Flaming Onions?

**Oberst Hajj** · 07-28-2010 01:30

I'm re-reading Bishop's Winged Warfare and on page 68 he starts talking about some type of anti aircraft weapon he calls a flaming onion. He says it is shot from some type of rocket gun. Anyone know what this is?

**usmc1855** · 07-28-2010 04:33

What was a Flaming Onion?

"Flaming Onions: A form of incendiary and illuminating shell much used by the Germans. In appearance it was a string of fire-balls. This shell was used both in order to point out the location of a machine to German anti-aircraft batteries and also against the machines themselves as a means of setting them on fire."

The flaming onion was a 37 mm revolving-barrel anti-aircraft gun used by the German army during World War I, the name referring to both the gun, and especially the flares it fired.

The actual weapon was a Gatling type, smooth bore, short barreled automatic revolver called a 'lichtspucker' (light spitter) that was designed to fire flares at low velocity in rapid sequence across a battle area. This gun had five barrels and could launch a 37 mm artillery shell about five thousand feet (1500 m). To maximize the chance of a strike, all five rounds were discharged as rapidly as possible, giving the 'string of flaming onions' effect. Because most other rounds were fired slowly due to the nature of anti-aircraft artillery at the time, this gun's rapid rate of fire left many fliers thinking that the rounds were attached to a string and they feared being shredded by it. Because the weapon was not designed for anti-aircraft use, it did not have purpose-designed ammunition, but the flares would have been dangerous to fabric-covered aircraft.

**Oberst Hajj** · 07-28-2010 04:41

Thanks Brian, that is interesting. Bishop notes that the flaming onions came up from the ground so fast, they were near impossible to try and dodge... but they were very inaccurate.

These have me think about how to use them in a game

**Flying Officer Kyte** · 07-31-2010 02:55

Originally Posted by Col. Hajj

Thanks Brian, that is interesting. Bishop notes that the flaming onions came up from the ground so fast, they were near impossible to try and dodge... but they were very inaccurate.

These have me think about how to use them in a game

That is strange Col. I mentioned this only yesterday in another thread, and asked if you had any ideas on how to depict them with a model like the flack markers.
Rob.