CIA Field Expedient Incendiary Manual

CIA Field Expedient Incendiary Manual

This manual describes useful incendiaries, igniters, and delays which can be prepared easily by an operator who has a minimum amount of skill and education.

An incendiary may be a material or mixture of materials which when used against wood, rags, paper, straw or other combustible materials will burn with enough heat and flame to be sure of starting a fire. Or an incendiary, usually a different type from the first one, may be used for melting, cutting, or welding metals. Examples of the first type are gasoline, fuel oil, napalm, and fire bottles. An example of an incendiary to use against metals is thermite.

An igniter is a material or mixture of materials which will start an incendiary burning. The best example of an igniter is a match. Because a match is usually not the best thing to use to start an incendiary burning, other kinds of ig-niters are needed, such as sugar-chlorate and fire fudge.

A delay is a device which an operator uses to make it possible for him to be away from the scene of the fire when the fire starts. At the place where the fire is to be started, the operator will usually arrange the delay, the igniter, and the incendiary in such a manner that he will set the delay, and go away. At the proper time the delay will ignite the igniter, which will then set fire to the incendiary.

The charts, which separately list incendiaries, igniters, and delays, are so arranged that the operator can easily find the incendiary system to use on the objective to be destroyed. By first looking at the incendiary chart, he can find which incendiary will give him the desired destructive effect from the igniter chart he can determine which igniter to use with this incendiary and from the delay chart he can determine which delay to use with the previously selected igniter.