Essay about Flamethrowers: Their Psychological Effects in Warfare

There is quite a debate when it comes to the idea of controlled fires to protect nature. Many agree that the benefits out way the risks but many also believe that a controlled fire is too dangerous to take that chance. If proper steps are taken, the outcome of the process is not only safe but also effective.

War is something that can change the very principles of a person, it can change a person and leave multiple effects that can last for their entire life. The sniper is fighting in a civil war where friends and family can turn into enemies at a moment's notice. The fight is between the Republicans and the Free Staters, the protagonist is a sniper for the Republicans. Throughout the story, we go into the state of mind of the main character and learn some ramifications that he gained in the war. The text, “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty shows us the physical and psychological results of war, that happens to people.

According to Merriam-Webster, a weapon is: something (such as a gun, knife, club, or bomb) that is used for fighting or attacking someone or for defending yourself when someone is attacking you. Weapons have been used for thousands of years, since the creation of man. However, its use was limited to only hunting and defending against large predatory animals. As time passed, man 's knowledge of weaponry expanded beyond a simple club and transformed into guns. Prior to the 1850s, Americans owned guns though none were used to inflict violence upon another person. “As a result, guns contributed little to the homicide rate, which was low everywhere, even in the South and on the frontier, where historians once assumed guns and murder went

In the early phases of ww1 (1914) the flamethrower brought extreme terror to the British and French troops. However other nations quickly caught onto it. The weapon wasn’t at all hard to make, but was very effective. The idea of a flamethrower was to throw burning fuel at the enemy. The Germans created two types of flamethrowers or models of flamethrowers. One large and one small, both developed by Richard Fiedler. The lighter and smaller flamethrower was designed for one man to be able to carry it. This flamethrower used pressurised air and nitrogen/carbon dioxide. A stream of burning gas and oil would be thrown up to 18 meters to hit. the enemy. The second and larger model was not appropriate for a single soldier. Its range could double the small flamethrower. This particular model could withstand flames for up to 40 seconds. However the only down side to this model is that it used a lot of fuel which was highly costly. These weapons were very effective in world war one when used at close range but there were disadvantages of them. Flamethrowers didn’t have the range of a rifle. If you operated a flamethrower you were in target of

Light machine guns and sub-machine guns were invented during World War I as small arms, but the larger machine guns were modernized as well. Flame throwers were used as an offensive attack against trench warfare.[ix],[x]

We are the most technically advanced nation in the free world but yet we have not been able to reduce the number of firefighter fatalities over the years. Its one of the great mysteries of the world today. Our gear is better than what they wore thirty years ago, its better than what they wore ten years ago and we still lose an average of one hundred firefighters every year. I know that not all are dying in structure fires but just one is one too many.

War can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. In “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect—the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside?

Some of the weapons used by the Americans included flamethrowing tanks, flame throwers, hand grenades, the Colt .45, and thompson machine guns. The use of flamethrowers in Iwo Jima was crucial to the Americans success. Since the Japanese were largely unaffected by bombs or bullets because they could go and hide in their caves, flamethrowers could wipe them out. The fire would destroy their oxygen supply, making them pass out and ultimately die. Without the use of flamethrowers, the battle may have waged on even longer. The flamethrower consisted of two tanks on your back, somewhat like a backpack. The flamethrower weighed almost 100 pounds, and destroyed anything within 100 ft. Flame tanks had the same effect as flamethrowers, except that they

     Weapons have been around from the Neanderthals of the post-ice age, to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Rocks became knives, sticks became spears, and bayonets became AK-47’s. The technology from the French and Indian War was revolutionized and manufactured by the newly opened weaponry companies. Colt

“When I was in serious danger I was almost completely paralysed by fear, I remember sitting with a coffin (a fellow soldier) on the fire-step of a trench during an intense bombardment, when it seemed certain that we must be killed”(The Psychological Effects Of The Vietnam War). Our soldiers that we send to war to protect us against the countries trying to harm us are put into dangerous situations that affect them physically and mentally and leave them with permanent damage to their minds and bodies. The server damage that our military soldiers faced when returning from war is PTSD which stands for post traumatic stress disorder and is the most common disorder that returning soldiers are diagnosed with , but a more tragic diagnosis from war

The Experience Of War Many authors have written about war themes, some extracts of the stories and poems that I have read and researched are The Upturned Face by Steven Crane .It is about a fictional war being fought in an imaginary Europe. Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell describes his senses and feeling of getting shot in the neck during battle. Exposure by Wilfred Owen,describes the horrors and reality of being in the trenches of the First World War. And The Making of Me by Robert Westall is about a shell-shocked grandfather who has the responsibility of looking after his grandchild.

On April 1915, The first poison gas attack began when the German forces shocked the Allied forces along the Western Front by firing more than 150 tonnes of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium (History.com Staff, 2010). Poison gas was the most feared of all weapons in World War One. Poison gas was used in the trenches even when there was no attack going on. If a Soldiers got trapped with poison gas, it would mean that soldiers have to put a crude gas mask (Figure 1) on because it helped protect the soldiers from inhaling airborne pollutants and toxic gases. Poison gas can leave the victim in agony for days and weeks before they succumbed to their injuries.

During the 17th century the European powers developed a whole new array of firepower. The old gunpowder weapons that fired by

The history of weapons started centuries ago when cave people initially developed a weapon called a bow and arrow, for hunting purposes. They created this weapon from yew or elm for the bow and the arrow’s shaft, and used animal ligaments, or sinew to add tension to the bow. Archeologists have also found arrow heads made of sharp rocks and angled bones from different types of animals. These artifacts are all over the world displayed beautifully in museums to make new civilization realize the important role weapons have played in daily life.

Arson is “any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public building, motor vehicle or aircraft, [or] personal property of another” (Bartol & Bartol, 2011. P 463). Arson comes in many forms – juveniles vandalizing property, businesses trying to collect insurance money, and murderers covering up their crimes are just a few of the examples arson investigators deal with. The reasons why arson is committed and the psychology behind arson are as diverse as the crime itself. There is no one perfect psychological profile of an arsonist. Young, old, educated, illiterate, sane, insane, rich and poor all can become arsonists. With such a wide range of suspect characteristics,