippo” after the popular cigarette lighter, these monitors mounted two M10-8 flamethrowers, each with an effective range of 200–300 yards. With 1,350 gallons of napalm fuel, the M10-8 could lay down a sheet of flame for 225 seconds. Sailors would make napalm by mixing a powder consisting of the coprecipitated aluminum salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids with gasoline. Compressed air propelled the napalm through the flamethrower, and a gasoline lighter acted as the trigger.

“You had to be careful to get the right jelly consistency when making it,” explained Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Joseph Lacapruccia, “but firing the weapon was not dangerous. No one was ever burned. It was much safer than the 20mm, and napalm was effective against the VC because it could travel into spider holes and deplete oxygen.”