Although its burn time was around 7 seconds long, and the flames were effective around 20–40 meters, it was still a useful weapon.

With the arrival of flamethrower tanks, the need for flamethrower-carrying infantrymen to expose themselves to enemy fire had been greatly reduced.

Towards the end of the conflict, later models of the M2 were equipped with the fuel-thickening agent known as napalm.

[1] The M2, which was the WWII model, had hexagonal gas caps and hourglass frames.

These had straight sided backpack frames, vented gas caps, a cylinder sized regulator and a safety valve.