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- "When the lay was reported complete the pumps were coupled up and more water pumped in from the home end. Anxious faces would gather round the pressure meter in the control room to watch the needle climb steadily to the bursting pressure of the first disc and a sigh of relief would go up when it suddenly wobbled and fell back again. The first disc had blown satisfactorily. Successively one disc after another would be negotiated, the excitement growing as the last ones were reached. Eventually, some hours after the commencement of pumping, the final one would go and a welcome telephone call from the other side would announce 'Line on flow'." – Donald Banks. (en)
- "I am persuaded that the procedure which offers the best chance of rapid progress in fog clearance is to entrust the experimental work to the Petroleum Warfare Dept. Mr Geoffrey Lloyd, the Minister for Petroleum, is prepared to undertake it. The department has experience in dealing with analogous problems and they have a certain amount of plant and equipment which would enable them to get to work at once. Lord Cherwell agrees that this is the best line of action – indeed, the suggestion came from him. It would help Mr Lloyd if you would send him a Minute authorizing him to proceed!" — Secretary of State for Air, Archibald Sinclair, September 1942. (en)
- Early in August the specification was settled and put in hand by Logondas and in November it was careening about the Moody Downs, ridden cowboy fashion by Canadians with the governors off the engines. The élan of the 'Ronson Cavalry,' as they called themselves, was tremendously inspiring. Later they carried it across the Channel, emulating their fathers of the Canadian Light Cavalry in 1918 in many a hard-fought action in the Low Countries.—Donald Banks (en)
- I lived in Longniddry from 1927 until my wife and I moved [away] ... twenty years ago. [...] It was on a platform high up in the trees opposite a dip in the road between the two old telegraph poles. My recollection is that the tank was as high as the telegraph poles. A vertical pipe from the tank was connected to a horizontal pipe fixed to the top of the wall. This pipe had a line of small holes along its length. Opening a valve inside the wood allowed the petrol to escape under a considerable pressure head.
I only saw this Flamme operated once. Army personnel for the Home Guard laid on a demonstration. The petrol valve was opened and created a huge spray, which reached the opposite side of the road. I think the original idea was that a limited amount of petrol would be released, but the valve remained open. An army Sergeant with a Very pistol fired a round into the pool of petrol in the road dip, while fuel was still coming out at force.
It created one of the fiercest of fires I have seen, destroying the grass banks, the railway sleeper fence, scorched the telegraph poles and burned the surface off the road. Very effective! This little episode was never repeated! (en)
- I was very much concerned at that time with the question of the flame throwers—Churchill had backed the chap who put the flame thrower into the Churchill tank. If you put his name on it he got mesmerized and so there was a proposal to build the "Crocodile," the flame thrower based on the tank that bore his name. I had taken the opposite view and that was that if flame was to be of any use—a weapon of special but limited usefulness—the thing that was most important was mobility and the Canadian carrier seemed to be the most promising vehicle.—General McNaughton. (en)
- During August the corpses of about forty German soldiers were washed up at scattered points along the coast between the Isle of Wight and Cornwall. The Germans had been practising embarkations in the barges along the French coast. Some of these barges put out to sea in order to escape British bombing and were sunk, either by bombing or bad weather. This was the source of a widespread rumour that the Germans had attempted an invasion and had suffered very heavy losses either by drowning or by being burnt in patches of sea covered with flaming oil. We took no steps to contradict such tales, which spread freely through the occupied countries in a wildly exaggerated form and gave much encouragement to the oppressed populations. (en)
- Hankey and Lloyd were not alone in their interest in the development of petroleum warfare weapons; encouragement came from the highest quarters. In August, a note from the Chief Engineer's office at GHQ Home Forces read: "The PM is personally interested in it. It is something which can be provided without any adverse effect on the production of other equipment or on our War effort generally. It is unlikely that we shall have enough A/T weapons to cover all our road blocks for many months, if ever. These flame traps do at least give the Home Guard a sporting chance of frying a few Germans." (en)
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