08:20 26-01-2026

Ampulomet: The Soviet Incendiary Weapon That Failed

Developed in 1941, the Soviet ampulomet was an incendiary weapon meant to bridge flamethrowers and artillery, but safety risks and mortars ended its use.

In January 1941, work began in the Soviet Union on a weapon that would later be remembered as one of the most unconventional designs of its time-the ampulomet. In the first months of the Great Patriotic War, it was seen as a promising solution on a rapidly changing battlefield.

The system was developed by engineers at the design bureau of Plant No. 145. Its purpose was to launch special ampules filled with an incendiary mixture. The ampulomet was conceived as an intermediate weapon, bridging the gap between backpack flamethrowers and artillery systems firing incendiary ammunition.

The 1941 model, with a caliber of 125 millimeters, consisted of a steel tube mounted on either a wheeled or ski-based carriage. Firing was carried out using a blank cartridge from a 12-gauge hunting shotgun. The effective firing range reached up to 30 meters with the standard charge and up to 500 meters when an additional charge was used.

The weapon employed tin aviation ampules of the AZh-2 type and glass AK-1 ampules, both filled with a self-igniting mixture based on thickened kerosene KS with the addition of white phosphorus and sulfur. The combustion temperature reached as high as 800 degrees Celsius, and the resulting flames could not be extinguished with either water or sand.

The first combat use of the ampulomet in the autumn of 1941, during fighting near the village of Tashirovo outside Moscow, proved unsuccessful. Of the 67 ampules fired at German positions, only eight detonated as intended. The remainder, made of especially durable glass, failed to shatter upon impact with the ground.

This failure forced urgent revisions to the design. New types of ampules were developed, launchers were simplified, and field refueling points for ammunition were established. Following these changes, the weapon began to deliver noticeably better results. During the winter battles for Velikiye Luki in 1942, ampulomet units reportedly expended around 1,500 kilograms of incendiary mixture over a short period.

Despite these improvements, production of the ampulomet was largely discontinued by 1943. The main reasons were the high risk of spontaneous ignition, poor reliability during transport and firing, and the rapid expansion of mortar production. Mortars proved far simpler, safer, and cheaper to manufacture and deploy.

At the same time, the Soviet Union tested other flamethrower-based systems, including the bottle launcher designed by Veniamin Tsukerman. Although it completed trials and was formally adopted, it soon disappeared from service as well, outcompeted by mortars and anti-tank rifles.

A similar fate awaited Dyakonov’s rifle grenade launcher and Taubin’s automatic grenade launcher, the latter proving too complex and expensive for mass production.

The experience of the 1930s and early 1940s demonstrated that when selecting weapons, effectiveness and originality were not enough. Simplicity, reliability, and cost ultimately carried greater weight. As a result, many promising but technically demanding designs remained little more than brief episodes in the long history of Soviet armaments.