Would the Soviets have access to napalm by the mid 50s?

Honza

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Need to know whether the Soviets would have napalm for their aircraft by the mid fifties. This will affect my post war CG.
 

Honza

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It seems there is very little info available on the Warsaw Pact military forces. At the Axis History Forum I asked about HEAT and APCR ammo for the Warsaw Pact AFV in the 50s. No reply.

Since there is nothing to go by I will have to guess as to what the Soviet military was using at the time. My guestimate is that napalm was available and that Soviet AFV like the T54 and IS3 had certain amounts of HEAT and APCR ammo. It would certainly make the CG more interesting.
 

Vinnie

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Napalm was hardly a military secret. It's just not a lot of usecexcept in certain circumstances.
 

Fort

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Soviets had and used napalm since the mid 40’s. Capable of aircraft delivery since the late 40’s.

Paper: “Capability and Likelihood of Soviet Employment of Napalm-Type and Flame-Throwing Weapons”

It’s behind a paywall, your university may have free access.

Ammo types:

T-54
16267
 
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Honza

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Fort. Thank you. I take it that those ammo types for the IS-3 are types of HEAT rounds. They do not seem any more effective than the normal AP round which according to ASL has a TK# of 25. If each TK# = about 10mm of armor then these HEAT rounds would have a TK# of about 23. Am I correct?
 

Honza

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I see now that they are types of AP rounds.

It looks like the IS-3 never used HEAT.
 

Fort

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What you’re looking for is ammo with the ’BK’ designation; the Soviet label for HEAT. Google it and see what you find.

I am sure that type was used in everything from 76.2mm and up weapons, especially after WWII.

The later smooth bore guns definitely used shaped charge ammo.
 

Honza

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What I have found is that the Soviets had all sorts of HEAT ammo available for various calibers in the 60s. Before then there was not much available. There were trials going on in the 50s. It is possible that the 85mm Gun had HEAT available from the mid 50s. I think the 76mm did too. But for the Soviets HEAT only became a main ammo type in the 60s.
 

Michael Dorosh

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Napalm was hardly a military secret. It's just not a lot of usecexcept in certain circumstances.
The word itself AIUI just refers to a burnable substance thickened by a gelling agent. Flamethrowers in World War II all used some form of napalm. The word itself gained notoriety during Vietnam, probably as a result of one photo I won't post here showing a teenage Vietnamese girl fleeing, without clothing on, from a burning village. Public consciousness probably associates it solely with bombs dropped by aircraft but I don't suppose that is entirely accurate.
 

Eagle4ty

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The word itself AIUI just refers to a burnable substance thickened by a gelling agent. Flamethrowers in World War II all used some form of napalm. The word itself gained notoriety during Vietnam, probably as a result of one photo I won't post here showing a teenage Vietnamese girl fleeing, without clothing on, from a burning village. Public consciousness probably associates it solely with bombs dropped by aircraft but I don't suppose that is entirely accurate.
However, it did take the U.S. forces a while to field a workable FT during WW-II as they had dropped the use & manufacture of flame weapons after WW-I. Arguably the 1st combat use of a trial FT, at Buna, Papua New Guinea, was a bit less than successful, emitting a spurt of flame about 2m from the firer and immediately dying out. A few further later test versions were used on Tarawa with a not much better outcome overall but at least the results were mixed.
 

Old Noob

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Using flamethrowers in the jungle called for a lot of TLC. The wet conditions provided opportunity for the innards to malfunction.
So, daily maintenance was mandatory.
 
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