Editing Fire (section)

==== Use in war ====
The use of fire in [[Conventional warfare|warfare]] has a long [[military history|history]]. Fire was the basis of all [[early thermal weapons]], including [[incendiary device]]s, heated projectiles, and the use of smoke. This class of weapons was particularly evident during naval battles and [[siege warfare]]. The [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] fleet used [[Greek fire]] to attack ships and men.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Fire and Brimstone: SO<sub>2</sub> as a Chemical Weapon in History | first1=Matthew D. | last1=Turner | first2=Jason | last2=Sapp | journal=Military Medicine | volume=188 | issue=11–12 | date=November 2023 | pages=286–288 | doi=10.1093/milmed/usad160 | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Incendiary Weapons - History | website=GlobalSecurity.org | url=https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/incendiary-history.htm | access-date=2025-02-26 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | title=Chemical warfare in the middle ages. Kallinikos' 'prepared fire' | first=Nicholas D. | last=Cheronis | journal=Journal of Chemical Education | volume=14 | issue=8 | page=360 | date=August 1, 1937 | doi=10.1021/ed014p360 | bibcode=1937JChEd..14..360C }}</ref><ref name=McNab_2015>{{cite book | title=The Flamethrower | first=Chris | last=McNab | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | year=2015 | isbn=9781472809032 | page=6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=onyXCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA6&v=onepage }}</ref>

The invention of [[gunpowder]] in China led to the [[fire lance]], a flame-thrower weapon dating to around 1000 CE which was a precursor to [[History of the firearm|projectile weapons driven by burning gunpowder]].<ref>{{cite journal | title=Cathayan Arrows and Meteors: The Origins of Chinese Rocketry | journal=Journal of Chinese Military History | first=Stephen G. | last=Haw | year=2013 | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=28-42 | doi=10.1163/22127453-12341243 }}</ref> The earliest modern [[flamethrower]]s were used by infantry in the [[World War I|First World War]], first used by German troops against entrenched French troops near Verdun in February 1915.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Flamethrower in action | url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/flamethrower-action | access-date=2023-11-02 | website=nzhistory.govt.nz | language=en | archive-date=2024-05-27 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527111922/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/flamethrower-action | url-status=live }}</ref> They were later successfully mounted on armoured vehicles in the Second World War.<ref>{{cite book | title=Churchill Crocodile Flamethrower | first=David | last=Fletcher | volume=136 | series=New Vanguard | pages=4–6 | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | year=2012 | isbn=9781780968032 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dJ2jCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA4 }}</ref>

Hand-thrown [[incendiary bombs]] improvised from glass bottles, later known as [[Molotov cocktails]], were deployed during the [[Spanish Civil War]] in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite journal | title=Anionic markers for the forensic identification of Chemical Ignition Molotov Cocktail composition | first1=C. | last1=Martín-Alberca | first2=J. L. | last2=Ferrando | first3=C. | last3=García-Ruiz | journal=Science & Justice | volume=53 | issue=1 | date=March 2013 | pages=49–54 | doi=10.1016/j.scijus.2012.11.004 }}</ref> During that war, incendiary bombs were deployed against [[Bombing of Guernica|Guernica]] by Fascist [[Aviazione Legionaria|Italian]] and Nazi [[Condor Legion|German]] air forces that had been created specifically to support [[Francisco Franco|Franco's]] [[Francoist Spain|Nationalists]].<ref>{{cite journal | title=Xabier Irujo. Gernika, 1937: The Market Day Massacre | first=Ian | last=Patterson | location=Reno | publisher=University of Nevada Press | journal=The American Historical Review | volume=122 | issue=1 | date=February 1, 2017 | pages=263–264 | doi=10.1093/ahr/122.1.263 }}</ref>

Incendiary bombs were dropped by [[Axis Powers|Axis]] and [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] during the Second World War, notably on [[Coventry Blitz|Coventry]], [[Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945)|Tokyo]], [[German bombing of Rotterdam|Rotterdam]], [[The Blitz|London]], [[Bombing of Hamburg in World War II|Hamburg]] and [[Bombing of Dresden in World War II|Dresden]]. In the latter two cases, [[firestorm]]s were deliberately caused in which a ring of fire surrounding each city was drawn inward by an [[Vertical draft|updraft]] created by a central cluster of fires.<ref name="BarashWebel2008">{{cite book | first1=David P. | last1=Barash  | first2=Charles P. | last2=Webel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eeze4_wGViMC |title=Peace and Conflict Studies |date=10 July 2008 |publisher=SAGE |isbn=978-1-4129-6120-2 |pages=365 }}</ref> The United States Army Air Force extensively used incendiaries against Japanese targets in the latter months of the war, devastating entire cities constructed primarily of wood and paper houses. The incendiary fluid [[napalm]] was used in July 1944, towards the end of the [[World War II|Second World War]], although its use did not gain public attention until the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Guillaume |first=Marine |date=2016-12-01 |title=Napalm in US Bombing Doctrine and Practice, 1942-1975 |url=https://apjjf.org/-Marine-Guillaume/4983/article.pdf |journal=The Asia-Pacific Journal |volume=14 |issue=23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904095842/https://apjjf.org/-Marine-Guillaume/4983/article.pdf |archive-date=2020-09-04 |url-status=live }}</ref>