The Byzantines had a weapon of such destructive potential that when deployed,
nothing could stand in its way. Whether spread over ships or launched by a trebuchet,
this powerful weapon of wars rivals most conventional weapons of even today’s militaries.
The flamethrower is a weapon often associated with 20th-century warfare. In World War I,
the Imperial German Army was the first to make use of portable flamethrowers,
while the British constructed a massive example called a Livens Projector. The weapon was static,
intended to douse entire German trenches in a 130-foot stream of flame. By the Second World War,
the principal Allied and Axis powers had their own portable flamethrower variants.
As the war progressed, different armored vehicles were even repurposed as flame tanks,
capable of approaching enemy positions and making quick work of any unprotected infantry.
Flamethrowers continued to see extensive use in the Vietnam War, but afterward, napalm fell out of
favor among the global community. While officially banned in modern warfare, the flamethrower's
capacity for destruction has been immortalized in historical records and pop culture as people,
including Elon Musk, have produced their own. "Anybody order fried sauerkraut?!"
Despite its relatively recent use, the flamethrower is not a new concept.
The use of incendiary weapons dates back thousands of years to ancient "fire-pots"
and "fire arrows" meant to defend and attack walled cities. The latter are even attributed
to the fall of Athens during the Persian invasion. Unlike the fire arrows commonly depicted in films,
these historical examples are believed to have been coated in a flammable and
adhesive resin that could not easily be put out. Once the city was breached,
the few Athenian defenders left were helpless as their wooden barricades were set alight.
The chemical compounds used in such munitions varied over the centuries as different militaries
experimented with them. The Byzantines, isolated as both Arab and Crusader encroachment threatened
their sovereignty, came up with their own infamous concoction in the 7th Century CE.
Greek Fire became a staple of Byzantine warfare for centuries, during which the
Empire used this revolutionary substance against its enemies in surprisingly recognizable ways.
The Byzantines initially used Greek Fire as a naval weapon. With the likely use of a bronze
pump, Byzantine ships would approach enemy vessels and douse them in the flaming liquid.
By this point, the nightmare would begin for the enemy crew. Normally, fire on a ship could
typically be put out with water or, if the flames proved too much, the crew could abandon ship.
Neither was an easy option with Greek Fire. Not unlike the ancient fire arrows or modern
napalm, it’s described as having stuck to whatever was in its path. Not even the sea could
stop it as the mixture could burn on the water's surface. Greek Fire was regarded as a war-winning
weapon and was given credit for aiding in the destruction of several Arab fleets in the 670s.
Since those fleets were previously unstoppable in their conquest of the Mediterranean,
such a weapon had a severe impact on the Caliphate [KAY-luh-fate] sailors' morale.
Over two hundred years later in 941, it saw similarly devastating use
against a Russian fleet in the Black Sea, effectively ending the Rus'-Byzantine war.
Land armies that hoped to sack Constantinople, or otherwise rebel against it, were not safe
from Greek Fire either. During military expeditions into the Balkans or rebellions,
the Byzantines made frequent use of Greek Fire in more portable forms. Clay containers were commonly
filled with the mixture and hurled at the enemy once an attached wick was lit. These were either
small and thrown by hand, or large and launched by a trebuchet. For close-up use, siphons like
those on the ships were either positioned on walls or small enough to even be carried by one person.
What's remarkable is not only the effects these weapons had in battle but how one-sided the
advantage they established was. This is because when siphons and Greek Fire were captured,
a rare but not uncommon occurrence, the extreme secrecy of what the formula was kept the thieves
from developing their own supply. Records of Greek Fire's composition and use seem to have been lost
after the 1204 fall of Constantinople when much of the city was sacked by opportunistic crusaders.
Though lost to time, it left an impression that has lasted for a millennium.
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