Bat Bombs Over Tokyo: The Hits and Misses of the OSS

The CIA launched its R&D lab in 2020 to address new challenges and improve existing solutions using technologies such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, machine learning, distributed ledger/blockchain, and virtual and augmented reality. But if you’re disappointed that the CIA is using its resources for things like Bitcoin and VR, historian John Lisle’s book, The Dirty Tricks Department, offers an intriguing look at the effort by the CIA’s predecessor agency, the World War II-era Office of Strategic Services, to develop unconventional weapons to aid America’s spies in the underground battle against the Axis powers.

During democratic process, the agency received hundreds of thousands of submissions from the public with suggestions such as “death ray” and flying cars, but one idea that stood out most received the backing of President Roosevelt: strapping napalm-filled incendiaries on bats and unleashing the winged creatures on Imperial Japan. However, the experiment was unsuccessful after most of the bats fell to their deaths, and the handful of bats that survived only managed to burn down an Army barracks and control tower.

The agency, however, had success in other unconventional weapons that included a silenced .22 pistol, umbrella guns, poison pills, single-shot pistols, and explosive cookie dough. Lovell, the R&D chief, also developed Firefly explosives, which detonated after being placed in a vehicle’s gas tank, and train explosives, which almost doubled the Allies’ success rate in derailing German locomotives.

The OSS also developed cloaking mechanisms such as disguises, forged documents, and counterfeit cash, which helped more than 300 agents slip into the enemy territory for covert missions. Some agents went to great lengths to remain undetected, even undergoing plastic surgery to avoid detection by the enemy. These measures gave the Allies a clandestine advantage over the careless Nazis.

The OSS tested marijuana’s effectiveness as a truth drug to improve the success of interrogations. Lovell, meanwhile, developed biological weapons at Maryland’s Camp Detrick and lobbied the U.S. military to deploy chemical weapons in Iwo Jima. However, the use of chemical and biological weapons became moot with the development of the atomic bomb. Lytle Adams, the dentist who came up with the bat bomb idea, learned about the Manhattan Project while discussing his idea with a general who confused the two secret projects conducting tests in New Mexico.

Though bat bombs and other unconventional weapons didn’t bring the Allies the ultimate victory, the OSS’s efforts were driven by patriotic Americans who wanted to aid their country during the war. The CIA scientists of today are hopefully just as dedicated to helping the nation succeed.

The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
by John Lisle
St. Martin’s Press, 352 pp., $29.99