Wechselapparat
Wechselapparat | |
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Type | Flamethrower |
Place of origin | German Empire |
Service history | |
Used by | German Empire, Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary Captured examples used by Entente forces |
Wars | First World War |
The Wechselapparat ("Wex") was a World War I German flamethrower introduced in 1916 to replace the earlier Kleif. Developed by Richard Fiedler, as early as 1901. It had a doughnut-shaped backpack fuel container with a spherical propellant container (nitrogen) in the middle that blasted the gasoline. The containers were made of car rims. Wex used a magnesium ignition system. This design was updated before the Second World War to become flamethrower model 35. However, model 35 was considered too fragile so it was soon replaced by the model 41, a simpler construction with smaller, horizontal, cylindrical backpack containers.
The doughnut-shaped container design was copied by the British during World War II as the Flamethrower, Portable, No 2.
"Wechselapparat" is German for "exchange apparatus".
See also[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wechselapparat. |
References[]
![]() | This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (November 2014) |
- Flamethrowers of the German Army 1914-1945 by Fred Koch
External links[]
- "British Soldier with captured Wex". Archived from the original on 2017-03-07.
- 1916 establishments in Germany
- Flamethrowers
- World War I German infantry weapons
- Weapon stubs