Beyond the burn: Studies on the physiological effects of flamethrowers during World War Ⅱ

作     者：David W.Van Wyck David W.Van Wyck

作者机构：4/3 SFG(A)Bldg Z-4157 South Post RdFort BraggNC 28310USA 

出 版 物：《Military Medical Research》 (军事医学研究（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2020年第7卷第3期

页      面：303-311页

核心收录：

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 1009[医学-特种医学] 10[医学] 

主　　题：Flamethrower Burns Carbon monoxide Asphyxiation Hypoxia Chemical warfare 

摘      要：Flamethrowers are widely considered one of warfare’s most controversial weapons and are capable of inflicting gruesome physical injuries and intense psychological *** being the last of the major combatants in World WarⅡ(WWⅡ)to develop them,the *** quickly became the most frequent and adept operator of portable *** gave the *** ample opportunity to observe the effects of flamethrowers on enemy ***,while most people in modern times would consider immolation by flamethrower to be an unnecessarily painful and inhumane way to inflict casualties,immolation was,at one point during WWⅡ,referred to asmercy killingby the *** Warfare Service(CWS).This mischaracterization arose from a series of firsthand accounts describing what were believed to be quick,painless,and unmarred deaths,as well as from a poor and incomplete understanding of flamethrower *** a result,indirect mechanisms such as hypoxia and carbon monoxide poisoning were generally absent from accounts of the flamethrower’s fatal *** was not until several years after flamethrowers were introduced to the frontlines that the CWS and National Defense Research Committee(NDRC)conducted a series of tests to better understand the physiological and toxicological effects of *** article examines how the initial absence of scientific data on the physiologic effects of flamethrowers led to an inaccurate understanding of their lethality,and bizarre claims that one of history’s most horrific instruments of war was considered one of the morehumaneweapons on the battlefield.