Molotov cocktail how to make
Molotov cocktail how to make
What Is a Molotov Cocktail? Definition and Explanation
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A Molotov cocktail is a simple type of improvised incendiary device. A Molotov cocktail is also known as a petrol bomb, alcohol bomb, bottle bomb, poor man’s grenade, or simply Molotov. The simplest form of the device consists of a stoppered bottle filled with a combustible liquid, such as gasoline or high-proof alcohol, with a fuel-soaked rag stuffed in the neck of the bottle. The stopper separates the fuel from the part of the rag that acts as a fuse. To use a Molotov cocktail, the rag is ignited and the bottle is thrown against a vehicle or fortification. The bottle breaks, spraying fuel into the air. The vapor and droplets are ignited by the flame, producing a fireball and then a burning fire, which consumes the remainder of the fuel.
Molotov Ingredients
The key ingredients are a bottle that shatters on impact and a fuel that catches fire and spreads when the bottle breaks. While gasoline and alcohol are the traditional fuels, other flammable liquids are effective, including diesel, turpentine, and jet fuel. All alcohols work, including ethanol, methanol, and isopropanol. Sometimes detergent, motor oil, polystyrene foam, or rubber cement are added to make the mixture stick better to the target or cause the burning liquid to release thick smoke.
For the wick, natural fibers, such as cotton or wool, work better than synthetics (nylon, rayon, etc.) because synthetic fibers typically melt.
Origin of the Molotov Cocktail
The Molotov cocktail traces its origins to an improvised incendiary device that was used in the 1936 to 1939 Spanish Civil War in which General Francisco Franco had Spanish Nationalists use the weapons against Soviet T-26 tanks. In World War II, the Finnish used the weapons against Soviet tanks. Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs claimed in radio broadcasts that the Soviet Union was delivering food to the starving Finns rather than dropping bombs on them. The Finns started referring to the air bombs as Molotov bread baskets and to the incendiary weapons, they used against the Soviet tanks as Molotov cocktails.
Revisions to the Molotov Cocktail
Throwing a flaming bottle of fuel is inherently dangerous, so modifications were made to the Molotov cocktail. The Alko corporation mass-produced Molotov cocktails. These devices consisted of 750 ml glass bottles that contained a mixture of gasoline, ethanol, and tar. The sealed bottles were bundled with a pair of pyrotechnic storm matches, one on either side of the bottle. One or both of the matches were lit before the device was thrown, either by hand or using a sling. The matches were safer and more reliable than the fuel-soaked cloth fuses. The tar thickened the fuel mixture so that the fuel would adhere to its target and so the fire would produce a lot of smoke. Any flammable liquid could be used as the fuel. Other thickening agents included dish soap, egg whites, sugar, blood, and motor oil.
The Polish army developed a mixture of sulfuric acid, sugar, and potassium chlorate that ignited upon impact, thus eliminating the need for a lit fuse.
Uses of Molotov Cocktails
The purpose of a Molotov is to set a target on fire. The incendiaries have been used by regular soldiers in the absence of conventional weapons, but more often they are used by terrorists, protesters, rioters, and street criminals. While effective at instilling fear in targets, Molotov cocktails present a significant risk to the person using them.
Molotov cocktail
A Finnish soldier with a Molotov cocktail in the 1939-40 Winter War.
