Napalm Available for Allies on D-Day?

I read that the Allied pre invasion bombardment ceased prematurely to the invasion, or at least it did not have the effect as expected.

Question. As the concrete gun bunkers were designed to withstand shelling, was napalm ever considered? I know it was used in the Pacific, but have not found much info on its use in the ETO. Was it invented before D-Day? Not enough available in time?

As a direct hit is not required to have napalm work, a hit anywhere near the front of the bunker would have halted fire for longer than a shell would have, giving the soldiers a chance to move inland, assuming no short drops/friendly fire issues.

. . . . . . Napalm was invented in 1942 by researchers in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By that same summer, the British were experimenting with tanks modified to throw it. The first napalm-based incendiary bombs were dropped by USAAF P-38s on 17 July 1944, near St. Lo, *before* its use against Japanese cities.

I recall that the bombardment was not as effective because the ships gunners naturally not wanting to hit the landing craft kept their shelling longer than it shoud have been. The beaches were supposed to be cratered with shell holes just before the landing craft grounded giving the invading soldiers someplace to hide and regroup before assaulting the the bluffs or seawall etc. Don't know that landing on a beach burning with Napalm would have been a better alternative.

Napalm was the flaming component in flamethrowers and those were available. I don't know that airdropped Napalm was even used in Europe or why not if not.

John Dupre'

: 'The day [8 September 1941] before Pavlov landed in Leningrad, : the Germans dropped phosphorus and napalm bombs on the Badaev : Warehouses ...'

: I'm fairly sure author and renowned Russian historian (though : not military or technology expert) W. Bruce Lincoln got this : wrong. I started to write, 'simply got this wrong', but I also : bet there's a story to the mistake, one which I haven't yet made : time to track down. The Badaev Warehouses Fire was apparently : quite celebrated (notorious? memorable?) in Leningraders' : memory; there's surely an abundance written about it. Lincoln

The word 'napalm' is often used as a generic term for incendiary fuel. There were actually several variations in use prior to the discovery of the naphthene and palmitate (i.e. Napalm) mixture which proved to be very effective. In general, common fuels like gasoline burned much too quickly so various things were added to slow burning and help the fuel 'stick' to surfaces. Thus, I would suppose the Germans dropped incendiary bombs but they weren't actually of the naphthene and palmitate formula. For example, though the operational military continues to use the term 'Napalm', the incendiary bombs nows used by the US military are usually made with a formula of kerosene and polystyrene. Thus, when its use is publicized, the PR people will often fume that 'we didn't use napalm.' It is a term with a generic and a specific meaning.

Also it could just as easily be a translation error from Russian to English. A classic example of this problem is a translation of 'Hydraulic Ram' as 'Wet Male Sheep'

One of the Hobart funnies was a tank with a flame thrower towing a trailor with 1000 liters of napalm. I beleive they arrived in Normandy after D day.

I flew only one mission where we carried Nepalm (Ruhr Valley) . But back then it was called Jellied Gasoline. At the morning breifing we were warned not to bring it back or try to land with it. If it failed on the bomb run we were to salvo it.,If we failed to Salvo it we were to bail out rather than try to land with it. I was sure glad when it cleared my Bomb Bay on bombs away.

Arthur Kramer 344th BG 494th BS England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany Visit my WW II B-26 website at: