United States military strategists during World War II seriously funded a project to strap tiny incendiary bombs to live Mexican free-tailed bats, planning to drop them over Japanese cities.

A closer look

United States military strategists during World War II seriously funded a project to strap tiny incendiary bombs to live Mexican free-tailed bats, planning to drop them over Japanese cities. Project X-Ray relied on the assumption that the bats would roost in highly flammable wooden buildings before the timed explosives detonated, essentially turning nocturnal wildlife into kamikaze arsonists. The brilliant plan was only scrapped after an armed batch of these weaponized flying mammals got loose and burned down a brand new, multi-million dollar military airbase in Carlsbad. It is a comforting reminder that the greatest military minds of the twentieth century spent a fortune playing literal arts and crafts with rabid cave-dwellers instead of inventing normal weapons!