The Molotov cocktail, also known as a Petrol Bomb, Fire Bomb (not to be confused with the actual Fire Bomb) or just Molotov is a generic name used for a variety of bottle-based improvised incendiary weapons. Due to the relative ease of production, they are frequently used by amateur protesters and non-professionally equipped fighters in urban guerrilla warfare. They are primarily intended to set targets ablaze rather than instantly destroy them. The name «Molotov cocktail» was coined by the Finns during the Winter War. [1] The name is an insulting reference to Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, who was responsible for the partitioning of Finland with Nazi Germany under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939. The pact with the Nazis bearing Molotov’s name, which secretly stated the Soviet intention to invade Finland in November 1939, was widely mocked by the Finns, as well as much of the propaganda Molotov produced to accompany it, including his declaration on Soviet state radio that bombing missions over Finland were actually airborne humanitarian food deliveries for their starving neighbors. The Finns, far from starving and engaged in a bitter war for national survival with the Soviet forces, sarcastically dubbed the Soviet cluster bombs «Molotov bread baskets» in reference to Molotov’s propaganda broadcasts. When the hand-held bottle firebomb was developed to attack Soviet tanks, the Finns called it the «Molotov cocktail», as «a drink to go with the food». [2] Molotov himself despised the name, particularly as the term became ubiquitous and genericized as Soviets faced increasing numbers of cocktail-throwing protestors in the Eastern Bloc in the years after World War II. [3]
Contents
Recipe
A Molotov cocktail is a breakable glass bottle containing a flammable substance such as gasoline/petrol or a napalm-like mixture, with some motor oil added, and usually a source of ignition such as a burning cloth wick held in place by the bottle’s stopper. The wick is usually soaked in alcohol or kerosene, rather than gasoline.
In action, the wick is lit and the bottle hurled at a target such as a vehicle or fortification. When the bottle smashes on impact, the ensuing cloud of petrol droplets and vapour ignites, causing an immediate fireball followed by a raging fire as the remainder of the fuel is consumed. Another method is to place a reactive substance in with the gasoline, and treat the label or wrapper paper with another chemical; when the bottle ruptures, the two chemicals mix and ignite; this is safer to handle if done properly, and does not betray the thrower with a visible flame prior to the throw. A far superior version can be produced by substituting carbon disulfide for the gasoline and saturating this solvent with white phosphorus and sulfur. The mixture will automatically ignite on exposure to air. Care must be taken to avoid the use of rubber stoppers for the bottles, as carbon disulfide readily dissolves rubber.
Development and use in war
Spanish Civil War
We made use of «petrol bombs» roughly as follows: take a 2lb glass jam jar. Fill with petrol. Take a heavy curtain, half a blanket, or some other heavy material. Wrap this over the mouth of the jar, tie it round the neck with string, leave the ends of the material hanging free. When you want to use it have somebody standing by with a light [i.e., a source of ignition]. Put a corner of the material down in front of you, turn the bottle over so that petrol soaks out round the mouth of the bottle and drips on to this corner of the material. Turn the bottle right way up again, hold it in your right hand, most of the blanket bunched beneath the bottle, with your left hand take the blanket near the corner that is wetted with petrol. Wait for your tank. When near enough, your pal [or comrade-in-arms] lights the petrol soaked corner of the blanket. Throw the bottle and blanket as soon as this corner is flaring. (You cannot throw it far.) See that it drops in front of the tank. The blanket should catch in the tracks or in a cog-wheel, or wind itself round an axle. The bottle will smash, but the petrol should soak the blanket well enough to make a really healthy fire which will burn the rubber wheels on which the tank track runs, set fire to the carburettor or frizzle the crew. Do not play with these things. They are highly dangerous.
Khalkhin Gol
The Battle of Khalkhin Gol, a border conflict of 1939 ostensibly between Mongolia and Manchukuo, saw heavy fighting between Japanese and Soviet forces. Short of anti-tank equipment, Japanese infantry attacked Soviet tanks with gasoline-filled bottles. Japanese infantrymen claimed that several hundred Soviet tanks had been destroyed this way, though Soviet loss records do not support this assessment. [7]
Finland
Soviet cluster bomb ironically called a «Molotov bread basket». The «Molotov cocktail» was the Finns’ response – «a drink to go with the food».
During the Winter War, the Soviet air force made extensive use of incendiaries and cluster bombs against Finnish troops and fortifications. When Soviet People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov claimed in domestic propaganda broadcasts that the USSR was not bombing Finland, but merely delivering food to the citizens, the Finns, who were not starving, started sarcastically to call the air bombs Molotov bread baskets. [8] Soon the Finns responded by attacking advancing tanks with «Molotov cocktails», which were «a drink to go with the food». At first, the term was used to describe only the burning mixture itself, but in practical use the term was soon applied to the combination of both the bottle and its contents. This Finnish use of the hand- or sling-thrown explosive against Soviet tanks was repeated in the subsequent Continuation War between the two countries. [1]
The original design of the Molotov cocktail produced by the Finnish alcohol monopoly Alko during the Winter War of 1939–40. The bottle has storm matches instead of a rag for a fuse.
