Bat Bomb, Secret Weapon of World War II

 

 

Bat Bomb

Secret Weapon of World War II

The "bat bomb" may sound like a concept from an old spy novel, but it was a real, secret weapon developed by the United States to bomb Japan in World War II.

 And the special thing about this bomb was that it was filled with live bats!

 Background

 In the closing years of World War II, the Japanese forces faced heavy losses and defeats in one battle after another on the Pacific front.

 However, this war could end only if Japan surrendered.  But for this, a ground attack on Japanese soil and a military massacre were necessary, but millions of American lives were feared to have been lost in this campaign.

 

 So the American was now looking for a weapon that would cause such a heavy loss of life and property to Japan that Japan would surrender without killing the troops.

 Many different types of weapons were worked on in this regard and the 'Bat Bomb' was one of them.

 

Concept

 The concept of the fire bat was proposed by Dr. "Lytle Adams" Lytle Adams from Pennsylvania.

 In those days, most of the houses and buildings in Japan were constructed with the help of wood, bamboo.

 According to this concept

 "If millions of bats were attached to small incendiary bombs and dropped by airplanes on the cities of Japan during the day, they would, by their instinct of intolerance to light, fly in all directions in search of any outlet.  Where they can sit avoiding the light and according to their nature, they will go and sit on the roofs of houses, buildings, skylights, roofs and narrow places.

 

 Now, because thousands upon thousands of bats will be dropped on every city and they will sit in thousands of houses, buildings and factories and explode, then the fire in these wooden buildings will turn the city into a pile of ashes in a few hours.  The loss of life and property will be so heavy and unbearable that Japan will be forced to kneel within a few weeks".

 The project was named "Operation X-ray".

 

 Production

 Designing and production of this bomb began in January 1942.

 For this purpose, various species of bats were studied and eventually the Mexican Free Tailed Bat was chosen.

 Now the question was, which incendiary bomb should be used to arm the bats?

 Even the smallest incendiary bomb at that time weighed 2 pounds.  While the weight of the bat was barely 13 grams.  Although this bat can weigh between 15 and 20 grams but two pounds was still too much for it.

 

So now there was a need for a completely new type of small incendiary bomb that could be carried by bats.

 This work was undertaken by the famous American scientist "Louis Pfizer".

 Pfizer designed a small incendiary bomb in the form of a "cellulose capsule" weighing about 20 grams, using a substance called "napalm" instead of the traditional "white phosphorus".  Which proved to be a successful incendiary device during experiments.

 

 This small napalm bomb was to be glued to the bat's chest with glue to turn it into a fiery bat.

 But it was important to find out whether this recipe would work or not.

 Therefore, in 1934, following this project, a Japanese-style artificial experimental village was established in "Utah", in which all the houses were built in Japanese style and made of wood.  Bats laced with napalm were released on this artificial village.  And as expected, that village turned into a pile of ashes.  As if this project was moving towards its destination successfully.

 

 But now the biggest problem was that bats could not be thrown from a height of 5000 feet.  Bats cannot fly to the ground from a height of 5,000 feet.

 And at the same time that.  Because of the sensitivity of the mission, the bats had to be sedated before boarding the plane (they fall asleep when the temperature is reduced), otherwise flying bats armed with napalm bombs would explode on board and destroy the plane.

 

And it had happened.  In August 1943, some armed bats escaped from their cages, entered the buildings of "Karls Bad Airfield" and exploded there.  As a result, the airfield building was burnt down.

 Therefore, it was necessary to let the bats sleep during the journey in the ship, but it was useless to throw the sleeping bats from the ship.

 And they needed an increase in temperature and time to wake up.

 

 So, to solve this problem, a new revolutionary bomb was designed, in which a bomb filled with bats was dropped from a plane.  This bomb was a masterpiece in itself.

 It was a round metal container with 24 boxed plates adjusted at the top and 1 bat to be sewn into each box.  There were 40 boxes on each plate.  And one bomb could contain about 1,000 bats.

 .  The bomb would have been dropped from a plane at a height of 5000 feet.  After falling 1000 feet, a parachute would open in it and the rest of the journey to the ground would be covered by the bomb parachute at low speed.

 

 Shortly after the parachute opened, the outer casing of the bomb would fall apart and the sub-plates, which were connected to each other by a few wires, would open but remain attached to the bomb.

 Now, until the bomb reaches a sufficient distance, the bats start to wake up and immediately fly away, run for shelter due to sunlight and enter any possible building or house.

 The time of explosion of the bombs was 30 minutes and after that time, the city, village or town would be burning in flames.

 In December 1943, official approval was given to drop this new bomb on Japan.

 

 Cancellation

 

 But.  On February 16, 1944, the government abruptly called off the attack and ordered the project closed.

 The US government did not give any specific explanation for its cancellation to experts involved in the project, but only said that

 "There is no need for it now, but we have a weapon hundreds of times more dangerous near completion".

 

 And guess what that weapon could have been?

 Yes, you guessed it right, it was the "Atomic Bomb". On August 6 and 9, 1945, Japan dropped the first two atomic bombs on the two densely populated cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in the death of nearly 300,000 Japanese. And on September 2, 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States. The bats were released into their natural environment.

Sitwant Kaur