The use of fire in warfare is as old as history itself. It has been an offensive weapon, a defensive weapon and an instrument of psychological terror. To the ancient warrior fire was a way to destroy wooden ships and fortifications made of inflammable materials. Greek fire, the secret weapon of the Byzantines, repelled barbarian invasions in the seventh century. General Sherman tried to break the will of the South by burning a path to the sea. The Americans, with napalm and Zippo lighters, and the Viet Cong, with flamethrowers, continued the tradition by laying waste peasant villages in Vietnam.

Concrete bunkers and steel ships have not made fire obsolete from a military viewpoint, for the technology of setting fires has stayed a step ahead of the ability to put them out. The jet streaking in low with a canister of napalm has replaced the flaming brand tossed over a wall, and the flaming arrow has given way to a warhead of white-hot magnesium or thermite.