Bottles with combustible substances were used as weapons during the war in Cuba, during which the Latin American island republic gained independence from Spain in 1895. However, this simple device became a massive anti-tank weapon during the winter war of 1939-1940.
The overwhelming technical superiority of the Red Army forced the defenders of the Mannerheim Line to think about using any, sometimes the most unexpected items as weapons. It is not known whether the Cuban experience was taken into account, or whether someone invented this ammunition again, but the fact remains: to such problems of the advancing Soviet troops as cold, swamps that do not freeze under the snow, cuckoo snipers, minefields and powerful fortification, one more was added - the Molotov cocktail. It got its name in honor of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, who for the Finns was the personification of the aggressive policy of the Soviet Union in the late 30s. Actually, it originally sounded like a “Molotov cocktail.”
The main advantages of the ammunition was its low cost and availabilitymanufacturing materials - qualities that are important for a country with small economic resources and subjected to constant bombing. There was also a drawback, a very significant one. The Molotov cocktail was a source of danger for someone who tried to use it. In other words, you had to try not to set yourself on fire. It was not an easy task to deliver it to the target, namely to the engine compartment of the tank. When a combustible substance hit the frontal armor, the Molotov cocktail was ineffective.
These inconveniences did not become an obstacle for the Soviet fighters two years later, when the USSR had to develop its own production of bottles with combustible mixture. The Red Army did not have enough anti-tank weapons, so the Molotov cocktail began to enter service with it already in early July 1941. Bottles from vodka, wine, soda and beer became containers for BGS and KS liquids. Unlike regular aviation gasoline, they were sticky and burned, producing large amounts of smoke, generating temperatures up to 1,000 degrees. What the Molotov cocktail consists of became the prototype of napalm, invented a little later in the USA.
The devices for igniting this projectile have also undergone some modernization. A wick was lowered into the bottle, which had to be ignited before throwing, and to do this correctly, instructions were glued to the surface of the glass. In addition, all infantry fighters underwent training, during which tactics, security measures and weaknesses were explained to them in detail. German armored vehicles. So the Molotov cocktail was forced to become a formidable weapon of the Red Army in the first months of the war.
One might assume that in the age of nano-technologies, laser sights, anti-tank guided missiles and other sophisticated ultra-precise weapons, combustible mixture bottles have become an anachronism, but this did not happen. All the same advantages, namely, ease of manufacture, availability and low cost, have been preserved to this day. That is why the Molotov cocktail is still used by those who lack modern weapons to fight a strong adversary. The main rule of using this simple projectile has remained unchanged: only those who have the courage to meet a formidable tank with a glass bottle in their hand can use it effectively.
