History keeps many cases of hiding military secrets. An example of this is the famous "Greek fire", the likely forerunner of the modern flamethrower. The Greeks guarded the secret of their weapons for five centuries, until it was lost forever.
So who and when first used a flamethrower in history? What is this strange weapon - "Greek fire" that still haunts historians? Some researchers take the fact of reports about him as an indisputable truth, while others, despite the testimony of sources, treat them with distrust.
The first use of incendiary weapons occurred during the Battle of Delia in 424 BC. In this battle, the Theban general Pagonda defeated the main Athenian army under the leadership of Hippocrates, who fell on the battlefield. Then the "incendiary weapon" was a hollow log, and the flammable liquid was a mixture of crude oil, sulfur and oil.
During the Peloponnesian War between the Athenian Maritime Union and the Peloponnesian Union, led by Sparta, the Spartans burned sulfur and tar under the walls of Plateia, wanting to force the besieged city to surrender. This event is described by Thucydides, who himself was a participant in the war, but for the unsuccessful command of a squadron of the Athenian fleet was exiled.
However, some kind of flamethrower was invented much later. But it was not a combustible metal, but a pure flame interspersed with sparks and coals. Fuel, presumably charcoal, was poured into the brazier, then air was injected with the help of bellows, causing a flame that burst out of the vent with a deafening and terrible roar. Of course, such a weapon was not long-range.
Only with the appearance of the mysterious "Greek fire" could one talk about the creation of a formidable and merciless weapon.
The closest harbingers of "Greek fire" are considered "braziers", used on Roman ships, with which the Romans could break through the formation of ships of the enemy fleet. These "braziers" were ordinary buckets into which flammable liquid was poured and set on fire immediately before the battle. The "brazier" was suspended at the end of a long boat hook and carried five to seven meters ahead along the course of the ship, which made it possible to empty a bucket of flammable liquid on the deck of an enemy ship before it could ram a Roman ship.
There were also siphons, invented around 300 BC. by a certain Greek from Alexandria - a hand weapon, which was a pipe filled with oil. The oil was set on fire, and it could be poured over an enemy ship. It is generally believed that later siphons were made of bronze (according to other sources - from copper), but how exactly they threw the combustible composition is unknown … And yet the true "Greek fire" - if there was one at all! - appeared only in the Middle Ages. The origin of this weapon is still unknown, but it is assumed that it was invented by a certain Syrian architect and engineer Kallinik, a refugee from Maalbek. Byzantine sources even indicate the exact date of the invention of the "Greek fire": 673 AD. (according to other sources, it was 626, when the Romans used fire against the Persians and Avars, who were besieging Constantinople with united forces)."Liquid fire" erupted from the siphons, and the combustible mixture burned even on the surface of the water. The fire was extinguished only with sand. This sight caused horror and surprise to the enemy. One eyewitness wrote that a combustible mixture was applied to a metal spear launched by a giant sling. It flew with the speed of lightning and with a thunderous crash and looked like a dragon with a pig's head. When the projectile reached the target, an explosion occurred and a cloud of acrid black smoke rose, after which a flame appeared, spreading in all directions; if they tried to extinguish the flame with water, it flared up with renewed vigor. It flew with the speed of lightning and with a thunderous crash and looked like a dragon with a pig's head. When the projectile reached the target, an explosion occurred and a cloud of acrid black smoke rose, after which a flame appeared, spreading in all directions; if they tried to extinguish the flame with water, it flared up with renewed vigor. It flew with the speed of lightning and with a thunderous crash and looked like a dragon with a pig's head. When the projectile reached the target, an explosion occurred and a cloud of acrid black smoke rose, after which a flame appeared, spreading in all directions; if they tried to extinguish the flame with water, it flared up with renewed vigor.
