Wierd weapons of WWII
 

OK - so I'm watching the fascinating special on the history channel called Wierd Weapons of WWII - and while many were strange, this one took the cake.

It was the bat bomb. Developed for use against the Japanese, proven effective, and it actually went into production, but the project was stopped after the successful atomic bomb tests and never used.

The concept was attaching a small incindiary bomb to millions upon millions of bats and releasing them over cities. Japan used primarily wood in their structures, as opposed to the Germans, who used primarily brick and stone.

Millions upon millions of mexican brown bats were captured and tricked into hibernation. A small 1 oz incindiary bomb was surgically attached to each bat. This is how napalm was invented, as the smallest incindiary weapon at the time weighed 2 lbs.

The bombs were designed to carry about 2000 bats each. At 1000 ft elevation, a chute would open as well as vents and the doors to the cages. The bats would wake up and fly off to find shelter. When they flew off, a small wire was pulled starting a 30 minute time delay fuse. If dropped above a city, the bats would take shelter in buildings, and poof! 30 minutes later the entire city was in flames.

It ws so effective they ended up accidentally burning two tests facilities to the ground.

I just thought this was fascinating. I had never heard of it. Some of the other things on this show are a trip as well.

I love reading about WWII stuff. So many weird things went on that we knew nothing of, particularily those of us not born yet.;) I remember reading about the Fermi Manhattan project- they had no idea that the nuclear reaction would stop for certain, but they went ahead with it anyway. They used dead bodies to try and plant false info with the enemy and pretended to be amassing an invasion platform in Coventry (I think it was, anyway) using blow-up fake tanks and planes, while all the time they were actually prepping the real invasion force elsewhere. Wartime can be an incredibly- and horrifyingly- innovative time.

Leo, when you're in town, you can visit us and watch the Military Channel in HD :)

The pigeon guided missile is one of my favorites:

Nose Cone, Pigeon-Guided Missile

That was on the special as well!

Another interesting one that failed was...well, hard to describe. You know those wheels with fireworks on them that spin around really fast? They hooked two massive iron wheels together with a crate in the middle that contained a ton of explosives. They would light the rockets on them and they would them propel themselves toward the target.

There were actually the first weapons that were supposed to hit the beach on d-day. The problem was they had no way to control them after the were lit and started rolling. Differing friction on the wheels caused them to turn unpredictably, or other such things, and during tests they would often end up turning around and blowing up the spot they were launched from.

I am fascinated by the history of WWII. I will watch any history channel special on the subject and always learn some really cool stuff.

And Coaster Matt - I get the MIlitary Channel in HD. Some fun stuff on that, too.

saw it as well. cool show. the bat bomb was a little odd, but desperate times etc I suppose.

and yeah, that giant crazy-wooden-wheel-o'-death was a scary sight indeed.

There's a great movie that revolves around this plot, called Eye of the Needle. Donald Sutherland plays a German spy who uncovers the deception ... but before he can make his rendez-vous to report it to the Nazis, his boat sinks off the shore of a tiny British islet where a single mom lives all alone with her child in a lighthouse. Thriller extraordinare ensues. The film was directed by Richard Marquand, who went on to helm the much less thrilling Return of the Jedi.



I think the bat bomb plot might make an even better film!

I'm currently re-reading A man called Intrepid. It's an interesting book with many parallels that can be drawn to current events (i.e. secrecy vs security).