World War II Bombs (And the Animals We Strapped Them To)
When we speak of World War II explosives, we usually talk about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as several brutal air raids that took the lives of countless people. What we rarely talk about are feline-piloted missiles and D.R.E.D.s (Dead Rodent Explosive Devices.)
So, to honor our fallen furry comrades, we will look at all the ways we have used animals to (often unsuccessfully) kill one another.
We are going to discuss some unbelievably fucked up stuff in this article. If you are sensitive about animal cruelty or don’t want to be a misanthropic prick quite yet — maybe skip this one.
World War II Animal Bombs
The impression from this might be that World War II brought us to such a dark place that we invented new ways of being inhumane towards god’s creatures. This is not the case; I made it about World War II because there are so many examples of kamikaze animal explosives I had to narrow it down to a six-year period.
Who wants to hear about Bat Bombs?
United States Bat Bombs
Lytle S. Adams, a dentist, was on vacation in New Mexico at the Carlsbad Caverns. While there, he was impressed and awed by a group of intersecting bats ascending into the sky. As he took in the majesty of the event, an idea as natural as collecting water from a cool spring came to him.
We should light these guys up over Tokyo.
Why would the passing thought of a dentist ever get traction? Well, he was friends with the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. So he wrote a letter that said something along the lines of, “Bats are cave rats; they suck and serve no purpose we can identify. I have found that purpose.”
I’m paraphrasing, but he did talk a lot of shit about bats and said that his idea was their long-awaited calling. F.D.R., unbelievably, thought the idea was sound and that Adams — the eternal enemy of bats everywhere — was a bright guy who was worth listening to.
So Adams and the gang started collecting Mexican free-tailed bats by the truckload, and after a bit of deliberation, they decided to strap them with napalm. They made giant carrier bombs that could hold over a thousand bats per carrier.
As the bomb dropped, the walls would slip away, and the suicide bats would descend onto the city like miniature Mothras seeking the destruction of Japan’s capital. At least, that was the idea.
They never actually tested it in actual combat. They did, however, light up the Carlsbad Airfield after some napalm-strapped free tails slipped out of captivity and blew up a fuel tank.
The program showed signs of progress, but it was simply too slow-moving and expensive and was canceled before it could ever truly come to fruition. The project cost 2 million (32 million today) in total. Dr. Adams — the dentist — maintained that the idea would have been a colossal success.
British Explosive Rats
This idea might have been the most effective on the list for reasons the British SOE (Special Operations Executive) could have never predicted. The idea was simple: you get a bunch of dead rats, lace them up with explosives, and then drop them around German boiler rooms.
What’s the best way to dispose of a bunch of dead rats? Well, if you have a boiler room handy, incineration. That’ll give those Nazis the what for.
Due to various experiments and tests that the British conducted with rats, finding a bunch of dead rodents was actually very easy. They collected roughly a hundred dead rats, cut them open, placed explosives inside, and sewed them back up.
The explosive inside the rat wasn’t anything overly impressive. The idea was that it would cause the boiler to explode, which would be catastrophic for any nearby Germans.
The SOE sent out the first batch of explosive rats, likely with high expectations and a safe distance away from any oil lamps. Unfortunately, the Germans intercepted it, and the British failed to actually implement the bomb rats.
The plan was anything but unsuccessful, despite interception. These explosive rats had a tremendous effect on the Germans.
Think of it this way: you are in a war with another country, and you find out they have shoved bite-sized bombs halfway up a rat’s intestinal tract. How freaked out are you going to be the next time you spot a dead rat?
Well, the Germans were pretty concerned. The rats were sent around to various military academies, and they spent a decent bit of manpower looking for any other explosive rats, despite none actually being around.
The British were absolutely fine with this. They had to spend no further resources on rats and rat-shaped explosives while the Germans sweatily combed through boiler-room corners. The mindfuck they had given the Germans was far more effective than any rodent-themed explosions could have been.
Soviet Anti-Tank Dogs
As a lifelong dog lover, this one genuinely pisses me off; but it is worth discussing. It should be said that before we pass judgment on the Russians, they caught the worst of the war than any other allied country.
They suffered from disease, starvation, and freezing; many civilians had horrific qualities of life, and millions of people died, citizens and soldiers alike. So while the idea is brutal (I will be talking a fair bit of shit here), it has to be understood that these were as desperate as desperate times get.
Anyway, in 1935, the use of Anti-Tank Dogs was official in the Soviet Army. This was a program that had several hiccups. The first idea was that they would strap bombs to a dog that would run to an enemy tank and bite off the belt that held the explosive, which would unequip itself upon their deliberate tug. They could then return to their comrades unharmed, with a bomb underneath the enemy tank.
The problem was dogs love a good game of fetch. So, during training, dogs (mostly German Shepherds) would run over to the tank, remove the bomb by biting off the belt, and then happily walk back with the bomb in tow.
