How Texas Bats Were Almost Used In World War II Combat

Did you know that live bats collected from Texas and New Mexico were nearly used as bombs in WWII? Pretty weird, huh? Let's get into it...

Bat Bombs

Mexican free-tailed bats are a vital piece of the South Texas ecosystem and can often be found roosting beneath underpasses and, of course, hanging around in caves. We have so many, they even show up on radar screens during mass exodus events, where they fly out and snack on millions of bugs every spring and winter.

We've got plenty of them, and maybe that's one of the reasons we elected to use them to bomb Japan back in WWII. It sounds extreme, but so do a lot of things that went down between 1939 and 1945. Fingers crossed we aren't repeating history now, but that's another topic for another day.

How Did Bat Bombs Work?

Buckle up, because this is pretty strange.

Basically, we strapped Napalm to the bat's backs.

Excuse me? We did what!? 

I know. It doesn't seem like the greatest of plans, but it happened. Over 1000 bats were placed directly inside each bomb. Bat Bomb builders would chill the bats to put them to sleep, and then use a type of alligator clip to attach Napalm to their backs.

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In theory, as the bombs were dropped from the sky, they would come to life in the commotion and begin flying away, in search of dark places to roost. The bats were attached to a hair trigger that was set for 30 minutes, giving them time to fly away and cozy up somewhere unsuspecting, before the BOOM. Most things in Japan at the time were made from wood or paper. Highly flammable.

Did Bat Bombs Work?

Yes, they worked. Bat Bombs worked so well that they burned down the barracks at the Carlsbad airbase by accident during testing. Whoops. However, they were never actually deployed because the atomic bomb was invented. We were very serious about them, though, and spent about $2 million manufacturing them. We don't even know how many bats we used for these bombs, but it's believed to have been a massive number.

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Learn More About Bat Bombs

Don't believe me? Find out more about Bat Bombs for yourself at the Kendall County Jail Museum exhibit in Boerne, Texas.

Keep scrolling for more interesting Texas-based topics in the galleries below...