Who was Willie Peter?

Answer 1

The military phonetic name for the letters WP are Whisky and Papa (during the Vietnam War). But war is 99% per cent boredom and 1% sheer terror, depending upon the war and one's out look on life, and bored GI's make a lot of jokes and do a lot of silly things. WP stood for White Phosphorus, so when the fire command called for 3 rounds of White Phosphorus, the actual words used should be, "3 rounds Whisky Papa (or Smoke), over!" But GI's, being GI's might reply, "...roger that, 3 rounds Willy Pete, on the way!" Willie Pete (White Phosphorus) made a pure white cloud of smoke when detonated, so it was CONSTANTLY used as an artillery marking round. To show the correct position, or to correct the position, when the correct position was marked, then regular HE (High Explosion) shells were fired onto the target. However, Willie Pete was also a weapon, and if one exploded onto friendlies, it could only be put out (extinguished) by using mud. It's like a flare, made to burn. It's normal call sign was "smoke" on target.

Answer 2

smoke round was not Willie Peter... Willy Peter was white phosphorus... not a smoke grenade, although it did Produce smoke White Phosphorus would burn and burn and burn unless you removed all the oxygen by submerging underwater or packing the burning area with mud.