German soldier lighting his cigarette with a flamethrower; ca. 1940s.

I don’t always say nice things about Nazis, but that’s about the most badass way to light a cigarette. Although, I’m sure it was a pretty common way for people with flamethrowers to light a cigarette.

Flamethrowers had two fuel lines. The line he is lighting is cigarette with is sort of like a pilot line. It is a smaller fuel line that stays lit and can produce a bit of a larger flame when its trigger is pressed. The second line is for the big fire. This contains a thicker gelatinous type of fuel. So the flamer will pull the first trigger making the pilot flame larger, then pulls the second trigger emitting the thicker fuel which gets lit by the pilot flame raining hellfire upon anyone in its path. So technically its not really a blowtorch, but just a little pilot flame.

September 24, 2014 | Categories: History, History of Science and Technology, Human History, Images of History, Life under siege, Military History, Modern Warfare, Nightmares of World War II, Photography, The Drama Of It All, The Politics of Cultural Destruction, Weird, World War Two | Tags: Adolf Hitler, badass, black and white photography, cigarette, Europe, Fire, Flamethrower, fuel line, fuel lines, German, Germany, historic, Historical, Hitler, human history, Interesting, Military, Military history, Nazi, Nazis, Photo, Photography, pilot flame, Strange, War, Warfare, wartime, Weird, World History, World War two, WW2, wwii | Leave a comment