Hello guys! Please stop fighting in the comment section. Don't hate each other. This is just an educational video that shows the inner working of WP Munitions. No fight --- Only Education. Thank you.
I was just going to say I don't really consider people correcting each other to be arguing and I love to hear historically accurate discussions since we are lucky enough to have many former soldiers veterans and specialists in the comments
@@nomaambundy9989 While I like your comment I just disagree with him worrying about being demonetized. He's just kindly asking that people get along and yes obviously it's your prerogative to completely ignore that if you wish
Well, all the great powers have phosphorus weapons. America, Russia, Israel, etc.. and they use them. If a small country used it, it would be punished by the big powers.
So. Small chemistry lesson here. Phosphorous pentoxode might not be toxic but this compound is highly hydroscopic and very, very acidoc, as its the anhydride of phosphoric acid. This compound is a solid and does not have a smell. Garlic smell comes from other phosphorous compounds - usually phosphonic acid derivates, who usually are not healthy at all.
And it's important to point out while the smoke itself is not lethal unless inhaled for prolonged periods of time, white phosphorus itself is VERY toxic, meaning even if you manage to remove it from your skin (which is not easy, this stuff will burn through your flesh and through your bones) you may still die of poisoning. It's one of the worst ways to go
When I was in elementary school, we had a guest speaker visit our classroom. He had barely survived his service in the Vietnam War. He served on one of those river combat boats. He was in the process of throwing a white Phosphorus grenade, when it pre-detonated as he was throwing it. It burned over 60% of his body. He was a living scar. He had fallen off the boat. He claims his friends saw him decend under the water. They told him he was burning underwater. Some how, they medvacced him. He told us that when he spoke on the chopper, that the guy providing first aid almost fell out of the chopper. White Phosphorus is a horrifying way to be injured. The survivors will carry it's scars for life. This man was a stoic hero. He would be in pain for the rest of his life. But he spoke matter of factly. He didn't want sympathy, and seemed, in a way, to accept his fate. He was careful not to bring us to any specific conclusions about the war. He just wanted us to see him. I wonder if he'd payed a higher price than those who didn't come back. He was alive because he had fallen into the water quickly after exposure. 😮 War sucks. It should suck. But the use of this stuff for applications other than laying down smoke screens is an exercise in sadism.
This isn't an editorial. It's a comment section Mrs Manners. Lighten up. Ain't not my fault that yhe educational sytem in this country Ain't not good. Did I spell Goephukyerself right?
Agreed. My two cents is there is no pretense for the 'legitimate' use of white phosphorus as a smoke screen given that there are other chemical obscurants that work just as well, and are less incendiary and less poisonous. Back in October, I remember hearing farmers in Gaza saying that the israel had dropped white phosphorus on their fields, and that not only were their winter crops burned, but the ground would be made toxic by residual unburnt phosphorus until there had been enough rain to wash it out. They'd clearly dealt with this before. Absolutely sickening.
It's not the "what" it's the "how" It makes a particularly good screening round because while the smoke produced blocks eyesight, the heat and combustion also hide movement from thermal and night vision devices such as those on tanks or anti-tank weapons. It is also useful for troops who need to draw back or retreat because it does all of that while setting up a barrier that most people would be adverse to attacking through.
Willy Pete. An awesome weapon. Slowed down infantry and tanks, ended a lot of battles quickly. Saved a lot of soldier's lives. We used it to start fires and as an anti-personnel weapon.
It seems that, strategically speaking, the best weapons are the cheapest and most terrifying, not the most deadly or accurate. A suicide vest may unfortunately prove more useful than a HIMARS missile.
The mistake that indoctrinated civilian activists make when trying to have weapons of war outlawed is that they ignore the word “war” in the context. If you’re a civilian in a nation that is at war, you’re responsible for protecting yourself. One of the ways to do that is to stay away from combatants or strategic targets that can be realistically targeted by such weapons. Collateral damage is not always avoidable. But when you allow a combatant to set up his weapons or command post in your church, schoolyard, or even the house across the street, and you choose not to relocate to a safer place…you can’t blame the enemy. Blame the folks in your elected government who didn’t prevent the war in the first place.
