Flamethrowers

It was yesterday evening, just as night fell, that it happened. The day had been fairly calm . . . and nothing forewarned us of a German attack. Suddenly one of my comrades shouted, “Hallo! what is this coming down on us? Any one would think it was petroleum [fuel].” At that time we could not believe the truth, but the liquid which began to spray on us was certainly some kind of petroleum. The Germans were pumping it from hoses . . . A few seconds later incendiary [fire- starting] bombs began to rain down on us and the whole trench burst into flame . . . the men began to scream terribly, tearing off their clothes, trying to beat out the flames . . . We had our eyebrows and eyelashes burned off, and clothes were burned in great patches and our flesh was sizzling like roasting meat.

—Philip Gibbs, “Story of the Evening of Liquid Flames,” in Soul of the War, 1915