As we enter the spring and summer seasons, we might look up into the sky just before dark and spot a little dark colored flying creature called a bat. Some folks associate them with a vampire as they dart across the skies looking for a meal of mosquitoes and small insects. They look a little like small kamikaze airplanes zooming in on their prey.
When I was a boy my friends and I would try and shoot them down with our Daisy BB guns but with little success. Why them little devils turn on a dime.
Our bat population here in the south is mostly in the Great Smokey Mountains. Texas, Florida, Arizona and New Mexico have the most significant numbers of bats because of their favorable climate and habitats. Bats are fun to watch but they are the leading sources of human rabies in the U.S. But have you ever considered the possibility of bats carrying a bomb.
Yes, I said a bat carrying a bomb!!! It seems this very thought was conceived by a dental surgeon by the name of Dr. Lythe S. Adams. The time frame of this story was just after the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th, 1941. You must realize at that time America was on the threshold of another great World War. America was looking at options to bomb the homeland of Japan and sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures.
Dr. Adams was inspired by the trip he had just taken to Carlsbad Caverns National Park which is home to thousands of bats. He was intrigued by the mire strength of these little creatures and knew they like to roost before dawn each day. He also knew that a lot of the buildings around Tokyo Japan were made from wood instead of concrete. He believed that a small time-released incendiary device could be attached to each bat. Hundreds of bats could be placed in some type of container under a parachute and dropped into Japanese cities after dark. After landing the container would burst and release these so-called Kamikaze bats with some type of fire incendiary attached to their bodies. Each bat, just before dawn, would roost in attics or other secluded places all over the city in which they were dropped. The bombs they carried were set on a timer and would set the whole city of Tokyo on fire before people woke up.
This type of thinking does sound a little far fetched, but the good doctor sent his plan straight to President Roosevelt. Seems the doctor already had some connections with Mrs. Roosevelt. As I said previously our country was looking at many ways to get back at Japan with any type of weapon.
As Roosevelt read the letter he said to himself, “This man is not a nut. It sounds like a perfectly wild idea but it’s worth looking into.” So, he forwarded the letter to William Donovan, director of the office of Strategic Services.
After careful consideration Donovan also thought that this project might be feasible with a little more expertise and engineering.
It wasn’t long before the project was assigned to the U.S. Army Airforce. All types of scientists, engineers and even a Harvard Zoologist were working round the clock. All trying to get this project off the ground and over Japan.
Problems like what type of incendiaries could be attached to the bats body and even what type of bats should be used were considered. Finally, a type of bat called the Mexican free tailed was chosen. Why they even had to get permission from the National Park Service to remove large numbers of these bats from caves in New Mexico. Armed guards were placed at each cave. As for the small bomb, white phosphorus was first selected but with the invention of Napalm it was found to be far superior to this project.
Many more tests took place, and it was determined that even though these bats weighing in at only about 5oz. they could carry a payload of 0.53 -0.63 oz. of Napalm. The Napalm was placed in small cellulose containers and glued to the bat’s underside.
As the project was in its final stages some of the armed bats escaped at the Calsbad Army Airfield where they were being held. Naturally they had to find a place to roost and that was under a fuel tank, and you guessed it “Boom”!!! Why it even burnt a small portion of the base down and burnt up a general’s car.
After several setbacks the bat project was handed over to the Navy and renamed Project X-Ray.
Well now the Navy even built a mock Japanese city to test the bats on and by-golly it worked. The Navy said that the bat project could very well be an effective weapon to use against Japan.
Overall, the bat project cost the taxpayers around two million dollars or thirty-five million dollars today. As with all government projects, it would take until mid-1945 before it was ready and by that point the atomic had been developed.
You must wonder, would these infamous Kamikaze Bats have brought about ultimate defeat of Japan like the atomic bomb did.