@@hoilst265 they’re fortunate to have what they’ve been given, considering they have every opportunity to just co-exist peacefully with Israel and they choose not to.
I remember training with the WP grenade. My instructor at the time told me to "never throw this grenade without some cover to hide behind, cause it can cause casualties in a wider radius than you can throw it" and years later I found out that it was shaped like a pine cone and had a ring at the bottom because you could attach a rifle-grenade adapter to it so you could launch it from the end of your weapon with a blank round
Even if you extinguish by submerging in water you arent done yet. Doctors must take very VERY specific precautions when attempting to remove the WP as it will immeadiately reignite when exposed to the air. Imagine expecting to be removing some sort of shrapnel only to have a wound start smoking theb violently begin combusting.
In MCT we were told if this got on our skin the only viable way was to cut it out as submerging in water won’t work. It will pull the O2 out of water and continue burning.
@@juliemunoz2762 in the TV series MASH, they talked about those rounds (i think). They talked about using a special gel, that would suffocate the flame and prevent it from burning again. (Of course only if the gel was keeping its air barrier intact around the bullet or fragment) I dont know how realistic that was, but it sounded very convincing. (but if that gel is expensive, i can imagine not every lab wanting to store that stuff just in case :*D)
@@juliemunoz2762phosphorus is commonly stored in water in school chemistry labs, because it doesn’t burn in water. I think perhaps you’re thinking of sodium, which must be stored in oil.
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Yeh but that was pure water on a solid, cold chunk. Mixed with all types of crap and still hot I'm guessing it's different. Just a guess though I don't know much about this.
The scene at 6:13 is not phosphorus, but a thermite mixture that is part of incendiary or lighting ammunition. A characteristic sign of phosphorus combustion is a white smoky trail, the termite practically does not emit smoke while it is in the air.
thanks for writing this! I also noticed a mistake in this moment and wanted to write, but I saw your comment. I can also add that thermite is easily distinguished by its sparkling tails, like those of a comet, which fall after the incendiary elements. This is molten metal reduced from its oxide. The color of the termite smoke is gray and there is little of it.
My dad feared no man, but he did fear WP...on his last deployment we spent 3 years in Germany, and heard often not to touch any munitions we found in the woods while playing...I can recall finding two, marking the area, and the bomb squad running us off while they dealt with it...don't know if it was WP, or some other nasty, but I wouldn't be surprised if a few munitions still rusting in a rocky crevice...then think of all the strife torn areas around the world, kids being kids, hope they be safe...
WP is a potent screening smoke, like a lot of other really good screening smokes they work by forming materials that will react with the water in the air that will coalesce into small droplets. These smoke screens are nearly impervious to IR and thermal seeker systems. This is similar to Titanium Tetrachloride countermeasures, which for a thick vapor of Titanium Dioxide and Hydrocholoric Acid in the air, or HC smoke, that forms smokes laden with hydrochloric acid.
Saying Phosphorous is not a chemical weapon is like saying Birdshot isn't lethal to humans. Sure, it's not going to penetrate as much or carry as much kinetic energy especially as the range increases but it's still very much deadly.
WP is a horrible weapon when used as an incindiary weapon, no doubt. But the rate deadlines and horribleness is not the definition of a chemical weapon. It doesn’t help to classify all horrible weapons as chemical weapons, just because it is easier to get international attention. It would just blur the definition of chemical weapons and would make it harder to fight the use of real chemical weapons. It should be banned because it is horrible. As far as I know the use of incindiary weapons, especially against civilians, is already banned. It would be more helpful to try to enforce this protocol instead of mixing definitions of chemical weapons.
More like, WP not being called a chemical weapon is like bird shot not being considered a projectile. I'm not versed in the internationally recognized definition of a chemical weapon, but when a substance suddenly ignites when exposed to air, burns at 1500° and sticks to human skin like wax ... Maybe it's time to get some new definitions.
