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The following (paraphrased) description of flaming onions comes, I think, from the book "Memoirs of an old balloonatic" by Goderic Hodges:
One of the more novel forms of defence was the famous flaming onions, a string of eight shells, each of 35mm diameter, fired from a mortar. At 200 feet each shell vented green flame through a 15mm hole in its base (phosphorus burning in the air) and the whole thing snaked to about 7,000 feet and was supposed to wrap itself around an aeroplane and set it alight. This seldom happened.
As far as I know, flaming onion batteries were mostly sited to defend observation balloons.
Graeme
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