The idea of creating a mouse bomb appeared during the Second World War in the United States. This experimental weapon went down in history under the name bat bomb. Bats were to become the main component of the "living weapon". Despite the fact that the bomb was ready already in 1942 and successfully tested in 1943, the unusual ammunition never went into mass production. Until the end of the war, when bombing Japan, the Americans relied on more traditional incendiary bombs, which were highly effective against Japanese cities.
Battle bats
The idea of using animals in war is old enough. Man has always used assistants in military affairs, but most often they were horses and dogs. Exploitation, primarily of pigeons, is also widespread. In this regard, bats really look quite exotic.
The idea of using them for military purposes belongs to a Pennsylvania dental surgeon who was personally acquainted with President Roosevelt and his wife. Most likely, it was this personal acquaintance with the presidential family that greatly contributed to the fact that his project was approved for development and received the necessary funding.
The idea of creating an unusual weapon came to a dentist from Pennsylvania at the moment when he looked into the Carlsbad caves in the state of New Mexico on his way home. Here Little S. Adams witnessed numerous bats leaving the caves. The sight of the migration of an entire colony of bats made a strong impression on the doctor. Soon after, on the radio, Adams heard the news that Japan had attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. Less than a month had passed since the United States entered World War II, and Little S. Adams was already preparing his proposal to create a new type of weapon. In January 1942, he sent a letter describing his project directly to the White House.
In total, 17 species of bats live in the Carlsbad Caves National Park. They were able to more accurately assess their population only in the 21st century. In 2005, studies carried out using modern thermal imaging cameras showed that up to 793 thousand bats live in the cave system during peak periods. At the same time, in caves in Texas, bat populations numbered tens of millions of individuals. So there was clearly no shortage of material for Adams' project.
Burn wooden Tokyo to the ground
Little S. Adams chose Brazilian foldlips and other bats close to the family to create his bomb.
It is unlikely that this dentist-surgeon from Pennsylvania was familiar with the legendary events from the legends of Ancient Russia. But his idea largely repeated the historical prototype - the episode of Princess Olga's revenge against the Drevlyans. Only this time at a new technical level, much more complex and using bats instead of pigeons and sparrows.
In his letter to the President of the United States, Adams wrote that with the help of bats, it would be possible to burn Tokyo to the ground.
Adams decided to share his knowledge not only about bats, but that the vast majority of buildings in Japan were wooden. I must say that this second fact did not escape the attention of the American military, who subsequently massively used incendiary bombs when bombing Japanese cities at the end of the war.
Kamikaze mice
Adams' idea was to attach small, time-delayed incendiary bombs to the bodies of bats.
It was planned to plant kamikaze bats in special self-opening containers dropped from aircraft in flight. After that, these bats would have to scatter around the area, climbing into attics and under the roofs of residential and outbuildings, which they would use as a refuge. Subsequent explosions and fires were supposed to complete the case, causing serious damage to the enemy and his infrastructure.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was really interested in the letter that came to the White House. This decision was influenced not only by a personal acquaintance with the author of the letter, but also by the support of a young scientist, in the future professor of zoology, Donald Griffin, who, even before the outbreak of the war, began to study the echolocation of bats. During World War II, Griffin was a member of the National Defense Research Committee, which supported the idea of creating a mouse bomb.
Just in case, reacting to Adams' appeal, the US President noted in the accompanying documents that this person is not a nutcase. And he emphasized that although the idea he proposed looks like completely wild, it needs to be studied.
The seriousness of the American side's intentions is also underlined by the fact that a total of $ 2 million (approximately $ 19 million at today's exchange rate) was spent on the project to create a mouse bomb in a war.
High-speed submunitions
Bats were perfect for new unusual weapons. There was no shortage of bats in the United States, which made it possible to make a large number of bombs.
Brazilian folded lips were also chosen for a reason. These were some of the fastest examples of these flying animals. In horizontal flight, they could reach speeds of up to 160 km / h, quickly moving over a large area. Their second feature was that these small individuals (weighing up to 15 grams) could carry loads with a mass three times their own. And their third feature was that at certain ambient temperatures, the mice hibernate. This property, like the instincts of bats, the developers planned to use in their new weapons.
It is worth noting that in parallel, an option was also considered with large bats, for example, bulldogs, whose weight reached 190 grams. In the future, they could carry a bomb already weighing half a kilo. But there was another serious problem - the small number of such mice in nature. That is why the choice was stopped on miniature representatives, but available in huge quantities. This simplified the process of catching them and further stocking ammunition, and also ensured the massive use and increase in the affected area.
The device and principle of operation of the mouse bomb
It was planned to supply the bats with miniature, flammable charges with a delayed action mechanism.
For Japanese cities, in which buildings were erected from flammable materials, such living incendiary bombs carried a huge threat. Many houses and outbuildings in Japan were made of wood, and the partitions and doors in them were made of paper at all. (The so-called "shoji" in Japanese traditional architecture is an element (windows, doors, or a partition that separates the interior of a house) consisting of translucent or transparent paper attached to a wooden frame).