It’s not designed to have kinetic energy or impact, even though the impact of the phosphorus alone can kill you, it’s designed to make clouds and “fireballs” of hot thick white smoke and spread burning powder
@@AG86666 hypothetically every weapon uses chemicals for the weapon to function, a chemical weapon is a weapon in which the raw chemicals themselves without a reaction cause harm to the enemy
Unfortunately, wanting to kill each other is an extremely human thing. In fact, the gentleman who went on to develop the maxim machine gun, Mr. Hyrum maxim actually got the idea from a friend of his who told him once “if you want to make a ton of money why not invent some thing that can allow these Europeans to kill one another“ And well, that’s what he did. He designed and created what would become known as the devil’s paintbrush. I’m a machine gun that was used in many different variance by several different countries for a very long time. In fact, I think the Vickers variant from the British development stayed in service until at least , the early 60s. Sadly, we humans seem to prefer finding ways to get rid of one another more than we prefer other things.
Allied troops clearing German bunkers used WP grenades in Holland in 1944. One of my uncles was killed there. A number of his colleagues were also killed when a mortar airburst detonated the WP grenades they had in their kit.
Liar that’s not how white phosphorus bombs or really any bombs work also how tf would the mortar not kill the person but instead set off their wp bomb lol wtf kind of logic is that ? 😅
@LemonHead-sq5ws Very simple logic (airburst mortars shower the ground with small, often supersonic shrapnel, with thin WP granades being the most susceptible ammunition to get punctured and cook off, killing anyone in vicinity hiding behind cover from said shrapnel, by granades usually stored in small depots or stashes) against your 0 logic of someone making up very common war stories of WW2 veterans without any need or reason to make them up🙈
White phosphorus munitions aka Willy Peter has been in common used by armies since WW1. It most notorious and well known usage was the fire bombing of Dresden and Tokyo during WW2. The most common use was to obscure the battlefield as a smoke round. My destroyer routinely loaded older batches of these shells and fired them at the weapons range impact area on San Clemente island to verify functionality of 20+ year old rounds. As noted in the video you definitely do not want to be around the impact area of this weapon.
That's funny. Reason being, San Clemente Island was decommissioned as a Naval munitions range and the SEAL teams took it over. Now, it's where they do Third Phase of BUD/S -- small arms, live-fire tactics, and, every SEALs favorite thing, blowing shit up.
even if you can put out the fire just 55mg on your skin can kill you it also replaces calcium in bones starting with the jaw because you breathe in thru your mouth and nose so that's first contact
You are mistaken, williamlloyd. Thermite incendiaries were used in the firebombing of Dresden; these typically contain powdered aluminum and/or magnesium. The firebombing of Japanese cities involved the use of napalm. It was very effective against the almost entirely wood structures below and gave the sadistic enemy a taste of his own medicine.
I got a small piece of WP on the back of my hand during a military operation (from a WP grenade) ,only way to keep it from reaching bone is to cut it out, which i luckily did as once. Still have the scar.
No, we were told that if the stuff burned through to bone it would be even worse and could well cause cancer. Cutting right away was the alternative.@@sygdesignworks
In WW2 my dad, as a 17 year old, witnessed an air raid on a hitler youth training facility called 'Petrusheim' near the Netherlands-German border in which WP was used. He once told me about the burning boys that came running down to a stream and jumped in to stop the flames, but who reignited when surfacing to breathe. Coming in the vicinity of that location, even 60 years later, gave him the absolute terror!
I remember seeing Willie Peters shot at Fort Sill. I myself never had the experience, but it's cooler to see from a safe distance anyway, which is exactly where you want to be if one of those things goes off anywhere around you. I heard stories from Vietnam where soldiers describe a seeing a chunk of ignited white phosphorus burning right through a guy's arm, falling out the other side; the guy screaming in pure agony the entire time. Nasty stuff.
It was called Willy Pete during Ww2. US tankers would fire it at long ranch at heavily armored German tanks. The resulting smoke would blind and sometimes suffocate the Germans. Meanwhile, the US tanks would close the range or flank the Germans and then fire armor piercing shells. Easier said then done.
Erich Maria Remarque described the effects of these bombs on people in his novel "Time to Love and Time to Die." He told how there was no way to remove the burning match from people's bodies, and that they ended up shooting them out of compassion.