A British War Office report dated June 1940 noted that:
The Finns’ policy was to allow the Russian tanks to penetrate their defences, even inducing them to do so by ‘canalising’ them through gaps and concentrating their small arms fire on the infantry following them. The tanks that penetrated were taken on by gun fire in the open and by small parties of men armed with explosive charges and petrol bombs in the forests and villages. The essence of the policy was the separation of the AFVs from the infantry, as once on their own the tank has many blind spots and once brought to a stop can be disposed of at leisure. [10]
Molotov cocktails were eventually mass-produced by the Alko corporation at its Rajamäki distillery, bundled with matches to light them. Production totalled 450,000 during the Winter War. The original design of the Molotov cocktail was a mixture of ethanol, tar and gasoline in a 750 millilitres (0.79 US qt) bottle. The bottle had two long pyrotechnic storm matches attached to either side. Before use, one or both of the matches was lit; when the bottle broke on impact, the mixture ignited. The storm matches were found to be safer to use than a burning rag on the mouth of the bottle.
Britain
Early in 1940, with the prospect of immediate invasion, the possibilities of the petrol bomb gripped the imagination of the British public. For the layman, the petrol bomb had the benefit of using entirely familiar and available materials, [11] and they were quickly improvised in large numbers, with the intention of using them against enemy tanks. [12] Although the petrol bomb might seem like a weapon of desperation, the possibility of success was not quite as distant as might be imagined. 1940 was at the very end of the era of the light tank, and the German behemoths of the later war years were still in the future: many tanks were surprisingly vulnerable.
When used in the right way and in sufficient numbers, the Finns had found that they were effective. Although the experience of the Spanish Civil War received more publicity, the more sophisticated petroleum warfare tactics of the Finns were not lost on British commanders. In his 5 June address to LDV leaders, General Ironside said:
I want to develop this thing they developed in Finland, called the «Molotov cocktail», a bottle filled with resin, petrol and tar which if thrown on top of a tank will ignite, and if you throw half a dozen or more on it you have them cooked. It is quite an effective thing. If you can use your ingenuity, I give you a picture of a [road] block with two houses close to the block, overlooking it. There are many villages like that. Out of the top windows is the place to drop these things on the tank as it passes the block. It may only stop it for two minutes there, but it will be quite effective. [13]
Wintringham advised that a tank that was isolated from supporting infantry was potentially vulnerable to men who had the required determination and cunning to get close. Rifles or even a shotgun would be sufficient to persuade the crew to close all the hatches, and then the view from the tank is very limited; a turret-mounted machine gun has a very slow traverse and cannot hope to fend off attackers coming from all directions. Once sufficiently close, it is possible to hide where the tank’s gunner cannot see: «The most dangerous distance away from a tank is 200 yards; the safest distance is six inches.» [14] Petrol bombs will soon produce a pall of blinding smoke, and a well-placed explosive package or even a stout iron bar in the tracks can immobilise the vehicle, leaving it at the mercy of further petrol bombs – which will suffocate the engine and possibly the crew – or an explosive charge or anti-tank mine.
By August 1940, the War Office produced training instructions for the creation and use of Molotov cocktails. The instructions suggested scoring the bottles vertically with a diamond to ensure breakage and providing fuel-soaked rag, windproof matches or a length of cinema film (made of highly flammable nitrocellulose) as a source of ignition. [15]
A display of improvised munitions, including a Molotov cocktail, from the Warsaw Uprising, 1944.
