[RSwank]

This may just be a thermite grenade that some pilots apparently carried in the cockpit, perhaps in a improvised holder.

See entry 4 on this link, where a P-47 pilot crash landed and tried to burn his plane but failed.

https://books.google.com/books?id=uk...ockpit&f=false


Mention here of the thermite "bomb" being used:

https://books.google.com/books?id=iB...ockpit&f=false


A picture of a M14: http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/File:AN-M1...ry_Grenade.jpg