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Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Batty But True

Listening to podcasts, as I do, often leads to some strange-but-true stories and this one is no exception. The fact that it's true, as verified by online articles, is scary.

Did you know that during World War II, there was a project to arm bats with bomb-like devices that would be used to destroy Japanese targets?

Even stranger, this idea was the brainchild of a PA dental surgeon, Lytle Adams, who
convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to do just that. Adams idea was to attach incendiary devices to bats, use a cluster bomb to drop them over Japanese paper and wood structures, then trigger them to ignite and destroy Japanese cities. The bombs were laden with napalm which would flame up when triggered. 
Dr Lytle Adams

Adams was a practicing dentist and a part-time inventor and, it should be mentioned, a friend of then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. After war erupted with Japan, Adams wrote to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in January 1942 about his visit to the bat-haven Carlsbad Caverns in NM. In his letter, Adams noted that he had been tremendously impressed by bat flight...Dear Mr. President, I attach hereto a proposal designed to frighten, demoralize, and excite the prejudices of the people of the Japanese Empire.  

Adams continued, "Couldn’t millions of bats be fitted with incendiary bombs and dropped from planes? What could be more devastating than a firebomb attack?  In conclusion, he termed this seemingly outlandish idea: “a practical, inexpensive, and effective plan.” 

What are the odds that FDR would consider this concept worth pursuing? 

Anything was feasible in the midst of war it seems. If you think the bat concept was far-fetched, consider also that the U.S. government was researching pigeon-controlled missiles and bombs triggered by atomic chain reactions. 

This unlikely-sounding bat project was green-lighted by FDR on the advice of Dr. Donald Griffin, a noted zoologist and expert on animal behavior and navigation. Four biological factors were considered: bats occur in large numbers; bats can carry more than their own weight in flight; bats hibernate and, while dormant, do not eat; bats fly in darkness, then hide in secluded places during the daytime.

The "Adams Project" was assigned to the (then) Army Air Force. Constructing a functional bat bomb was challenging. Bats would be chilled to force them into hibernation while being transported to the target area, then awakened in time to swoop down into enemy cities before their time-triggered bombs detonated.

There were questions — how chilled and what size mini bomb would fit a small bat?

Attaching incendiary devices to unoffending bats seems abusive today, but in war-time, the rationale was simply put that “a million bat bombs could save a million lives.”

Mexican free-tailed bat
By March 1943, after testing several species, the selected species was the Mexican free-tailed bat, numbering 50 to 100 million. An estimated 9 million were in Carlsbad Caverns in NM, territory overseen by the U.S. Park Service. Adams and team members were given permission to go into the caves and harvest the bats.

In the lab, Dr. Theodore Fieser, the inventor of napalm, replaced the original white phosphorus incendiary with his own invention. White phosphorus sparked into flame upon contact with oxygen. Napalm, a jellied gasoline, was safer to handle and burned cooler. Tests demonstrated that half-ounce bats could each carry a payload of between 15 and 18 grams. Dr. Fieser fashioned a napalm-filled cellulose capsule called the H-2 unit. 
Dr. Adams with bats and project members 

How does a bat carry a bomb? 

After experimenting, an adhesive was designed to glue the incendiaries to the bats’ breasts. The bomb carrier, a five-foot-long sheet metal tube, held 1,040 bats in 26 round trays, each approximately 30 in. around. Loading armed bats into the carrier was described "as putting eggs into a crate" (and most likely done very carefully).
Bat-bomb canister 

Here's how the plan went: During bomb drops, the bomb carrier would plummet to an altitude of 4,000 feet, drop a parachute to slow its descent as sides blew apart and bats descended on enemy targets.

Carlsbad, NM base fire 
Bat bomb progress was marred by less-than-impressive trial demonstrations at Muroc Lake, CA where over 6,000 bats participated in Army-sponsored assessments. 

During simulations involving the use of nonflammable dummy bombs, some bats failed to wake from hibernation and fell to earth; others flew away. In May 1943, at the brand-new Carlsbad Army Auxiliary Air Base, the release of six live-loaded bats destroyed part of the base when the armed bats were accidentally released, roosted under a fuel tank and incinerated the test range. 

The project was relegated to the Navy in August 1943 and renamed Project X-Ray. By December, it was passed onto the Marine Corps which moved operations to the Marine Corps Air Station at El Centro, CA. After more experiments and operational adjustments, Adams’s team did better as bomb-laden bats successfully destroyed a simulated Japanese village built at a Utah test site by the Chemical Warfare Service. This test and the accidental detonations proved that a bat bomb could actually destroy targets. 

More tests were scheduled for mid-1944; however the project was cancelled for slow development. It would likely not be combat-ready until mid-1945. An estimated $2 million had been spent on the project. In current U.S. dollars that would equal:

$28,533,667.35

Project X-Ray lost the race to end WW II when it was upended by the Manhattan Project, which we now know was the code name for the atomic bomb.

Adams, who steadfastly maintained that bat bombs would have been effective without the devastating effects of the atomic bomb, is quoted as saying: "Think of thousands of fires breaking out simultaneously over a circle of 40 miles in diameter for every bomb dropped. Japan could have been devastated, yet with small loss of life." 

As stated earlier, fact can often be much stranger than fiction and frightening too.

12 comments:

MadSnapper said...

well this one surely goes under WHO KNEW! I sure did not know, this world is whacky and now I know it was whacky even in 44 when I was born.

DUTA said...

In our region, terrorists attach incendiary devices to ..balloons. Before that, the popular device was the so called Molotov bottle. Sadly, the human mind can be very versatile when it comes to destruction.

baili said...

Oh my!

This is incredibly interesting yet horrifying story dear Beatrice!

Poor bats!

A dentist who prompted the weapon for war sounds crazy though

Thank you for sharing my friend

Emma Springfield said...

I wonder what would happen if as much effort and money were to be spent on projects to ensure peace. Imagine.

mamasmercantile said...

My goodness, that made for frightening reading, WHO KNEW?

Anvilcloud said...

Batty indeed. Arming millions of bats, one at a yime.

Nil @ The Little House by the Lake said...

Very interesting story. Thank you for sharing Beatrice.

Anonymous said...

STRANGE and very FRIGHTENING indeed!!...:)JP

DeniseinVA said...

Good grief! A fascinating story. Thanks for sharing that. These pod casts can be very interesting.

William Kendall said...

That is just weird!

NCmountainwoman said...

Wow! I had no idea. But your post has inspired me to look into it further.

Angela said...

That's a very strange, and interesting, piece of information about World War 2. I've read a lot on the subject, but I've never run across this information before. Thanks for sharing!