General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDuring WWII, the US planned to drop 1000s of bats with tiny bombs on Japan
Imagine: a quiet, tense night in the middle of wartime. A plane rips through the air above your city, rupturing the stillness. The bay doors open, and out whistles a bomb. It drops and drops. Everyone braces. But when it explodes, the city is filled not with the flash of impact, but with hundreds and hundreds of tiny, whirling bats.
This ridiculous visionin which Japanese cities were destroyed by a giant bomb full of bats that were themselves carrying tinier bombswas called Project X-Ray, and it was but a claw's breadth from becoming a reality.
A canister to hold 1000 bats with their tiny bombs
It took a dentist to come up with such a nightmarish plan. Like many Americans, Dr. Lytle S. Adams was incensed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, enough to turn his mind towards the war effort. Adams had just returned to his Pennsylvania home from a vacation in New Mexico, where, he remembered years later, he had been tremendously impressed by the Mexican Free-Tailed Bats that migrate through the state and roost by the millions in Carlsbad Caverns.
A bat with his tiny bomb
Adams read up on bats. He returned to Carlsbad Caverns and captured some of his own (it was a different time). Through study and observation, he realized that the little critters are war machines, perfectly calibrated for withstanding high altitudes, flying long distances, and carrying heavy loadsfor example, timed bombs.
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Much more: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-almost-perfect-world-war-ii-plot-to-bomb-japan-with-bats
Thankfully this plan got nixed. They thought enough of it to actually carry out tests though.
AllFieldsRequired
(489 posts)Bats play a key role in that book
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)I haven't read the book, but I've been enjoying the series (as ridiculous as some of the situations and as bad as the acting have been).
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)On both sides of the war.
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)This was a new one for me.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)HFRN
(1,469 posts)who look back at us and say 'look who's talking'
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)The bats would seek refuge in cracks, vents, eaves, etc. of buildings. Then their little flares would ignite and burn the buildings.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)DefenseLawyer
(11,101 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Why do dentists hate animals so much?!
brewens
(13,582 posts)altitude. The ice cold bats and their bombs just buried themselves in the ground. Then they burned down their own control tower!
ladjf
(17,320 posts)heavier than the bat. They are good flyers but not that good. That bat isn't flying anywhere with that "anchor" tied to it.
eppur_se_muova
(36,261 posts)They burned down the whole test range, when only one building had been intended.
Interesting to see that both Louis Fieser and Bing Crosby played a role in this project.
TlalocW
(15,381 posts)And this was listed as one of them. The others that come to mind included grenades with stickum that you could hopefully throw and attach at enemy tanks to destroy them (unfortunately, some people grabbed the wrong part of the grenade and blew themselves up), and the Russians training dogs to carry bombs underneath enemy tanks. When they tried it against the Germans, the dogs preferred the USSR tanks instead of Panzers.
TlalocW
yuiyoshida
(41,831 posts):O