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Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a Thickening agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated aluminium salts of naphthenic acid and palmitic acid. A team led by chemist Louis Fieser originally developed napalm for the US Chemical Warfare Service in 1942 in a secret laboratory at Harvard University. Of immediate first interest was its viability as an incendiary device to be used in American fire bombing campaigns during World War II; its potential to be coherently projected into a solid stream that would carry for distance (instead of the bloomy fireball of pure gasoline) resulted in widespread adoption in infantry and tank/boat mounted as well.
Napalm burns at temperatures ranging from . It burns longer than gasoline, is more easily dispersed, and adheres to its targets. These traits make it both effective and controversial. It has been widely used from the air and from the ground, the largest use having been via airdropped bombs in World War II in the incendiary attacks on Japanese cities in 1945. It was used also for close air support roles by the U.S military in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and various others. Napalm has also fueled most of the flamethrowers (tank-, ship-, and infantry-based) used since World War II, giving them much greater range.
This shortage of natural rubber prompted at US companies such as DuPont and Standard Oil of New Jersey, and researchers at Harvard University, to develop factory-made alternatives: Synthetic rubber for all uses, including vehicle tires, tank tracks, gaskets, hoses, medical supplies and rain clothing. A team of chemists led by Louis Fieser at Harvard University was the first to develop synthetic napalm during 1942. "The production of napalm was first entrusted to Nuodex Products, and by the middle of April 1942 they had developed a brown, dry powder that was not sticky by itself, but when mixed with gasoline turned into an extremely sticky and flammable substance." One of Fieser's colleagues suggested adding phosphorus to the mix which increased the "ability to penetrate deeply ... into the Muscle, where it would continue to burn day after day."
On 4 July 1942, the first test occurred on the football field near the Harvard Business School. Tests under operational conditions were carried out at Jefferson Proving Ground on condemned farm buildings and subsequently at Dugway Proving Ground on buildings designed and constructed to represent those to be found in German and Japanese villages. This new mixture of chemicals was first approved for use on the front lines in 1943.
Two-thirds of napalm bombs produced during WWII were used in the Pacific War. Napalm was often deployed against Japanese fortifications on Saipan, Iwo Jima, the Philippines, and Okinawa, where deeply dug-in Japanese troops refused to surrender. Following a shortage of conventional thermite bombs, General Curtis LeMay, among other high-ranking servicemen, ordered air raids on Japan to start using napalm instead. A 1946 report by the National Defense Research Council claims that 40,000 tons of M69s were dropped on Japan throughout the war, damaging 64 cities and causing more deaths than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
German fortifications and transportation hubs were targeted with napalm during both Operation Overlord and the Battle of the Bulge, sometimes in conjunction with artillery. During the Allied siege of La Rochelle, napalm was dropped on the outskirts of the Royan pocket, inadvertently killing French civilians.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) used napalm to a limited extent in both the Pacific War and the European Theater. (1990). 9781473817951, Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 9781473817951
Eighth Army chemical officer Donald Bode reported that, on an "average good day", UN pilots used (70,000 US gal; ) of napalm, with approximately (60,000 US gal; ) of this thrown by US forces. The New York Herald Tribune hailed "Napalm, the No. 1 Weapon in Korea". British Prime Minister Winston Churchill privately criticized the use of napalm in Korea, writing that it was "very cruel", as US/UN forces, he wrote, were "splashing it all over the civilian population", "torturing great masses of people". He conveyed these sentiments to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Omar Bradley, who "never published the statement". Publicly, Churchill allowed Bradley "to issue a statement that confirmed U.K. support for U.S. napalm attacks".
The French Air Force regularly used napalm for close air support of ground operations in both the First Indochina War and the Algerian War. At first, the canisters were simply pushed out the cargo doors of transport planes, such as the Amiot AAC.1; later mostly B-26 bombers were used.
Peruvian forces employed napalm throughout the 1960s against both communist insurgents and the Matsés indigenous group; four prominent Matsés villages were bombed during the Matsés massacre in 1964.
From 1968–1978, Rhodesia produced a variant of napalm for use in the Rhodesian Bush War, (1979). 9780900065040, The Anti-Apartheid Movement. ISBN 9780900065040 nicknamed Frantan (short for "frangible tank"). Around the same time, its ally South Africa targeted guerrilla bases in Angola with napalm during the South African Border War.
In 1974, Turkey used napalm in both phases of the invasion of Cyprus.
In 2018, Turkey was accused of using napalm in Operation Olive Branch against Kurdish nationalist groups.
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