Firewater Friday - All she wants to do is dance

I was listening to some music when Don Henley’s “All she wants to do is dance” came on.  

They're picking up the prisoners
All putting them in a pen
And all she wants to do is dance, dance
Rebels have been rebels since I don't know when
And all she wants to do is dance
Molotov cocktail, the local drink
And all she wants to do is dance
They mix them up right in the kitchen sink
And all she wants to do is dance

That got me a’thinkin’ about Molotov Cocktails.  Of course, I know that they’re a fairly simple petrol bomb . . . which is why they can mix them up right in the kitchen sink, as the song goes.

What I didn’t know was the history . . . or more accurately, how they got their name.  What I found out was more interesting than I expected.

The Molotov Cocktail was, in fact, a response to the Molotov Breadbasket.

The petrol bomb made it's first appearance in warfare during the Spanish Civil war.  Simply put, it's a bottle filled with fuel, stuffed with a wick.  It doesn't take much of an imagination to figure out what happens with the lit bomb smashes on it intended target.  

It wasn't until Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union that the little incendiary bomb got it's name.  The Soviets used tank attacks and bomb drops against the Finns.  The Soviets denied dropping bombs and made radio broadcasts announcing that they were delivering food to the starving Finnish populace . . . the announcements were made by Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov.  The Finns started to call the air bombs Molotov bread baskets. 

The Finns responded to the onslaught of tanks with "a drink to go with the food" . . . the Molotov cocktail.  Considered the poor man’s anti-tank missile, for 70 years it allowed defensive forces with limited means to create an simple yet effective weapon against more heavily armed militaries.