However, there were voices that were more cautious. There were many who were sceptical about the efficacy of Molotov cocktails and SIPs grenades against the more modern German tanks. Weapon designer Stuart Macrae witnessed a trial of the SIPs grenade at Farnborough: «There was some concern that, if the tank drivers could not pull up quickly enough and hop out, they were likely to be frizzled to death, but after looking at the bottles they said they would be happy to take a chance.» [19] The drivers were proved right, trials on modern British tanks confirmed that Molotov and SIP grenades caused the occupants of the tanks «no inconvenience whatsoever». [20]
Wintringham, though enthusiastic about improvised weapons cautioned against a reliance on petrol bombs and repeatedly emphasised the importance of using explosive charges. [21] [22]
Other fronts
During the Irish War of Independence, IRA fighters sometimes used sods of turf soaked in paraffin oil to attack British army barracks. Fencing wire was pushed through the sod to make a throwing handle. [23]
The Polish Home Army developed a version [24] which ignited on impact without the need of a wick. Ignition was caused by a reaction between concentrated sulfuric acid mixed with the fuel and a mixture of potassium chlorate and sugar which was crystallized from solution onto a rag attached to the bottle.
The United States Marine Corps developed a version during World War II that used a tube of nitric acid and a lump of metallic sodium to ignite a mixture of petrol and diesel fuel. [25]
Modern use
A Molotov cocktail bursts during an anti-G8 demonstration in Rostock, 2007.
While Molotov cocktails may be a psychologically effective method of disabling armoured fighting vehicles by forcing the crew out or damaging external components, most modern tanks cannot be physically destroyed or rendered completely inoperable by Molotov cocktails; only «disabled». Early Soviet tanks had poorly designed engine louvers which allowed the admission of fuel – this design fault was quickly rectified, and subsequent armoured vehicles had engine louvers which drained fuel (as well as rain water and dust) away from the engine. Most tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) of the 21st century have specially designed nuclear, biological and chemical protective systems that make them internally air-tight and sealed; they are well protected from vapors, gases, and liquids. Modern tanks possess very thick composite armour consisting of layers of steel, ceramics, plastics and Kevlar, and these materials have melting points well above the burning temperature of gasoline, which makes the vehicles themselves invulnerable to Molotov cocktails. Only external components such as optical systems, antennas, externally mounted weapons systems or ventilation ports and openings can be damaged, which can make a tank virtually «blind» or allow burning gasoline to seep into the vehicle, forcing the crew to at least open the hatches or perhaps abandon the vehicle. A Molotov cocktail thrown through an open hatch into the crew spaces would, like most other grenades, adversely and seriously affect the crew and equipment. However, many modern tanks (such as those operated by the US and NATO) have on-board fire suppression systems. Any fire in a crew space will be automatically extinguished with Halon or another fire suppressant. [ Clarification needed ]
During the Second Battle of Fallujah US Marines employed Molotov cocktails made with «one part liquid laundry detergent, two parts gas» for ‘burning out’ their enemies from houses. [26]
Molotov cocktails used by protesters in Thailand, May 2010.
In Northern Ireland, Molotov cocktails were used by rioting paramilitary groups and protesters against the police, and they are also used to attack houses to burn the house or to intimidate the occupants.
In the Arab Spring, including in Cairo, Egypt, pro-government forces attacked protesters in Cairo with Molotovs. In the Bahraini uprising, protesters used Molotov cocktails against security forces.
Legality
Molotov Cocktail 101: How They’re Made & How to Defend Against Them
The “insurgent” (pathetic press term) or “terrorist” (the real term) threw a Molotov cocktail at the civilian American car, where it burst into a magnificent fireball. In deep and popular misconception, that destroys the car and kills its occupants. In further misconception, you can be defending Stalingrad and do that against a Nazi Tiger II tank and you suddenly win. But in the words of one of my instructors: “Not so much.”
The Best Bug Out Guns and Tips for When You’re Forced to Leave Home
Throwing one against a buttoned-up tank means that somebody might eventually repaint the tank. Throwing one against a Ford Crown Victoria — if you don’t break a window — means that whoever is in charge of the motorpool will be incredibly annoyed when you bring it back in. Bottom line: Molotovs are lame against anything other than dismounted troops or a structure containing flammable material. But you have to know about them and how to defend against them, because everyone from terrorists to modern street anarchists use them. If you find yourself in a riot, which is plausible given today’s landscape, the Molotov is a common tool.
