Bat bomb

Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon

Bat bomb
developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a
bomb-shaped casing with over a thousand compartments,
each containing a hibernating Mexican free-tailed bat with
a small, timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a
bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in
mid-flight and open to release the bats, which would then
disperse and roost in eaves and attics in a 20–40-mile
radius (32–64 km). The incendiaries, which were set on Bat bomb canister later used to hold the
timers, would then ignite and start fires in inaccessible hibernating bats.
places in the largely wood and paper constructions of the
Type Bomb
Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target. The
United States Navy took control in August 1943, using the Place of origin US
codename Project X-Ray. Service history
In service Never used
Wars World War II
Contents
Production history
Conception
Designer Louis Fieser
After government approval
Designed January 1942
Setbacks and transfer to US Navy
Specifications
See also
Mass 123 kg (271 lb)
References Length 123 cm (48 in)

Conception
The bat bomb was conceived by a dental surgeon from Irwin, Pennsylvania[1] named Lytle S. Adams, an
acquaintance of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.[2] The inspiration for Adams' suggestion was a trip he took to
Carlsbad Caverns National Park, which is home to many bats. Adams wrote about his idea of incendiary bats
in a letter to the White House in January 1942—little more than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor.[3]:6
Adams was intrigued by the strength of bats and knew that they roosted before dawn. He also knew that most
of the buildings in Tokyo were constructed of wood instead of concrete. He believed that if time-release
incendiaries could be attached to bats, some kind of container holding them could be dropped over the city
after dark and the bats would simply roost and burn Tokyo to the ground.[4] The plan was subsequently
approved by President Roosevelt[5] on the advice of Donald Griffin.[6] In his letter, Adams stated that the bat
was the "lowest form of animal life", and that, until now, "reasons for its creation have remained
unexplained".[3]:6 He went on to espouse that bats were created "by God to await this hour to play their part in
the scheme of free human existence, and to frustrate any attempt of those who dare desecrate our way of
life."[3]:6 Of Adams, Roosevelt remarked, "This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but is
worth looking into."[1][2]

After government approval

After Roosevelt gave the project his approval, it was relegated to the
authority of the United States Army Air Force. Adams assembled the
workers for the project, including the mammalogist Jack von Bloeker,
actor Tim Holt, a former gangster, and a former hotel manager, among
others. Von Bloeker and his assistant Jack Couffer, and Ozro Wiswell
a scientist, self-described "bat lovers",[3]:8 noted that it did not occur
to them to question the "morality or the ecological consequences of
sacrificing a few million bats".[3]:9 For the duration of the project,
many members enlisted in the Air Force, where Adams quickly
promoted them to "acting" non-commissioned officers.[1]

The team had to determine several variables to make the project

feasible, including what kind of incendiaries could be attached to the
bats, as well as the temperatures at which to store and transport them. Tadarida brasiliensis, Mexican free-
They also had to decide what species of bat to use for the bombs. tailed bat
After testing several species, the Mexican free-tailed bat was selected.
Adams had to ask for permission from the National Park Service to
harvest large numbers of Mexican free-tailed bats from caves on government property. While the original plan
was to arm the bats with white phosphorus, American chemist Louis Fieser joined the team and white
phosphorus was replaced with his invention, napalm.[1]

Tests were used to determine how much napalm an individual bat could carry, determining that a 14 g (0.5 oz)
bat could carry a payload of 15–18 g (0.53–0.63 oz). The napalm was stored in small cellulose containers
dubbed "H-2 units". After trying several attachment methods, they decided to attach the H-2 unit to the bats
using an adhesive, gluing them to the front of the bats.[1]

The bomb carrier was a sheet metal tube approximately 1.5 m (5 ft) in length. The inside of the tube was fitted
with twenty-six circular trays, each of which was 76 cm (30 in) in diameter. In total, each bomb carrier could
hold 1,040 bats. It was planned that the carrier would be deployed from an airplane, descending to an altitude
of 1,200 m (4,000 ft) before deploying parachutes. The sides of the bomb carrier would then fall away,
allowing the bats to disperse.[1]

Setbacks and transfer to US Navy

A series of tests to answer various operational questions were conducted. In one incident, the Carlsbad Army
Airfield Auxiliary Air Base (32°15′39″N 104°13′45″W) near Carlsbad, New Mexico, was set on fire on May
15, 1943, when armed bats were accidentally released.[7] The bats roosted under a fuel tank and incinerated
the test range.

