Sd.Kfz.251/16
Panzer II(F)
Flammpanzer 38
Panzer III(Fl)
StuG III(Flamm)
Panzer I(Flamm)
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Other flamethrowing tanks
The medium armoured personnel carrier (Sd.Kfz.251) was built in many variants, among them also a vehicle with flamethrower (Sd.Kfz.251/16). The first were built on the Chassis of Ausf.C, later Chassis of Ausf.D was used. The painting scheme was base dark yellow, often oversprayed with camouflage pattern of dark olive green (RAL6003) and dark chocolate brown (RAL8017).
The main armament was two 14mm spray-tubes with quick closing valves, also a hand-held 7mm spraytube with 10m flexible hose and two MG34 or MG42. There were 700 litres of flame fuel carried and 2010 rounds for the MG's.
The flame fuel was pressed with 15 atmospheres to the spray tubes by a Koebe HL II 40/40 1000/200 pump, which was driven by a 1.1 litre two-stroke DKW-Motor with 28 hp. The spraytubes attached on both sides of the vehicle could each be traversed through an arc of 160°. The flamethrower range was about 40 meters. The hand-held 7mm flamethrower was only used in the early versions of the 251/16.
The length of the vehicle was 5.8m, the width 2.1m and the height 2.1m. It was armored at the front with 14.5mm plates, at the sides and rear with 8mm plates. It weighted 8.62 tons and was powered by a Maybach HL42-TUKRM with 100 hp. A maximum speed of 50km/h was achieved.
The production of the 251/16 began in January 1943 and 347 vehicles were produced, mainly from Wumag in Görlitz.
On 21st January 1939 ordnance department received the authorisation to develop a 0-Serie of Flammpanzer. MAN and Daimler-Benz were contracted to build the chassis as well as superstructure and turret. The Panzer II Ausf.D and E were used for conversion to Flammpanzer. Panzer of the mark D can be identified by the dry pin track, and the mark E by the lubrictaed pin track and altered drive sprocket.
The were two Flammenwerfer nozzles in traversable spray heads located at the front of each fender, additionally a MG34 was put in the new designed turret. About 320 litres of flame fuel were carried which could be propulsed by compressed nitrogene up to 40m through the spray heads. For the MG there were 1800 rounds of ammo carried. The turret got driver's visors for better viewing and directing the spray heads.
The armor protection consisted of 30mm at the chassis front and 14.5mm at chassis sides and rear. The turret was also protected at the front by 30mm plates and 20mm at the sides and rear. The length of the Flammpanzer II was 4.9m, the width 2.4m and the height 1.85m. With a weight of 12 tons the ground pressure was 0.85kg/cm2. It was powered by a 6.2 litre Maybach HL62TRM with 140hp at 2600rpm, giving the tank the ability to achieve a maximum speed of 55km/h. 1.7m wide trenches could be crossed, step climbing ability was 42cm and the fording depth 90cm.
In January 1940 the first Flammpanzer II was completed and in March 1940 43 Panzer II Ausf.D were taken out of troop-service to be converted to Flammpanzer II. While it was worked on the first order of 90 Flammpanzer II, a second order of 150 Flammpanzer was placed on 8th March 1940. From the first series there were 93 vehicles completed which were marked as Panzerkampfwagen II (Flamm) Ausf.A. The second series was then marked as Ausf.B and only 62 of these were built, because it was seen that the design was no great success.
The 'Panzer Abteilung (F)' 100 and 101 got each 42 Flammpanzer II which were used in Operation 'Barbarossa' on 22th June 1941. Of these vehicles were on 20th October 1941 only 7 were operational in 'Panzer Abteilung (F) 100' and on 8th November 1941 only 5 in the 'Panzer Abteilung (F) 101'. The tanks of the 'Abteilung 100' had a unit symbol to diffentiate from other units. They used a multicolored flame as unit symbol. The 'Abteilung 101' used crossed flamethrowers as emblem, which was painted in light green on the turret rear.
On the right you can see a photo of a destroyed Pz.Kpfw.II(F), which was hit in July 1941 in Russia. This photo is one of the rare front view shots of this tank.
On 27th November 1944 Hitler ordered that in a special action a great number of Flammpanzer should be completed. Therefore 20 Jagdpanzer 'Hetzer' were determined to be converted into Flammpanzer 38(t). On 8th December 1944 these 20 vehicles were taken from prodution line for conversion.