What Is a Molotov Cocktail?
So what, exactly, is a Molotov cocktail? Many seem to think that all a Molotov is a bottle full of gasoline with a flaming rag out of the top. In fact, throughout history, far more subtle and complex versions emerged. The complexity arises in four ways: the fuel, thickening agents, ignition sources, and the bottle itself.
As for fuel options, besides gasoline, they have included paint thinner, isopropyl alcohol, kerosene, benzene and sometimes an addition of diesel fuel.
Thickening Agents
Better Molotovs use thickening agents. Why? Because although a massive fireball looks impressive, it’s actually a waste of the thermal content of the fuel. Heating the air far beyond the target accomplishes nothing. Thickening agents allow for a far more efficient transfer of heat to the target. They include military M2 thickener, Styrofoam, laundry detergent, motor oil, and rubber cement, among others.
Ignition Sources
The traditional flaming rag out the top has significant drawbacks. First, it takes time to ignite and also requires matches or a lighter. Second, it’s instantly and highly visible, particularly in low light level conditions. Third, the rag poses a burn threat to the attacker. Better molotovs use chemical ignition, of which several types are common. A rag or even paper label impregnated with potassium chlorate and sugar will work, if sulfuric acid is added to the fuel mixture.
The Bottle
All bottles are not the same. Any buzzed teenager who has thrown an empty beer bottle at a parking lot only to see it bounce can tell you that, and some wine bottles are remarkably hard to break. Historically, a well-prepared Molotov cocktail features a bottle already tested to break readily. Further, historically, throwers weaken bottles for this purpose. A diamond scribe or a glass cutter can be used to etch long strakes in the glass, although obviously those fighters had to be very careful about prototyping and testing.
Molotov Cocktail Defense
So how do you defend against them? As ever, the best answer is to try avoidance in the first instance. But if that’s not possible, there are options available.
If you’re in a car, try to drive straight at the thrower. Why? Firstly, it will unnerve him. Secondly, the triple-laminate of the windshield won’t shatter the way most safety-glass side windows are designed to. Then after you take the hit, simply keep driving.
If you’re defending a structure and have time to prepare, screw plywood over most of the window, except for a gap to be used as a firing port. Even if the Molotov breaks on the wood (and even if you are in a frame structure), it will most likely char the exterior without actually igniting it. If you don’t have time for plywood, at least try to have a big ABC-class fire extinguisher (preferably several) available. They can douse a gasoline fire. And for rooms that seem the most likely targets of attack, get as much flammable material out as you can, most particularly to include ripping up carpet and padding.
Stop, Drop, and …
Heaven forbid you ignite, what then? Your immediate action drill is the same one you learned in grade school: Stop, drop and roll. If you have a teammate, they can help by putting a blanket or coat over you, preferably of natural materials such as cotton or wool. Don’t use poly materials like tents or tarps because they readily melt and fuse with skin. Of course, if your teammate has an extinguisher available, great. However, try to maintain the presence of mind to hold your breath.
So if you ever have to face a Molotov cocktail, you now have a framework to know its dangers, know its limitations, and how to defend against them.
About the Author
Scott Longman started his career in the Directorate of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency. There he gained experience in both foreign intelligence and counter-insurgency matters. He later joined a federal contractor and spent more than 20 years taking part in hundreds of mock terrorist attacks, at nuclear power plants, Navy bases and other secured facilities. In addition to counter-active shooter instruction, he currently does Critical Infrastructure Protection on behalf of utility clients.
Editor’s Note:
We decided to re-publish this article on the Molotov cocktail, as it has become a go-to weapon employed by the civilian forces fighting in Ukraine. Private citizens everywhere make the fuel-bombs for fighters to use against the invading Russian forces. The New York Post reported that even local brewery Pravda stopped making booze, switching over production to fuel-bombs to aid the resistance.
