“Uncover the Fiery Origins of the Molotov Cocktail: A Name That Speaks Volumes of War and Rebellion!”
Yet despite their heroic resistance, the Finns could not hold back the Soviet onslaught, and on March 13, 1940 the Finnish government signed the Moscow Treaty, ceding 11% of its territory to the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, the Winter War was an embarrassment for the Red Army, which had suffered casualties of over 167,000 dead and 207,000 wounded compared to the Finns’ 25,900 dead and 43,500 wounded.
Meanwhile, Great Britain was facing its own invasion crisis. Following the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in June 1940, a German invasion of the British Isles appeared imminent. With only 40,000 regular troops remaining to defend the island, the government turned to the Home Guard, an organization of 1.5 million civilians otherwise ineligible for regular military service. While strong in numbers, the Home Guard was woefully ill-equipped, to the point that many members were issued sharpened sticks known as “Invasion Pikes” instead of rifles. To make up the shortfall in equipment, British inventors came up with a variety of ingenious and sometimes bizarre weapons which could be easily produced using common materials. Among these was a version of the Molotov cocktail known as the Grenade, Hand or Projector No. 76. Also known as the Allbright-Wilson Bomb or the SIP bomb – short for Self-Igniting Phosphorus – the No.76 consisted of a half-pint glass bottle sealed with a crown stopper, filled with a mixture of benzene, water, white phosphorus, and a strip of raw rubber. Over time the rubber would dissolve in the benzene and render it suitably sticky. When thrown against a target the bottle would shatter and the white phosphorus ignite on contact with the air, setting fire to the benzene-rubber mixture. Due to the highly-volatile nature of the white phosphorus, Home Guard members were advised to store the grenades in water in case the glass bottle broke.
