Humans have come up with many strange ways to kill people, including an array of different
types of bombs.
Bombs such as the barrel bomb, which was just a big barrel full of nasty things that caused
so much damage they were deemed unethical.
There was the famous bouncing bomb, the British invention that bounced on water towards a
designated target.
When it hit the target it would then sink and blow up underwater.
Then people got smarter, and created bombs that had guidance systems, and after that
normal bombs were often called “dumb bombs.”
But it was the USA that came up with, without a doubt, the weirdest bomb in the history
of mankind, and that’s what we’ll explore today, in this episode of the Infographics
Show, Bat Bombs – The craziest bomb in history.
We’ll get right to the point and tell you what a bat bomb is.
If you are thinking the word ‘bat’ is used as a metaphor for something, you’re
wrong.
Bat bombs used actual, living, breathing bats.
Those were Mexican free-tailed bats, which are super-abundant in North America.
These little rascals are said to be the fastest moving animal in the world when flying straight.
They can reach speeds of 99 mph (160 km/h).
The peregrine falcon is faster, however, but only when in a dive.
It can move at speeds of 242 mph (389 km/h).
Ok, back to bats.
The bat bomb was the idea of a Pennsylvania dentist called Lytle S. Adams.
He was friendly with then second lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Mr. Adams told her about his idea for a bat bomb, and her husband, Franklin, gave this
crazy idea the thumbs up.
The idea was to create a bomb that consisted of a large case with around 1,000 small compartments.
In each compartment a bat was placed, and attached to it was an explosive that was on
a timer.
The plan was that during World War Two, planes would fly over Japanese cities and release
the bomb.
It would drift down by parachute and then the compartments would open in the air.
The bats would fly out, heading to Japanese houses, factories, and warehouses, where they
would find a home and explode in 15 minutes.
As many buildings in Japan were made of wood, when the device went off, it was hoped that
all those bats would cause havoc, starting fires everywhere.
Bats are very strong and can carry more than they weigh, so that was good.
It was shown these little bats could carry a half-ounce bomb (18 grams), which could
cause sufficient damage.
The bats were also easy to catch with nets, as millions could be found in caves.
As they hibernated, they were what you might call low maintenance to look after.
To put them into hibernation, they would be placed in cooling trays.
As bats are creatures of the night, if they were released in the morning, the first thing
they would look for was a secluded place to hide; the Americans believed that would be
a house.
A dumb idea for a smart bomb?
It sounded crazy, but President Roosevelt believed in it, writing to the military big-wigs
about Adams’ plan, that “This man is not a nut!”
One of the people that invented napalm was in on the project, telling the military that
those batty bombs could unleash up to 30 times the destruction of regular bombs.
The Marine Corps then took the program further, planning to get a million bats ready for what
one would suspect was a thousand loads.
The plan was to drop the casings from 5,000 feet from B-24 Bombers.
The parachutes would take the flying bat hotels to 1,000 feet and then they would be released.
They gave it the name Project X-Ray.
Tests had to be carried out first, of course.
In Project X-Ray documents, it’s written that the tests were, “To determine the feasibility
of using bats to carry small incendiary bombs into enemy targets.”
That’s where things started to go wrong.
It was said that the hardest part of this plan was making the container open mid-flight.
That might be easy now, but it wasn’t in the 1940s.
The Atlantic writes that one time, the case opened by accident during tests at Carlsbad
auxiliary airfield.
The bats flew everywhere, madness ensued, and a hangar and a general’s car were set
on fire.
They did exactly what the army thought they’d do, flew off and found dark places to hide.
One report states, “Base personnel, kicked off their field by the project’s secret
classification, watched in horror from behind locked gates as most of their facilities went
up in flames.”
Another time, the bats were released and didn’t come out of their hibernation sleep.
They just fell to the ground and died.
During all tests, it’s said 6,000 bats were killed.
They tried 30 times to test the bat bomb, and spent around $2 million dollars on the
project, but it just didn’t work out.
The military and government believed that money was better spent on another secret weapon:
The Manhattan Project for the development of the atomic bomb.
Some people said bat bombs would have worked if given more time to test them.
Adams wasn’t happy about the project ending, later saying, “Think of thousands of fires
breaking out simultaneously over a circle of forty miles in diameter for every bomb
dropped.
Japan could have been devastated, yet with small loss of life.”
It was a failure, as were exploding rats and Pigeon-Guided Missiles.
But the Americans went on to further develop weapons using animals.
You might recall the CIA’s spying cat, called, “Acoustic Kitty.”
That project cost $20 million in the 1960s, and was an absolute cat-astrophe (pun intended).
Mr. Adams, meanwhile, went on to do all sorts of things, including inventing a fried chicken
vending machine.
It seems that didn’t work out, either.
The irony is that now it is the Japanese who are the masters of fast-food vending machines.
According to Japan’s Vending Machine Manufacturers Association, there is one vending machine
for every 23 people in the country.
We found one that vends fried chicken
in Osaka.
So, think the bat bomb could have been a good idea?
What crazy ideas for military weapons do you have?
Let us know in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called MOAB - The Mother of All Bombs!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!