BOERNE, Texas – We’ve grown to love our local bats.
The Mexican free-tailed bat, which roosts under our freeways and in caves, even shows up on radars during their evening mass exodus to find food and eats an untold number of bugs every spring and summer.
Science has shown that they are a vital piece of our South Texas ecosystem.
So, it’s hard to imagine that they were once ‘enlisted’ to attack another country.
“They could have could have been an integral part of winning World War II,” explained Paul Barwick.
Barwick and his friend Dean Spowl run the Kendall County Historic Jail Museum in Boerne. A few years back, intrigued by the story behind a ‘bat bomb,’ they created an exhibit about the ‘stranger than fiction’ weapon, which utilized South Texas bats. It’s the only known exhibit on the subject in the country.
How did it work?
In simple terms, the idea was for Napalm to be strapped to the bat’s backs. Then, they’d be dropped out of a plane, inside a bomb, over Japan.
Over 1,000 bats would go into each bomb, with bats collected here locally and near Carlsbad, New Mexico. The bats were chilled to fall asleep and placed inside the bomb. In theory, as the bomb dropped, they’d come to life.
“There was a little kind of an alligator clip that they would just put onto their fur,” Barwick said. “You can kind of see the size of a Mexican free-tailed bat. It’s really a small, small animal.“
“As they woke up and flew off, there was a hair trigger on a string that would set it for 30 minutes,” Sprowl said.
The bats instinctively looked for darkness. At the time, most things in Japan were made of paper and wood.
“So, their idea was to fly up under it and then ignite,” Sprowl said.
Who came up with such an idea?
“After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Government was inundated with ideas for weapons. And this particular weapon got to Franklin Roosevelt’s desk because Doc Adams was actually a friend of Eleanor Roosevelt,” Sprowl said.
Lytle Adams, a dental surgeon in Pennsylvania, devised the weapon. He was inspired after taking a trip to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and seeing the strength of bats.
“Doc Adams has seen a lot of the Mexican free-tailed and knew that there were millions and millions of them, and they didn’t cost anything,” Sprowl said. “The Mexican Freetail can carry up to two and a half times its own weight because they’ll carry their babies. So, he had this idea to put a charge on them, pack them in this bomb, and then close it up.“
Did it work? Was it used?
The bomb was tested and, during the tests, did work. In one case, it worked too well.
“They accidentally burned down the barracks at the Carlsbad airbase,” Barwick said.
In fact, the whole area was burned, proving just how devastating the weapon could be.
How close did it come to being deployed?
“Well, we’re spending $2 million. I think they were pretty serious, and they had a lot of people working on it,” Barwick said.
It’s unknown just how many bats were used, but it’s believed to be a large number.
Before it was deployed, however, the atomic bomb was invented. The U.S. government would opt to go with an even more devastating weapon.
The ‘bat bomb’ was never used. However, it remains in the annals of weird military history. And thanks to the Kendall County Jail Museum exhibit, the bats are finally receiving the acknowledgment they deserve.