Molotov Cocktail
Molotov Cocktails are a hand-made incendiary weapon which can be thrown by the player.
Contents
Usage
Molotov cocktails do not cause any damage upon impact. They will, however, spark a fire in its area of effect, allowing them to be useful for dispatching a medium to large group of zombies. Care must be taken though, as the fire created will spread and maybe even engulf the thrower in flames.
A lighter must be in the secondary slot in order to use it. After throwing, another molotov will be chosen as the current weapon if the player has one.
It is recommended to read more about the dangers of fire.
Crafting
Molotov cocktails can be crafted from a full whiskey bottle and a ripped sheet, or from a gas can, an empty bottle, and a ripped sheet.
Cocktails, anyone? How the Molotov cocktail came to be
Back in Moscow, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin wanted to trade territories with Finnish President Kyösti Kallio, claiming the security of Leningrad, 32 kilometres from the countries’ border, was at stake.
When Kallio said no, Stalin ordered an invasion. Many historians believe the Georgian revolutionary’s goal was to conquer the entire country, not just select territories.
Finland put up a courageous fight. The Soviets suffered international condemnation, its military was slapped with a disproportionately high number of casualties (5:1) yet, in the end, Stalin walked away with nine per cent of Finland’s territory.
The world has all but forgotten what became known as the Winter War but many are well aware of its most distinct weapon, the Molotov cocktail, or Molotovin koktaili in its original Finnish.
The Molotov cocktail has emerged as a weapon of convenience.
Today, Russian troops are invading Ukraine and the parallels between Vladimir Putin’s unnecessary war and Stalin’s are, well, jarring—Putin’s motives, the price the misadventure is exacting on his army, and the role the glass jars and bottles filled with flammable mixtures and stuffed with cloth wicks are playing in Ukraine’s inspiring resistance.
As Ukrainian citizens walked away from everyday life and took up arms to defend their country alongside soldiers, the Molotov cocktail has emerged as a weapon of convenience, along with the ubiquitous AK-47 assault rifle (a Russian invention.)
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence urged civilians to produce Molotov cocktails, and a Ukrainian TV channel broadcasted a recipe that included Styrofoam as a thickening agent to help stick the burning liquid to vehicles and other targets.
In the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, the Pravda Brewery stopped making its craft beer and instead filled the empty bottles with Molotov cocktails, sending them to hot spots around the country, including roadblocks and the besieged capital of Kyiv.
The dry-hopped golden ale—and now the deadly cocktail—was appropriately labelled Putin Huilo, which translates as “Putin is a dickhead.”
Brewery owner Yuriy Zastavny said he and his workers consider it their patriotic duty to bring to bear the expertise and experience gained during the 2014 Maidan Revolution, when Ukraine’s citizenry revolted against their authoritarian, pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. He’s been in Russian exile ever since.
“There is a high time in everyone’s life when you have to mobilize yourself to use all your knowledge, all your energy, everything you have lived for and everything you have gained in life to turn it into making the fall of this [Russian] empire possible,” Zastavny told Britain’s Sky News.
“We have put our own money and built on our knowledge of chemistry and our experience…to make good-quality Molotov cocktails.”
Elsewhere, at a former industrial complex that was used as a creative hub and rave space before the invasion, young Ukrainians were operating an improvised Molotov factory, stocked with bottles, some with apple juice labels, and flowery linen squares to be torn into strips and used as fuses.
History student Daniel Mediakovskyi, 20, admitted to The Guardian newspaper a Molotov wouldn’t stop the Russian army, but he stressed “it will break Russian soldiers mentally, and show them they are not welcome here.”
The Finns didn’t invent the Molotov cocktail. That distinction goes to Franco’s Nationalist forces of the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, who first used simple petrol bombs against Soviet T-26 tanks. The tanks were supporting Spanish Republicans in a failed assault on the Nationalist stronghold of Seseña.
“Do not play with these things,” he added. “They are highly dangerous.”
“When near enough, your pal lights the petrol-soaked corner of the blanket,” he said. “Throw the bottle and blanket as soon as this corner is flaring. See that it drops in front of the tank. The blanket should catch in the tracks or in a cogwheel, or wind itself round an axle.
