Did German troops ignite pools of kerosene on a ship in March 1943?

Question

A recent video on the YouTube Lindybeige channel relates the story of Operation Creek in WWII in which irregular British forces invaded a German ship off Goa (now in India), March 1943. He cites James Leasor's book Boarding Party (full version of the book on archive.org) as his primary source for the whole story. (At least once or twice he suggests that the book is highly dramatized.)

Part of the story is that the German sailors prepared for an attack by procuring and spraying kerosene all over the deck of the ship, and then lighting it on fire. This comes up at several points in the video:

• Germans collecting kerosene on shore
• German uses hosepipe to spray flaming kerosene, burning an attacker
• German lights off kerosene-covered deck with a flare gun

However, my prior understanding is that kerosene has a flashpoint high enough that a pool of it can't just generally ignite by applying flame. The Wikipedia article says the flashpoint is 100-150° F (37-65° C). Goa weather in March averages 82° F, with an expected high of 91° F per this site. So I don't see how a deck covered in kerosene could erupt in flame like that.

At a tiny scale, I've previously tested trying to get a small pool of kerosene to ignite with a match, and as expected per that flashpoint data, it utterly failed (link).

So I'm left trying to resolve the story of Germans spraying kerosene around and igniting it as a weapon, versus the data and tests that seem to say this isn't possible. Did the targets in Operation Creek really do that? Would there be some additive involved (like petrol) that one would use to weaponize kerosene, unstated in the story? Or is there some other element that I'm overlooking?

Answer 1

Pools of kerosene burn in a self-sustaining manner as reported in Combustion Properties of Large Liquid Pool Fires Fire Technology volume 25, pages 241–255(August 1989).

This reference compiles kerosene pool fire data from 6 sources and spans the size range of 0.25 to 50 meter diameter pools. Quantitative data for burn rate in millimeters of depth per minute, radiation output in kilowatts per square meter, flame temperature and flame height are provided.

One counter example is provided by the reference:

It is believed the largest tests were conducted during the kerosene pool fire discussed in Reference 7. In this series of tests, an 80 m diameter pool fire test was also conducted, but due to strong winds, the fuel did not spread over the entire pool surface, so the test was not a success.

So overall, unless there is strong wind, pools of kerosene will burn.

According to Oil Pool Fire Experiment. Fire Safety Science 1: 911-918 (1986):

Ignition

Due to the reasons that kerosene with a higher ignition point was used as fuel and it was necessary to cause the ignited fire to grow into a complete conflagration within as short a time as possible, small amounts of naphtha were made to flow out of several points on the oil surface and ignited electrically using ignition balls.

1. Ignition position
   Since the thickness of kerosene was 20 mm and thin, it was necessary to wholly burn kerosene for a short time after ignition so that the whole burning time would be made long.
   After pre-test results, it was found that liquid surface falling speed was about 2.1 mm/min and fire propagation speed was 3 to 4 m/min.
   The fire became a conflagration in 3 minutes after ignition.
   Kerosene consumption until then was thought to be about 2 mm on the average for all tanks. Kerosene of 18 mm or above was consumed when a conflagration occurs.
   Since fire propagation speed was 3 to 4 m/m, it was assumed that fire would expand to 9 to 12 m in 3 minutes.
   The position and number of ignition points were determined, so that any parts of the tank can be within about 10 m from the ignition position. As a result, it was determined that 50 m tank should ignite at 4 points and 80 m tank would ignite at 11 points. It was determined that the 30 m tank should ignite at central 1 point in order to measure the fire propagation speed.

2. Ignition facilities
   Since it was difficult to ignite directly to kerosene, it was determined that ignition should be made by a small quantity of naphtha and ignition balls to the extent of which influence would not given to the burning properties of kerosene. The head tank of ignition naphtha was installed at the place 5 to 10 m away from the edge of each tank. The pre-test was made so that the naphtha quantity, which flowed out of respective outlets, would be about 500 ml/min. The height of the head tank was set so that its bottom would be 1 m higher from the outlet. Outlets, to which naphtha would flow from the head tank, were installed to the ignition equipment. They were connected with the PVC tube. Outlets were set facing upward direction at about 5 cm above the liquid.
   The circumference of outlets was covered with cotton cloth hung from above. When the stop valve opened, which had been installed to the head tank containing naphtha, naphtha flowed out of outlets. Part of naphtha was impregnated into cotton cloth and remaining naphtha was mixed with kerosene in the tank. Ignition balls were set into cotton cloth so that naphtha would not be directly placed. The switch of ignition balls was installed at D/4 outside the tank and ignition balls of respective tanks were designed to be operated by setting one switch. Naphtha of 2500 ml per outlet was placed into the head tank so that naphtha of 500 ml for each minute per outlet would flow for 5 minutes.
   The number of head tanks was 30. One head tank each was installed for 50 m tank and 2 head tanks were installed for 80 m tank.

3. Ignition procedures
   PVC tubes were made full of naphtha beforehand so that naphtha would flow out from outlets at the same time when the valve was opened. The valve of the head tank was opened 1 minute before ignition. One minute after naphtha was discharged, the switch of ignition balls was turned ON and ignition balls were caused to generate.
   According to this operation, ignition balls would be ignited, naphtha, which was impregnated into cotton cloth, would burn, kerosene mixed with naphtha would be lit and, further, fire would propagate to kerosene of the whole tank.

Answer 2

If you're looking for a historical answer, I don't have that, but if you're asking about the scientific side of it, the temperature of the weather is irrelevant to whether a fire could be sustained; the fire will produce heat that will raise the temperature above the flashpoint. The flashpoint of wood is 300 degrees Celsius, and clearly it can burn when the weather is a significantly colder temperature. Kerosene has a latent heat of vaporization of 251 J/g and a specific energy of 46.2 kJ/g. That means that burning kerosene releases enough energy to vaporize 184 times as much kerosene. Looking at the heat capacity (2.01 J/(gK)), burning kerosene gives enough energy to vaporize an equal amount of kerosene, and raise its temperature 22 thousand degrees Celsius. Once a kerosene fire gets going, it provides plenty of energy to be self-sustaining.