Lagonda flamethrower

The Lagonda company produced a number of flamethrowers during the Second World War.

Initial developments were for defence against expected German attacks. It was believed that it would act as a deterrent to Luftwaffe dive-bombers targeting the lightly defended Merchant Navy ships and coastal bases of the Fleet Air Arm. The project was jointly managed by special-weapons departments of the Navy and the British Army.

Later on they produced flamethrowers for fitting to armoured vehicles.

After the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk when the invasion of the United Kingdom seemed imminent, the flamethrower was seen as a suitable defensive weapon. The Petroleum Warfare Department under Donald Banks was set up. Rather than use petrol, a thickened fuel was developed (by R P Fraser at London University) which could be handled safely by pumps. To test this a Commer lorry was modified by the Lagonda Car Company to carry a turret with a projector.

A parallel development was the "Heavy Pump Unit" from AEC which used a six-wheeler heavy lorry. The Heavy Pump Unit had two projectors: the main one mounted in a turret capable of projecting up to 300 ft for anti-aircraft use, the other on a detachable carriage. The same AEC lorry chassis was used by the PWD and Lagonda for the "Heavy Cockatrice" while a smaller version on a Bedford QL chassis they gave the "Bedford Cockatrice". AEC used their Matador chassis to produce a prototype of a similar vehicle named the "Basilisk".

For assault rather than defence, it was seen that a tracked vehicle would be a better basis. A Universal Carrier was employed for a prototype. This led to interest from Canada who, with Lagonda's help, produced their own design of flamethrower which - capable of firing flame 40 yds - received the codename "Ronson". Lagonda also worked with Major Oke to produce a tank mounted flamethrower that used the tank's auxiliary fuel tank as a reservoir. Under the auspices of the Combined Operations, it would be used in action on the Dieppe Raid.

...
Wikipedia