Dr. Lytle Adams had bats in his belfry. He had visited Carlsbad cavern right before Pearl Harbor was attacked. He came up with a great idea for weapon(s) of mass destruction hat would burn up the paper and wood cities of Japan. All he would need was a one ounce incendiary bomb, a breakaway bomb case, and millions of bats. So the Marines set up guards at several Texas caves containing millions of 3-inch winged warriors on their way to the Pacific. Testing sacrificed thousands of these brave flyers but the concept worked…until one worked better. Hear the wild story of the World War II Bat Bomb in the latest episode of Wise About Texas.
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2 comments on “Ep. 57: A BAT-ty idea to win WWII”
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Just listened to #57 Bat-y. My Dad ,who practiced in CC from ’34-81,was a lawyer attached to the Sec.of Navy doing special property acquisition projects in La.,Tx., & Ca. Prior to the war he had done lots of condemnation work for pipeline companies. He was given the assignment of acquiring the bat caves referred to this episode. I don’t recall him describing whether he acquired the property in fee or some lesser estate. Commonly the govt. took what it needed and went through the acquisition process as time and the exigencies of war allowed.
Last week I visited Carlsbad Caverns with some of my family. I was very excited to share this story with them. Thanks for sharing the story’s about Texas, I love this podcast!