Book - Islands of Hell: flame throwers and the Geneva Convention...?

[kaigunair]

I don't have HBO, so totally missed out on The Pacific. However, I was at Barnes and Noble last night and pull a thick book off the shelf called "Islands of Hell: The U.S. Marines in the Western Pacific, 1944-1945 ".

I was looking at all the pics and captions, and noticed one that said something to the effect that flame throwers were used against the japanese but not the germans because the japanese did not sign the Geneva Convention.

Was wondering if there was any truth in this?

A quick wiki came up with this: The Geneva Conventions do not address the use of weapons of war, as this is covered by the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) and the Geneva Protocol.

Although I usually related flame throwers to the Pacific island hopping, somewhere in the back of my mind I think I heard them used in places like the Battle of Normandy.

[Mike C]

Absolute hogwash - flamethrowers were routinely used in Europe against the Germans by the Western Allies. Look up the Churchill tank variant called the Crocodile. Cheers,

Mike

[kaigunair]

thanks mike. hmmm, it was a huge $50 book a B&N, and I thought it had some really nice photos of the Marines. But looks like the fact checker was asleep at the wheel. I also felt there was a slant to many of the captions in the book, esp talking about the civilians on these islands, but I couldn't put my finger on it until now. At the least, I'm getting an idea about how much I don't know about the actual battles in the Pacific. Guess I've been too focused on collecting...