The "flamethrower", as we know it today, had officially arrived. Within time, the rebuilding German Army under Adolf Hitler had begun replacing the large World War 1-era systems with man-portable components known under the family name of "Flammenwerfer" throughout the 1930s. World War 1 ultimately ended in November of 1918 and the flamethrower had more or less seen its day in the sun. Despite the global disgust towards these new weapons of war - perhaps no worse than the chemical agents being lobbed against trench adversaries throughout the conflict - the flamethrower was here to stay, generally accepted by all sides and soon developed (or outright copied) by other nations. Nevertheless, the these weapons saw first use in the Argonne forest against the French Army as early as 1914 and saw much publicized use against the same enemy in the 1916 campaign at Verdun. These cumbersome machines could require up to three soldiers to move the system about the battlefield and, while the psychological effect was there, it was hardly practical in the heat of an offensive. Modern day "flamethrowers" were first unveiled by the German Army in World War 1.
By medieval times, "liquid fire" was in the fold, perhaps most notably utilized by the Byzantine Navy, and continued fire's dominance for centuries thereafter. Fire has remained a feared battlefield element since ancient times when it was used to both severely maim an individual or group, frighten those under its reach and bring about destruction to flammable structures. There are many ways in which to decimate one's enemy - arguably one of the most terrible being fire.
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