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At first, "Greek fire" - or "grijois" - was used only by the Romans (Byzantines), and only in sea battles. If the evidence is to be believed, Greek fire was the ultimate weapon in naval battles, as it was the crowded fleets of wooden ships that were an excellent target for incendiary mixtures. Both Greek and Arab sources unanimously claim that the effect of the "Greek fire" was truly stunning. The historian Nikita Choniates writes of "closed pots, where fire sleeps, which suddenly bursts into lightning and sets fire to everything it reaches."
The exact recipe for the combustible mixture remains a mystery to this day. Commonly named are substances such as oil, various oils, flammable resins, sulfur, asphalt and a certain "secret ingredient". Presumably, it was a mixture of quicklime and sulfur, which ignites when it comes into contact with water, and some kind of viscous media like oil or asphalt.
For the first time, pipes with "Greek fire" were installed and tested on dromons - ships of the fleet of the Byzantine Empire, and then became the main weapon of all classes of Byzantine ships.
In the late 660s AD, the Arab fleet repeatedly approached Constantinople. However, the besieged, led by the energetic Emperor Constantine IV, repulsed all attacks, and the Arab fleet was destroyed by "Greek fire". The Byzantine historian Theophanes reports: “In the year 673, the overthrowers of Christ undertook a great campaign. They sailed and spent the winter in Cilicia. When Constantine IV learned about the approach of the Arabs, he prepared huge double-decked ships equipped with Greek fire, and the ships carrying siphons … The Arabs were shocked … They fled in great fear."
In 717, the Arabs, led by the Caliph's brother, the Syrian governor Maslama, approached Constantinople and on August 15 made another attempt to take possession of Constantinople. On September 1, an Arab fleet of more than 1,800 ships occupied the entire space in front of the city. The Byzantines blocked the Golden Horn Bay with a chain on wooden floats, after which the fleet, led by Emperor Leo III, inflicted a heavy defeat on the enemy. The Greek fire contributed to his victory in no small measure. “The emperor prepared fire-carrying siphons and placed them aboard one- and two-deck ships, and then sent them against two fleets. Thanks to God's help and through the intercession of His Most Holy Mother, the enemy was utterly defeated."
The same thing happened with the Arabs in 739,780 and 789. In 764, the Bulgarians fell victim to the fire … There is evidence that the Romans used the "Greek fire" against the Russians.
In 941, with the help of their secret weapons, they defeated the fleet of Prince Igor, who was marching on Constantinople (Constantinople). The Romans, warned by the Bulgarians, sent a fleet to meet the formidable Rus under the leadership of Caruas, Theophanes and Vardus Fock. In the ensuing naval battle, the Russian fleet was destroyed. Not least thanks to the "Greek living fire". It was impossible to extinguish the ships, and the Russian soldiers, fleeing from the deadly fire, in "armor" jumped into the sea and went like a stone to the bottom. The oncoming storm completed the rout of the Russian fleet.
Almost a hundred years passed when the eldest son of Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir, in 1043 with the fleet unexpectedly approached the walls of Constantinople. Russian ships lined up in one line in the Golden Horn Bay, where a battle took place a few days later. According to Carlo Botta, the Russians were defeated "by the coming autumn storms, Greek fire and the Byzantine experience in naval affairs."
However, in another naval battle of the same Vladimir Yaroslavich with the Roman fleet, when the prince was returning home, the "Greek fire" did not show itself in any way. The Russians returned to Kiev without hindrance. It is also not entirely clear why fire was not used during the famous successful campaign against Byzantium by the Kiev prince Oleg in 907 … And why did Byzantium not use such a powerful means against its other opponents?
According to the statements of a number of Russian and Western European historians, the Mongol-Tatars also used the "Greek fire". However, the primary sources practically nowhere say about the effectiveness of its use!
"Live fire" did not show itself at all during Batu's campaigns against Russia. The capture of the largest cities - the princely capitals - took from three days to a week, and such a small town like Kozelsk, which could be burned with the same "living fire" without much trouble, stood firm against the entire Batu horde for seven weeks. Batu's victorious invasion of Western Europe also did without the use of "live fire". The famous Janibek stormed Kafa (modern Feodosia) for more than a year to no avail … The capture and destruction of Moscow by Tokhtamysh is described in sufficient detail, but the author of the Tale does not mention any "miracle of weapons" among the invaders. The famous Asian commander Timur (Tamerlane) also did well without the wonderful “Greek fire”.
