Codenamed “Project X-Ray”, the US Military’s bat bombs were small, experimental incendiary devices attached to live bats. The concept was the brainchild of Dr. Ltyle. S. Adams, a dental surgeon who was inspired by the behavior of free-tailed bats during his trip to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park.
From his observation of a few captured specimens and research, Dr Adams learned that free-tailed bats are one of the nearly 1000 bat species around the world that live for thirty years and one of the most common in North America. Weighing about nine grams, these small brown mammals can catch more than 1000 mosquitoes or gnat-sized insects, twelve times their own size. Theoretically, this means that they can carry an external load three times their own body weight. Hence, this gave birth to Adam’s bizarre idea, the idea of bats carrying live bombs instead of their natural prey.
Outraged by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, Dr Adams sent a proposal to President Roosevelt of the United States Government about the use of bats as time-released devices made of napalm incendiary gel to set the largely paper and wooden construction of Japanese cities into a fiery blaze. The proposal was successfully approved, and together with various experts and naturalists, Adams set out to capture as many as 100 of these bats. Some were taken to the White House to demonstrate its feasibility to Army Officials who began studying its habits intently.
The program was initiated in 1943, dubbed “Project X-ray” in New Mexico, where the US Army developed incendiary bombs that were small enough to be carried by bats. This is done by attaching the case to the creature’s loose skin with a surgical clip and a piece of string. The idea was that the bats would fly into any dwellings or structures of buildings and gnaw through the strings before making their escape, leaving the incendiary devices behind for the intended time-fused explosion.
To ensure the success of this step, however, the bats would have to be dropped by plane at high altitudes in a metal bomb shell casing with three horizontal layers, similar to upside-down ice cube trays, where bats would be placed in a cold-induced hibernation.
When the bombshell reaches 4000 feet, a parachute is deployed, which slows the bomb’s descent by approximately 1000 feet. The bats awakened as the surrounding air warmed would be released from the metal casing.
Thus, unleashing them on the target.
Despite its effectiveness, the project is going too slowly to show any real impact on the war, and its presence was overshadowed by the Manhattan Atomic Bomb Project in 1945. In addition, an accident occurred when an errant release of armed bats during a bat bomb test caused the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air base in New Mexico to be engulfed in flames. A testament as to why exploiting nature as an innovative war strategy might not be the best idea after all.
https://taskandpurpose.com/history/bat-bombs-burned-base/
https://www.sariverauthority.org/blog-news/south-texas-natives-mexican-free-tailed-bat/
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