page_title: Flame tank
section_title: Light Tank M3 (General Stuart)
hierarchical_section_title: Flame tank / World War II Allied / Light Tank M3 (General Stuart)
caption_attribution_description: English: U.S. Flamethrowing tank blasts Japanese on Bougainville. Flames sear a Japanese pillbox as an American soldier emerges from the turret of a flame-throwing tank during the American advance on Bougainville Island in the Northern Solomons in the South Pacific. Tanks with flame-throwing units such as this one, have proved invaluable in the Bougainville fighting U.S. forces expanded their Empress Augusta Bay beachhead on the island's western coast after crushing desperate Japanese attempts to crack the American lines. In March 1944, alone, an estimated 5,000 Japanese soldiers were killed in the fighting on the island, where the enemy, entirely cut off from supplies, faces annihilation or capture.
context_page_description: A flame tank is a type of tank equipped with a flamethrower, most commonly used to supplement combined arms attacks against fortifications, confined spaces, or other obstacles. The type only reached significant use in the Second World War, during which the United States, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom all produced flamethrower-equipped tanks.
  A number of production methods were used. The flamethrowers used were either modified versions of existing infantry flame weapons or specially designed. They were mounted externally, replaced existing machine gun mounts, or replaced the tank's main armament. Fuel for the flame weapon was either carried inside the tank, in armoured external storage, or in some cases in a special trailer behind the tank.
context_section_description: M3 Satan: Improvised conversion of M3 light tank with Canadian "Ronson".
caption: An M3 Stuart, fitted with a flamethrower, attacks a Japanese bunker during the Bougainville Campaign (April 1944)
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