Bat Bombs

Mexican Free-tailed bats spill out of Bracken Cave in Texas.
(Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service)

Project X-Ray was a plan to drop a giant bomb full of bats that were themselves carrying tinier bombs on Japanese cities. When the bomb exploded it would have filled a city with hundreds and hundreds of tiny, whirling bats. The plan was conceived by an American dentist, Dr. Lytle S. Adams, who was incensed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Adams had deduced that bats are war machines, perfectly calibrated for withstanding high altitudes, flying long distances, and carrying heavy loads—for example, timed bombs.

The bomb canister, built to hold over a thousand bats.
(Photo: United States Army Air Forces)

Find out here how this cockamamie scheme almost became a reality.