The Flammpanzer 38 had a 14mm spray tube and 700 litres of flame fuel which was propelled by pressure given by a Koebe-pump. For ignition there were cartridges used. The range of the flamethrower was about 50 meters. Furthermore there was a MG34 with 1200 rounds installed on the roof which could be used from the inside of the tank.
The vehicle was 4.87m long, 2.63m wide and 2.1m high. It weighted 13.5 tons and was armored 60mm at the front, 20mm at sides and rear. The 6-cylinder engine Praga AC with 7754cm3 gave 140hp at 2600rpm. A maximum speed of 42km/h was possible. The trench crossing abilty was 1.3m, step climbing ability was 65cm and the fording depth 90cm.
On 26.December the 20 Flammpanzer were completed and ready for Operation "Nordwind". They were issued to Panzer-Flamm-Kompanie 352 and 353, each getting 10 tanks. On 15th March 1945 Panzer-Flamm-Kompanie 352 reported 11 Flammpanzer 38 from which 8 were operational.
Installing a flamethrower system into the Panzer III turret was something new, because the turret with the spray tube still was 360° traversable by installing a packing box connection in the flame oil delivery pipe. The spray tube and the co-axially mounted MG 34 could be elevated from -10° to +20°. Another MG 34 was mounted in the superstructure front plate. The tank carried 1020 lites of flame fuel and 3750 rounds for the MG's.
Again the pressure for propelling the flame fuel was given by a Koebe-pump. With 15-17 athmospheres and a flow rate of 7.8l/s there were ranges up to 60m achievable.
The armor protection consisted of 57mm plates on turretfront, 30mm at turret side and rear. Chassis was protected 80mm at the front, 30mm at the sides and 50mm at the rear. The length was 6.41m, width was 2.97m and height 2.5m. The tank weighted 23.8tons, the Maybach HL120TRM engine gave 265hp at 2600rpm, so the tank got a maximum speed of 40km/h. The step climbing ability was 60cm and the fording depth 80cm. Trenchcrossing ability was 2m and the ground pressure was 1,04 kg/cm2.
In February 1943 production of the Flammpanzer III began, which were ordered because of the streetfighting experiences in Stalingrad and should be used there, what never happened. 100 Panzer III Ausf.M were taken from production line of Miag and were converted by Wegmann in Kassel to Flammpanzer. In April 1943 the conversion of all 100 tanks was already finished. Most of them were sent to the eastern front where mainly the Division 'Großdeutschland' and the 6.Pz.Div got Flammpanzer III. Also the 1.PzDiv, the 11.PzDiv, the 14.PzDiv and the 24.PzDiv got Flammpanzer III. At the eastern front most of the Flammpanzer III got side skirts for protection. In Italy Flammpanzer III were issued to the 16.PzDiv and the 26.PzDiv.
On 31st December 1943 all in all 32 Flammpanzer III were reported of which 15 were operational.
On a conference with Hitler early in December 1943 it was decided that 10 StuG III should get the Schwade flamethrower-system installed. First it was said to take the ten StuG's from production lines, but then it was decided that StuG's should be used that came back for repair.
The ordnance department reported nine completed StuG (Flamm) in May 1943 and one in June. these ten StuG(Fl) were issued to Panzertruppenschule I and transported by rail on 29th June 1943. One of the vehicles catched fire there and burnt out. It was sent back in July 1943 and was repaired. In September 1943 this StuG came back to it's unit. It is unknown if these StuG (Flamm) were ever used in combat.
In January 1944 all 10 vehicles were sent back to ordnance depot where they were re-converted to 'normal' StuG's, what means that they again got the 7.5cm StuK40 L/48.
The photo on the right seems to be the only one that exists of a StuG III (Flamm), which was converted from a StuG III Ausf.F/8.
Additionaly to the 14mm spray tube a MG34 with 600 rounds was on board. The flamethrower range was about 55 meters. The weight of the vehicle was 23 tons, the length 5.52m, the width 2.95m and the height 2.16m. The front was 80mm armored, the sides 30mm and the chassis rear 50mm, while the superstructure rear only had 30mm.
The first Flammpanzer I was created on a Chassis of the Ausf.B in Spanish Civil War. On 30th March 1939 a report was written to German General Staff that it was easy to replace the right hand MG of the Panzer I by a hand-held flamethrower.