At the time of the Crusades, "Greek fire" was already widely known both in the West and in the East, and was used not only in sea, but also in land battles.
In general, combustible materials were used in the West, as well as in the East, and a widespread method of fighting enemy throwing machines was setting them on fire with a burning tow. Even on the carpet from Bayeux one can see primitive incendiary means, which are torches at the end of long peaks, designed to set fire to siege towers and weapons, almost always made of wood. During the siege of Jerusalem, according to the chroniclers, a real stream of combustible materials fell on the besiegers: "The townspeople threw fire into the towers in a dense mass, there were many burning arrows, wood chips, pots of sulfur, oil and tar, and many other things that support the fire."
But the "Greek fire" was more terrible than tar or embers. There is information about this wonderful "weapon of mass destruction" in the medieval Spanish chronicles. They are recorded from the words of the participants in the campaign of Louis IX to the holy land.
In Arabia and in the countries of the Middle East there were many oil sources, so the Arabs could easily use oil, because its reserves were simply inexhaustible. During the Franco Byzantine attack on Egypt in 1168, the Muslims kept twenty thousand pots of oil at the gates of Cairo and then launched ten thousand burning stones to set fire to the city and keep the Franks out.
The famous Saladin in the same way was forced to set fire to his Nubian camp in order to suppress the revolt of his black guard, and indeed, when the rebels saw how their parking lot, where their property, wives and children were, was on fire, they fled in panic.
One witness described the effect that was produced during the siege of Damietta in November 1219 by the “tablecloths of Greek fire”: “Greek fire, flowing like a river from the river tower and from the city, sowed terror; but with the help of vinegar, sand and other materials they extinguished it, coming to the aid of those who became its victims."
Over time, the crusaders learned to defend themselves against "living fire"; they covered siege weapons with the skins of freshly harvested animals and began to extinguish the fire not with water, but with vinegar, sand or talc, which the Arabs had long used to protect themselves from this fire.
Along with the evidence of terrible weapons in the history of the "Greek fire" there are many blank spots and simply inexplicable situations.
Here is the first paradox: as the chronicler Robert de Clari pointed out in his work "The Conquest of Constantinople", created at the beginning of the XIII century, the crusaders themselves in 1204 - so they already knew its secret? - tried to use "Greek fire" during the siege of Constantinople. However, the wooden towers of the Constantinople walls were protected by skins dipped in water, so the fire did not help the knights. And why the "live fire" was not used by the Romans, who knew its secrets and defended the city? This remains a mystery. One way or another, but the crusaders, blocking Constantinople from sea and land, took it with a decisive assault, losing only one knight.
The same thing happened during the agony of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, when the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople. Even in the last battles for the capital, the "miracle of weapons" did not come to the use … After all, if there was such an effective weapon that caused fear and terror to opponents, why did it not later play an essential role in battles? Because his secret was lost?
It is worth pondering the following question: is it possible to maintain a monopoly on any type of weapons or military equipment after its action is clearly demonstrated on the battlefield? As the experience of wars shows, no. It turns out that this formidable weapon was used only in those campaigns when even without it there were already real prerequisites for achieving victory - the small number of enemy troops, the indecisive nature of his actions, bad weather conditions, and the like. And when meeting a strong enemy, the army, which possessed a "miracle weapon", suddenly found itself on the verge of death and for some reason did not use a terrible weapon. The version about the loss of the recipe for "live fire" is highly doubtful. The Byzantine Empire, like any other state of the Middle Ages, did not know peaceful respites … So did the "Greek fire" exist at all?
The question remains open. In fact, flamethrowers began to be used in hostilities only at the beginning of the 20th century, or rather, during the First World War, and by all the warring parties.
M. Yu. Kurushin "100 Great Military Secrets"