Following this setback, the project was relegated to the Navy in August 1943, who renamed it Project X-Ray,
and then passed it to the Marine Corps that December. The Marine Corps moved operations to the Marine
Corps Air Station at El Centro, California. After several experiments and operational adjustments, the
definitive test was carried out on the "Japanese Village", a mockup of a Japanese city built by the Chemical
Warfare Service at their Dugway Proving Grounds test site in Utah.

Observers at this test produced optimistic accounts. The chief of incendiary testing at Dugway wrote:

A reasonable number of destructive fires can be started in spite of

the extremely small size of the units. The main advantage of the
units would seem to be their placement within the enemy
 structures without the knowledge of the householder or fire
watchers, thus allowing the fire to establish itself before being
discovered.[2]

The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) observer stated: "It was
concluded that X-Ray is an effective weapon." The Chief Chemist's report
stated that, on a weight basis, X-Ray was more effective than the standard
incendiary bombs in use at the time: "Expressed in another way, the regular
bombs would give probably 167 to 400 fires per bomb load where X-Ray
would give 3,625 to 4,748 fires."

More tests were scheduled for mid-1944 but the program was canceled by
Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King when he heard that it would likely not be
combat ready until mid-1945. By that time, it was estimated that $2 million Errant bats from the
(equivalent to $19 million today) had been spent on the project. It is thought experimental bat bomb set
that development of the bat bomb was moving too slowly, and was overtaken fire to the Carlsbad Army
in the race for a quick end to the war by the atomic bomb project. Adams Airfield Auxiliary Air Base in
New Mexico.
maintained that the bat bombs would have been effective without the
devastating effects of the atomic bomb: "Think of thousands of fires breaking
out simultaneously over a circle of forty miles [64 km] in diameter for every
bomb dropped. Japan could have been devastated, yet with small loss of life."[5]

The infamous "Invasion by Bats" project was afterwards referred to by Stanley P. Lovell, director of research
and development for Office of Strategic Services (OSS), whom General Donovan ordered to review the idea,
as "Die Fledermaus Farce".[8] Lovell also mentioned that bats during testing were dropping to the ground like
stones.[9]

See also
Anti-tank dog
Explosive rat
Japanese Balloon Bombs
Military animals
Olga of Kiev (using "pigeons or sparrows" as offensive weapons in the 900s AD)
Project Pigeon

References
1. Duffin, Allan T. (24 October 2018). " 'Bat Bombs': WWII's Project X-Ray" (https://warfarehistoryn
etwork.com/daily/wwii/bat-bombs-wwiis-project-x-ray/). Warfare History Network. Retrieved
14 June 2019.
2. Madrigal, Alexis C. (14 April 2011). "Old, Weird Tech: The Bat Bombs of World War II" (https://w
ww.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/old-weird-tech-the-bat-bombs-of-world-war-ii/2
37267/). The Atlantic. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
3. Couffer, Jack (1992). Bat Bomb: World War II's Other Secret Weapon (https://archive.org/detail
s/batbombworldwari00couf). University of Texas Press. ISBN 0292707908.
4. Bills, E. R. Texas Obscurities: Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional and Nefarious, Charleston,
SC: The History Press, 2013.
5. The Bat Bombers (https://web.archive.org/web/20080531082803/http://www.afa.org/magazine/
1990/1090bat.html) C. V. Glines, Air Force Magazine: Journal of the Airforce Association,
 October 1990, Vol. 73, No. 10. Retrieved 1 October 2006.
6. Drumm, Patrick; Christopher Ovre (April 2011). "A batman to the rescue" (http://www.apa.org/m
onitor/2011/04/batman.aspx). Monitor on Psychology. 42 (4): 24. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
7. Silverman, Steve (2001). Einstein's Refrigerator: And Other Stories from the Flip Side of
History. Andrews McMeel Publishing. p. 122. ISBN 9780740714191.
8. Lovell, Stanley P. Of Spies & Stratagems. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1963, p. 63.
9. Waller, Douglas C. Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern
American Espionage. New York: Free Press, 2011, p. 104.

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