The Germans 'remembered' that while the battles in North Africa. Here the 5th light Division took some Panzer I Ausf.A and replaced the right hand MG by the'kleiner Rucksackflammenwerfer 40' (small backpack flamethrower), which were borrowed from combat engineers. The converted tanks were used in the battles around Tobruk and should smoke out the occupants of the concrete emplacements in the Tobruk perimeter defence.
The range of the flamethrower was about 25 meter. There was enough flame fuel for 10-12 one second spurts. Further technical data of the tank were those of the normal Panzer I Ausf.A.
More details are not known.
Panzerkampfwagen B2(f) (Flamm)
The captured frech tank Char B1bis was used by the Germans calling it Char B2(f). Hitler wanted 24 of these tanks to be converted to Flammpanzer until the latest of 20th June 1941 to have them ready for Operation 'Barbarossa'.
For the conversion the 75mm cannon was replaced by a flame spray tube. That was, like the original 75mm cannon, only vertically movable.
A second version was built where in place of the 75mm cannon a small platform was installed, on which traversable turret (like on Flammpanzer II) was mounted. The flamethrower-operator got a vision slit, which was cut in the front plate. Both versions had the flame fuel tank internally.
All 24 Flammpanzer were issued to Panzerabteilung (F) 102, which supported successfully the attacks on the russian border fortress 'Wieki Dzial'. On 27th July 1941 the Panzerabteilung (F) 102 was disbanded.
The third version of the flame-tanks received a new flamethrower which achieved ranges of 40-45 meter, by propelling the flamefuel by a pump which was driven by a J10-engine. The spray-tube was this time placed in a ball-mount and the flamethrower operator received the drivers visor 50 (Fahrersehklappe 50). The new series of Flammpanzer could be recognized by the flamefuel-tank on the rear, which was 30mm armoured. All 24 tanks of first and second series were converted to third series and so 60 vehicles were produced.
In the turret remained the 47mm KwK35(f) L/34 and a 7.5mm MG(f). 
There were 50 rounds carried for the 47mm cannon. This tank weighted 32 tons and the armour protection consisted of 55mm plates at the turret front and 45mm at turret sides and rear. The Chassis had 60mm in front and at the sides and 45mm at the rear. The length of this Flammpanzer was 6.52m, the width 2.52m and the height 2.88m. The groundpressure was 0.85kg/cm2, and it had a fording depth of 72cm. The 16.94 litre Renault engine gave 300 hp at 1900rpm, so a maximum speed of 28km/h was achievable.
All in all 60 Panzer B2(Flamm) got the new flamethrower system and were issued to following units: 12 to Panzerkompanie 223 at Eastern Front, 24 to Panzer-Brigade 100 in the west, 10 to Panzer Abteilung 213 in the west and an unknown number to the 7.SS Freiwilligen Gebirgs Divison "Prinz Eugen" in Jugoslavia.
Flammanlage on Tiger Chassis
On 5th December 1944 Hitler said on a conference that a long-range flamethrower must be installed on a tank with heaviest possible armor. he suggested on 29th December 1944 the Jagdtiger for flamethrowersystem carrier, if it is possible to achieve flamethrowing ranges of 200 meters.
in January 1945 it was reported that new developed flamethrower had ranges of 120-140 meter. These needed compresses nitrogene to achieve a pressure of 20-25 athmosperes.
Plans were made to mount such a flamethrower in a Tiger I, replacing the bow machine gun. Flamefuel tanks of 800 litres should be installed which means that no further original armament (8.8cm KwK L/56) was possible.
on 19th March 1945 Hitler again specifically ordered to build the flamethrowing system with 100-120 meter range into a turretless Tiger I. The manufacturer Wegmann in Kassel promised to complete this Flammpanzer until 15th April 1945 if the Tiger and the flamethrower-system are delivered to them on schedule.
The Tiger I and the flamethrower-system were both loaded on a train on 17th March 1945 in Kummersdorf and left with highest priority heading for Kassel, but it had'nt arrived there until 3rd April 1945. because of the chaotic situation in Kassel it was decided to send the train to Miag in Braunschweig where the Flammpanzer should be assembled under the direction of Wegmann-personnel.
Because of the 17 days lost on transport, the bombing campaign and Allied troop advances disrupted any further activity on completion of the experimental Schwerst-Flammpanzer (heaviest flamethrowing tank) on Tiger I Chassis.
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