Lumps of phosphorus from WW2 are still being washed up from time to time on the south coast of England. It is specially dangerous when people pick them up as it will self ignite when it dries.
@@sygdesignworks It also happens around the Baltic and the German and French coasts. There was even one instance in California in May 2012. People pick it up because it can be quite pretty looking.
Yes, these weapons are banned by the Geneva Convention when used on civilian populations it is considered a "crime against humanity." However, the United Nations have never enforced this law against any countries such as _______. So realistically, it is legal to use because those using them have never been punished. Fun fact, one of these countries that are in the news right now is so protected against criticism that my initial comment was deleted by RU-vid just because it mentioned said country's name. Other than removing that country's name, no other changes were made. Just goes to show, they can't even be criticized for using WP, so the Geneva Convention will certainly never be enforced against them.
The IDF drops leaflets before bombing any public areas. They do a ton of research to make sure that the enemy is in those locations and not civilians. If civilians decide to stay, it is on them. You can only do so much in war to remove the possibility of civilian casualties. I think that the IDF are doing a great job on protecting civilians and themselves in this crisis.
Illogically stupid statement, some of those countries that have it use it on innocent civilians and this has regulation. Congrats on your award of the stupidest comment from the stupidest for that day 👏
The usage of white phosphorus is restricted under international humanitarian law. Although there can be lawful uses, it must never be fired at, or in close proximity to, a populated civilian area or civilian infrastructure, due to the high likelihood that the fires and smoke it causes spread.
No one follows international law uniformly, though, as we are witnessing once-again now. WP was used heavily against fighters in populated areas in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It was known as 'shake & bake".
@@OngoGablogian185 Respectfully (and I could be quite wrong here), I thought that 'Shake and Bake' specifically meant to suppress the enemy in their dug in position with some form of automatic weapon (like a SAW) to "shake" them and get them to keep their heads down, and then throw/launch a WP into their defensive position to "bake" them. If I'm wrong, I would like to know.
@Zac-lu8jp Almost every country have signed the petition that burn people alive is not a valid war meethod I shall get back with the penal code to you from Gene´va convention.
@sygdesignworks This is a very well presented video, graphics are great, very clearly narrated. While you do mention some of the proprties of WP, and hats off for raising awareness, because it is indeed, a very brutal and inhumane tool, and also thank you for mentioning its use upon civilians. It's almost funny that the UN is considering whether or not to classify it as a chemical weapon, as that is EXACTLY what it is. One thing I did not see mentioned is that to put WP out once it is burning, one needs to use copper sulphate or a similar substance to coat the phosphorous and seal it off from further contact with air, water, flesh, bone, blood, clothing, to put it out. US soldiers used to be issued copper sulphate infused towelettes in their med kits for just this purpose. WP hand grenades are still one of the de facto tools for clearing spider holes and bunkers because when it bursts, it doesn't just make smoke, it fragment into little burning pebbles. That's why it's turned into felt in both artillery shells and grenades. NASTY stuff. Again, thank you for raising awareness, and taking the time to fully explain something that usually just brushes right past most civilian awareness outside of theaters of war. Edit: Water will NOT extinguish WP because the metal simply pulls the oxygen off of the water molecules. You can probably find demonstrations of this where a piece of WP is dropped on water and will simply dance and sputter on its surface because it boils the water and burns the oxygen in it too quickly to allow it to sink. Normally when stored in a lab, it is done so as submerged completely in kerosine. When pulled out of the kerosine, as soon as even the tiniest surface is exposed to the air, the whole piece will very quickly ignite. Thus, handling is best done in a vacuum or other oxygen free chamber. Subscribed.
@@sygdesignworks For those unaware, copper sulphate is also known as bluestone, and is regularly used by veterinarians to treat thrush. I don't know about acquiring it in bulk or shipping it to places where WP is in use, but I suspect there are supply houses for vets and something as mundane as bluestone should raise any eyebrows. Obviously it is literally a band-aid for something that should never be used on anyone, let alone civilian non-combatants. I hope this information can be used to stop pain and suffering.
