Watching a show on the Military channel about past secret weapons. I found this simply amazing: Does anyone know the secret weapon developed in 1944 that was ready to deploy against Japan but then was canned because the Manhattan project research was nearing completion?
Dropping some kind of animal from planes for the purpose of reconnaisance or, as gip suggested, carrying some kind of illness. I'll guess dogs or cats, since they might be the least recognizable. Mice is a possibility.
If this weapon had been deployed, it could have endangered the rice paddies but it is very doubtful. This is not some kind of herbicide.
Snakes? But why would the SPCA, if it existed then, be concerned about snakes? And what type of damage could they do, other than biting innocent civilians? Homing pigeons? Carrying information from spies inside the country to our armed forces?
All great guesses given the information at hand. You would not believe this if the documentation was not available. The weapon: The Bat Bomb! Mexican free tail bats can carry the weight of up to two of their babies. A small lightweight incendiary device was developed and attached to the skin of the bats' underbellies. Due to the wood and paper construction of most Japanese buildings back then, fires would spread out of control. They were released in a chilled bomb shaped container. The cold temp placed the bats into hibernation. The device was slowed by a parachute and the device opened shortly after it was deployed. When they woke up, the bats were then free to fly away from the device breaking small wires that started a timer of less than 1/2 hour. With a daytime drop, the bats would search out eves of buildings in which to hide out. The timer goes off, and instant fire. You can skip to the ~7 minute mark to see the device and how it operated. This was actually tested in the desert in Nevada I believe. A fake town was built and the bats flew to it and burned it down. There was also an accidental release that burned down part of the base where this was developed. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WDX9rRuHcn8" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Well it figures....A dentist came up with this idea :shock: :shock: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/old-weird-tech-the-bat-bombs-of-world-war-ii/237267/ http://www.nww2m.com/2013/05/bat-bomb-tests-go-awry/
Now that's weird. If they wanted to fire bomb cities they must have learned something from Dresden, and it wasn't bats.