Accuracy of flame tanks

[General SP]

I have noticed in the Pacific tourny as well as other games I have played with flame tanks that they seem to be unnervingly accurate. Obviously the game cannot portray the spouting of flames and thus shows it like a shell impacting with the flame graphics. I realize flame tanks/flamethrowers are pretty much an area effect sort of like a mortar but how realistic do you think they would be against an armored tank? In my mind I would think the armored target (tank) would buffer the heat very well as all that armor thickness would act as a heat shield. Of course maybe if it entered a firing slit the sludge mixture would enter? I can see tracks perhaps melting and such but what is the temperature output of a flame gun or flamethrower anyway?

Just a post to invoke feedback is all. In the Pacific Twilight tourny my Jap flame tanks are doing quite well when they get in close.