“The bottle will smash, but the petrol should soak the blanket well enough to make a really healthy fire, which will burn the rubber wheels on which the tank track runs, set fire to the carburetor or frizzle the crew.
“Do not play with these things,” he added. “They are highly dangerous.”
The Finns refined the bomb’s mix, and the tactics used to deploy it, against the same T-26 tanks. They named the weapon after Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, a signatory to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
“The Finns’ policy was to allow the Russian tanks to penetrate their defences, even inducing them to do so by ‘canalising’ them through gaps and concentrating their small arms fire on the infantry following them,” said a June 1940 British War Office report.
“The tanks that penetrated were taken on by gun fire in the open and by small parties of men armed with explosive charges and petrol bombs in the forests and villages.
“The essence of the policy was the separation of the [armoured fighting vehicles] from the infantry, as once on their own the tank has many blind spots and once brought to a stop can be disposed of at leisure.”
The T-26s ran on an air-cooled gas engine and were particularly vulnerable to Molotov cocktails due to some fundamental design flaws.
A Molotov cocktail thrown on the tank’s rear deck would spill burning liquid through the air intakes or grill into the engine compartment. There it would set oil, grease and rubber tubes on fire, creating all the elements needed for an engine explosion.
The crew compartment would fill with smoke, and worse—the fuel could also seep through seams in the armour and ignite inside the vehicle.
The Finnish defenders knocked out almost 2,000 Russian tanks during three-and-a-half months of fighting, an estimated 400 of them by fire alone, primarily started by Molotov cocktails.
The Molotov cocktail made its way into mainstream military units and wars of resistance.
“Subsequent tank designs make them much harder targets,” technology journalist David Hambling wrote for Forbes on March 2. “Later tanks had water-cooled diesel engines that were much harder to get burning fuel into, and diesel is less prone to explode.
“With no connection between crew and engine compartments and better protection for the crew, tanks like the Russian T-34 could not be destroyed or halted so easily.”
Still, the Molotov cocktail made its way into mainstream military units and wars of resistance. It was a base weapon for Britain’s Home Guard after France fell to Hitler’s forces and the British Isles expected an amphibious invasion early in the Second World War.
“There are many villages like that. Out of the top windows is the place to drop these things on the tank as it passes the block. It may only stop it for two minutes there, but it will be quite effective.”
Molotov cocktails were used widely by Polish and Norwegian troops during the Second World War. Even the U.S. Marine Corps developed a version using nitric acid and a lump of metallic sodium to ignite a gasoline/diesel fuel mix. The Marines used them to clear houses as recently as the Second Battle of Fallujah in Iraq in 2004—“one part liquid laundry detergent, two parts gas.”
They were also long a favourite weapon of the Irish Republican Army; and when Taliban fighters weren’t setting off roadside bombs, they used Molotov cocktails to some success in Afghanistan.
During the Winter War, Molotov cocktails were eventually mass-produced by the Alko corporation at its Rajamäki distillery in southern Finland, 45 kilometres from Helsinki. The bottled mixture of 750 millilitres of ethanol, tar and gasoline was bundled with matches. Production totalled 450,000.
As with Russians in present-day Ukraine, the Soviets entered Finland with superior military strength but suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the USSR from its ranks.
The war ended in March 1940 with between 321,000 and 381,000 Soviet casualties, including up to 167,976 Red Army troops dead or missing. The Finns suffered 70,000 casualties, 25,904 of them KIA or MIA.
At the basement bomb factory near Lviv, Guardian correspondent Luke Harding reported that the air was pungent with the aroma of petrol and paint remover, polystyrene and silver dust.
“We call them Bandera smoothies,” said Lily Eleanor, a 25-year-old public relations agent who, within days of Russian troops entering Ukraine on Feb. 24, left her job in the fashion industry and was making the bombs. (Stepan Bandera was a wartime nationalist leader in Ukraine.)
“I love the smell,” she said. “It’s the smell of freedom.”