Non Standard weapons of WW2 (The Batbomb)

[andron234]

It's almost unbelievable, but in January 1942 America had a plan to produce a Mexican Free-Tailed Bat incendiary weapon, to be used against Japan The bats would have a small incendiary device attached to their body weighing between 0.6 and 1.0 of an ounce, the bats were then placed in a canister holding 40 bats, the temperature inside the bomb was kept just above freezing so the bats would hibernate in transit, this was also needed to prevent the incendiary device from activating inside the plane, a small parachute would be attached to the outer casing, and that was it, the bomb was ready to be deployed,



Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the parachute would open in mid-flight which in turn would release the bats, Now it's up to the bats to roost in eaves and attics, over a 20–40 mile radius. The incendiaries would start soon start to warm up, igniting fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper houses thus turning Japanese towns and cities into blazing infernos,

During testing of the device a small number of "AWOL" bats unfortunately manage to set fire to part of the Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base in New Mexico, thus proving the effectiveness of this weapon by accident!!



In August 1943, now renamed it Project X-Ray by the US Navy (Transferred from the Army Air Corps), but soon after that it was handed over (1944) to the Marine Corps based in El Centro, California, trials were carried out at a "mocked up" Japanese city built by the Chemical Warfare Service at their Dugway Proving Grounds test site in Utah, More tests followed but by mid-1944, the program was cancelled by Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King after receiving information that the Bat Bomb would not be combat ready until mid-1945

[Naharaht]

There are many t.v. programmes about Weird Weapons of World War 2. They are frequently shown on the Yesterday t.v. channel (Freeview channel 19). There is one tomorrow (11th October) at 8 p.m..