"Molotov cocktail" - the faithful weapon of soldiers, partisans, revolutionaries, rioters and terrorists

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Molotov cocktails have always been a coercive, yet surprisingly effective measure against enemy armored vehicles. For the first time, "cocktails" were used at the beginning of the 20th century. Since then, the "bottle" has taken root as a sure weapon of soldiers, partisans, revolutionaries, rebels and terrorists. Let's find out how it all began.

They were used due to the lack of grenades. smolbattle.ru.

The first use of a Molotov cocktail was recorded during the 1921-1926 Reef War. After that, cocktails appeared in the Spanish Civil War, as well as in the Sino-Japanese War, as well as in Khalkhin Gol. In the Red Army, the Molotov cocktail was first used in the dramatic year of 1941, when a significant part of the anti-tank weapons was lost. Already on July 7, 1941, the State Defense Committee issued a Resolution in the first paragraph of which it was said about the need to equip 120 thousand bottles per day with a viscous mixture. The work was entrusted to the USSR People's Commissariat for Food Industry. However, at the front, the soldiers did not wait for the improvised grenades …

Interesting fact: The first documentation of the use of Molotov cocktails happened during the defense of Minsk. The soldiers of the 100th Infantry Division used homemade glass flasks and Molotov cocktails against the advancing tanks.

Where the name "Molotov cocktail" came from, controversy continues to this day. Some say that this is how the Finns called bottles with a combustible mixture during the Winter War of 1939-1940. According to this version, initially the bottle was sarcastically called "Cocktail for Molotov" after the name of the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs. Of course, when the Red Army soldiers began to use bottles, the preposition "for" disappeared from the name.

The thing was dangerous for the fighters themselves. gamesaved.ru.

Despite its simplicity, Molotov cocktails are very effective. The combustion temperature of the mixture on the surface is 800-1000 degrees Celsius. The combustion temperature itself could force the soldiers of the armored vehicle to leave it. Also, the fire easily damaged important components of equipment, primarily the engine, where the mixture, when hit, flowed through the radiator grill. Of course, it was difficult to stop the tank with one bottle. Most often, the car was literally thrown with 3-5 bottles from trenches, secluded places or from the flanks.

The most important advantage of a bottle with a combustible mixture was the simplicity of its manufacture and its absolute low cost. The disadvantage is the general danger of the bottle for the fighters themselves, as well as the use of a primitive fuse, leading to the ignition of the mixture.

Bottles are found to this day. znamkaluga.ru.

Molotov cocktails were no less effective against the strengthening of the enemy and light equipment. In total, during the years of World War II, 2429 tanks, self-propelled guns and armored personnel carriers, 739 cars and trucks, 1189 bunkers, 2547 fortifications of other types, as well as 65 warehouses were destroyed with the help of Molotov cocktails.