Basically a kit is put on a mk 82-84 (different payload hard bombs) that allows a gps to maneuver find on the bomb so that it hits a predetermined location, they are very good, it is possible to send gps guided munitions (not just jdam’s) through windows of buildings, and if the right tool is used (ordinance) you can keep many civilians out of the line of danger because of their pin point accuracy Not to mention that the aircraft dropping them do not need a lase, meaning less potential for friendlies to get hurt (not second aircraft, backseater, or ground team need to remain in the open keeping the target lit while the ordnance hit) not to mention the fact that the aircraft dropping it can stay high r and not have to risk getting hit or forced to focus on the munition
we fired the WP out of a 8" HOW in vietnam. this was a chemcial round whitch would give you a very bad burn. WE fired more H.E round than w.p..The cluster was called the fire cracker round whitch exploded in the air over a target in the open. 4t div.
Why are you using black and white old footage of White Phosporus ?? There is litterally 100s of Video's out there of the IDF using it for several years now on Palestinians or video of Russian using it in Ukraine /
@@sygdesignworksI kind of like the old videos! At first I was perplexed as to why they had some school girl doing the highly dangerous WP dousing dance, but I’m guessing it was a wartime PSA.
@@umayabdurrahman9398only 1? I thought it was like 500 billion palestinians killed by jews. Only in one day. And all were innocent women, children and elders
Red phosphorus smoke grenades work the same way on a smaller scale. They're for screening your movement. Had a colonel ask me once if I'd use em on enemy troops. I told him if necessary ... yes, without hesitation. Push comes to shove my men come before everyone. Would never use such a thing on civilians.
The type of weapon is not what causes civilian casualties; using it on civilians is. Outlawing weapons because they are mean is ridiculous; that's what weapons are for.
They also have horrific effects on livestock, as these poor creatures are often found grazing in the areas where we used them heavily, e.g. Afghanistan. We can justify literally any weapon on grounds of its military usefulness. What I find much harder to do these days, is justify their use on moral grounds. I truly wish we could do away with AP landmines, cluster munitions, nuclear weapons and white phosphorus.
Better to smuther it in sand, if you get it on your skin? Don't pure water on the area while it burns, you must completely submerge the burning in water; of course, not an easy task while being attacked.
Correction: You cannot extinguish white phosphorus with water,It burns because of oxygen in the air and if I recall from school water is H2O. Also when I was in the army a bunch of guys were out clearing brush around the base perimeter and one idiot hit a unexploded phosphorus tail fin with his machete,Well to say least I heard and witnessed several casualties screaming with pain from burning phosphorus And one was submerged in a water tank but had little effect😥
right - WP reacts with water. dumping it in water has no effect, however using high pressure water - such as a garden or fire hose - can (if done properly) push the wp out of the wound or burning area to somewhere it is less harmful.
This is not true. Do not spread your fals informations. White phosforus is NOT BURNING under water. O2 and H2O is very much different, even if H2O is containing oxygen too, as you may experience when handling normal fire with water. White phosphorus may react with water but not as viciously as with air so the reaction is not burning. The video above contains actual white phosphosur extinction with water. You can see that it looks like it is not extinguishing in the first place but eventually it does. It needs to cool down the surfaces, because obviously you can not extinguish with steam, and what you get is actually a possible further spread and increasing burn in the first time. It is again similar to poor water to a big camp fire. First it might look like that it increase flame and smoke. Eventually it stops booth. White phosphorus is vaxy so ptobably it is not mixing well with water, so it is not easy to actually wet its surface, specially because it is very very hot.Here is a video about it. (He keeps it under water to keep fresh) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LMlXhJevCV0.html
Speaking as an EOD tech with +40 years experience,.. @brentc.6690 is 100% correct that WP does not react with water. I've inerted live WP rounds into training aids, which involves drilling holes into the case while it's submerged in a water bath, then boiling it out.
Since the end of Vietnam, these WP bombs have been illegal to use against personnel. Russia's use of the them is illegal. These days they are mostly used by the Navy as a smoke screen.