Others also got confused upon multiple targets, so they would oftentimes just walk back with the bomb still strapped around them. In a live situation, both results would have been catastrophic.
So, the Red Army devised a new plan: suicide shepherds.
Dogs would have a wooden lever that stood up on their back, and as they snuck underneath the tank, the lever would push down, triggering the explosive. They would intentionally starve the dogs and put food underneath the tanks, creating a pattern in the dog’s mind that tanks meant dinner.
The Russians were confident in the idea and decided to use the anti-tank dogs to repel the German invasion. In the warmer months of 1941, a few dozen dogs and trainers were deployed to see how effective the idea was.
There were considerable issues.
The tanks in live battles were moving, which scared the dogs. They were also firing, which further terrified the starving shepherds. This caused many to retreat back to the owners, inadvertently setting off their charge and blowing up Soviet soldiers.
To stop the death of soldiers, the Soviets had to shoot fleeing dogs so that they would not kill their own. This caused several soldiers and trainers to denounce the program and refuse to work with other dogs.
While some dogs did trigger near German tanks, the friendly fire disasters outweighed them enough that it was unsuccessful.
This is not even mentioning the fact that German tanks ran on gasoline, while Soviet tanks ran on diesel. So even though you and I couldn’t identify the difference in odor, the dogs easily could. This meant that they considered the Soviet tanks more likely to be hiding food.
The Russians discovered this error the hard way. The idea was so poorly executed that Germans began using it as a form of propaganda. To be fair, it is hard to know exactly how effective (or ineffective) the dogs were, as statistics vary from country to country.
Soviets claimed the program destroyed at least 300 German Tanks, though this number is almost certainly highly inflated. The Germans did take them seriously enough, however, informing soldiers to shoot any dog on the battlefield to lessen the likelihood of disabled tanks.
The anti-tank dogs were used less frequently towards the end of the war as Russia began to overwhelm Germany. The program stayed open until 1996, however, because you never know when you need an atomic beagle.
For any Americans right now scoffing and rolling their eyes at the inefficiency of Russian animal experiments, we also considered this idea before scrapping it. Not for animal cruelty concerns but because dogs just love returning to their owners (even with bombs attached.)
We should all take a minute and pet a nearby dog; really give ’em a good scratching.
United States Pigeon-Guided Missiles
While missiles captained by ambitious pigeons might seem stupid in today’s world, accuracy was something of an issue in the early days of World War II. There were no guidance systems, so B.F. Skinner (a shockingly bright man for such an idea) developed a way to use pigeons to steer the missile.
B.F. Skinner is responsible for Radical Behaviorism, which theorizes that all intelligent life can be molded through its environment. He also further developed Operant Conditioning, which teaches things through positive or negative reinforcement.
At least, that’s what I got out of it; there are a lot of confusing words and multisyllabic sentences. My head hurts.
So, with Skinner’s background, he estimated that he could get a missile from point A to point B with little more than three pigeons and a bit of training.
The idea was simple: they would stare through a lens that had the target in the center. When the target moved to the edges, the Pigeons would peck at that side, moving the missile back on target while realigning the image towards the middle. This was reinforced with birdseed, which would be dispensed through the “Skinner Box.”
The United States Government was anything but stoked about the idea but gave $25,000 in research money regardless. Despite a fair bit of promise in training, Skinner later said, “Our problem was no one would take us seriously.”
In 1944, the project was canceled for more reasonable ideas, though the “Pelican” (the name of the missile Skinner never got off the ground) had some definite merit to it. The idea seemed like it may have worked, though the issue was pigeons would have a hard time distinguishing between Ally and Axis ships.
The bulky compartment that housed the pigeons also made it impossible to put in as many explosives as alternative missiles.
To Skinner’s credit, he taught pigeons to dance and even verse one another in a game of ping pong, so who says he couldn’t train them to kamikaze a Japanese Aircraft Carrier? Well, the U.S. government, apparently.
Skinner went on to become famous for his contributions to Psychology and his own inventions, so thankfully, this did not ruin the eccentric man’s career. It also meant that we didn’t have to mourn the pigeons inside the Pelican missiles, which is also a nice thought.
Who doesn’t love a happy ending?
Some Final Thoughts
Surprisingly, these are not the only animals used in World War II. These aren’t even the only animals that were strapped to bombs (cat-guided missiles, anyone?)
There is something unique that happens in times of war in which scientific and technological innovation seems to naturally prosper as government spending and a need to survive fuse to make genuine (and horrific) innovations.
That doesn’t stop dentists from trying to light up the bat population, however.
For those interested in more odd WWII information, stay tuned. I plan to discuss Project Fantasia (we painted foxes with radium, not kidding) and much more in the future. In the meantime, try to avoid strapping explosives to your house pets.
Talk soon,
Jack
