Napalm
| Napalm link (Chemical weapon) | |
|---|---|
| Chemical weapon that leaves horrendous skin burn damages |
Usage
Napalm was widely used during the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Weapons testing at Royan
By 1945, the area around the town of Royan in Western France was a German pocket, left far behind the front lines. Air attacks in April 1945, just a few weeks before the German capitulation left Royan, as well as the surrounding forests, on fire. The air attacks, which had no military purpose by then, was in reality an experiment to test a new substance, known today under the name of napalm.
On April 14, 1945, B17s and B24s of the 8th Air Force dropped 3,200 tons of high explosives on the town and surrounds. The next day, the aerial bombardment resumed with an armada of 1,350 aircraft. In addition to the explosives, they dumped 725,000 liters of napalm, a new flammable product composed of gelled gasoline. This weapon, which would be used massively in future conflicts, had already been tested in August 1944 during the recapture of Saint-Malo (the bombing of the small island of Cézembre).[1] An air raid in January 1945 had killed 500 French civilians and wounded 1000[2]. The number of dead from the napalm raids in April, presumably much larger, are not readily available.
In April 1945, Howard Zinn, who was a member of the 490th bombardment squadron of the American Air Force was sent to Royan. For the presentation of the mission, it was explained to them "that each plane was loaded with 30 bombs of 45 kg containing gelled gasoline, a new substance known today under the name of napalm". Zinn remembered "having seen, from the top of the sky, the bombs exploding in the city, burning up like matches in the fog." He was totally unaware of the human tragedy that was taking place below.[3]
Legal status
Use of napalm against civilian populations was banned by the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) in 1980.[4]
References
- ↑ https://www.royanatlantique.fr/explorer/patrimoine-et-culture/au-coeur-de-notre-histoire/bombardements-de-royan/
- ↑ Pierre Montagnon, Dictionnaire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, 2011.
- ↑ https://www.c-royan.com/arts-culture/litterature/livres-et-auteurs/1365-la-bombe.html
- ↑ http://www.worldinbalance.net/intagreements/1980-certainconventionalweapons.php