Scientist Louis Fieser (who, for a moment, was the inventor of napalm), as well as the Chemical Service of the US Army, were brought in to create an incendiary charge and develop the bomb itself. The famous organic chemist, who during the war years worked for the defense industry, first worked out options with white phosphorus, but eventually settled on napalm, which was developed in 1942 under his direct supervision.
Fieser proposed a miniature incendiary bomb, which was a simple cellophane pencil case with napalm inside. The pencil case was attached to the fold on the bat's chest in various ways, eventually stopping at the glue.
Two versions of miniature bombs were created - weighing 17 grams (burned for 4 minutes) and 22 grams (burned for 6 minutes). The last bomb gave a 30 cm radius of ignition. Each bomb received a miniature fuse of a simple form. The fuse was a spring-loaded striker held by a steel wire.
When miniature bombs were prepared for use, copper chloride was injected into them, which after a certain period of time corroded the wire, after which the striker straightened and hit the igniter primer, igniting the combustible mixture.
All bats with bombs attached to them were placed in a cylindrical metal container. In fact, it was about a variant of cluster munitions, where numerous submunitions were alive.
The mouse bomb container had a stabilizer and a parachute, and its walls were perforated to prevent the bats from suffocating. The total length of the body of the mouse bomb reached 1.5 m. Inside the body there were 26 round baffle trays, each 76 cm in diameter. Each of these containers held up to 1,040 bats, which could be equated with submunitions.
The principle of the mouse bomb was as follows. Initially, the mice were cooled to a temperature of +4 degrees Celsius. At this temperature, the animals hibernate. Firstly, it simplified the process of manipulating them, and secondly, so the mice did not need food. In this form, the mice were loaded into container bombs that could be carried by conventional American bombers. Further, the bomb was dropped over the target from the plane, descending to the ground by parachute. This was necessary so that the mice had time to "thaw" and wake up from hibernation. At an altitude of about 1,200 meters, the container bomb was deployed and the bats were free.
Live American Napalm
It was planned to use unusual ammunition at night before dawn. Once free, miniature living bombs began to seek shelter to wait out the daylight hours.
The plan was to drop such bombs over major Japanese cities (such as Tokyo) or over other major industrial centers in Osaka Bay.
Living incendiary bombs would hide under the roofs of residential buildings and outbuildings, after which time fuses would be triggered.
The result is fires, chaos and destruction.
Given the number of mice in one bomb, some of them must have caused fires.
Burned the US airbase
The first tests of the new weapon in 1943 ended in failure.
Air Force officials were unable to deal with the bats.
On May 15, 1943, randomly released bats scattered across the Carlsbad Air Force Base in New Mexico (believed to be only six).
Some of the escaped mice settled under the fuel tanks and naturally burned the airbase. The fire damaged fuel tanks and hangars. They say that the personal car of one of the generals also burned down in the fire.
On the one hand, the weapon worked, on the other hand, the Americans did not expect to use kamikaze mice against themselves.
Uncontrollability of the first kamikaze
Another failure was associated with the fact that during experimental bombing, some of the mice did not move from hibernation and simply broke when falling. And some flew away in an unknown direction.
Tamed by the American Marines
After the first setbacks, the project was first attached to the control of the US Navy.
And in December 1943, the mouse bomb was handed over to the Marine Corps. There he received a mysterious name - X-Ray.
Surprisingly, sailors (unlike representatives of the American Air Force) have finally managed to cope with obstinate flying animals.
The mouse bomb has been successfully tested.
Several times bats actually burned models of Japanese villages and settlements specially built on the ground.
One such experimental facility was located at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah.
Experiments have shown that with the same bomb load, conventional incendiary bombs give from 167 to 400 fires, while mouse bombs already provided 3-4 thousand fires, that is, an almost tenfold increase was recorded.
The program was considered successful. In the middle of 1944, it was planned to conduct new, larger-scale tests.
However, when the project manager, Admiral Ernest King, learned that the weapon would become fully operational only by the middle of 1945 (it was planned to catch at least a million bats), it was decided to stop the project.
Mice did not cope with competitors
By that time, the creation of the atomic bomb was in full swing in the United States, which seemed to be a weapon that would change the history of mankind. This is what happened in the end.
Against this background, it was decided to curtail the eccentric project with mice. In addition, as the further bombing of Japanese cities showed, ordinary incendiary bombs did an excellent job of organizing fires and firestorms.
The American bombing of Tokyo in March 1945 went down in history.
Then a two-hour airstrike from American B-29 bombers led to the formation of a firestorm (similar to the one that originated in Dresden). The fire destroyed 330 thousand houses. Nearly 40 percent of Tokyo was completely burnt out. At the same time, according to various estimates, from 80,000 to over 100 thousand people died. Without any use of bats. And even without nuclear weapons.
