The unsuccessful WWII plot to fight the Japanese with radioactive foxes (2020)
smithsonianmag.com
smithsonianmag.com
> Eventually the Marine Corps took over the program and conducted tests beginning in December 1943. After 30 demonstrations and $2 million spent, the project was canceled. Most people believe it's because the U.S. realized that all resources should be concentrated on the development of a far more powerful weapon: the atomic bomb.
According to airmen who were involved, they were loading up into bombers the hour it was cancelled. The first nuke was dropped a few days later. Unfortunately, it's probably impossible to retrieve that broadcast with the attestations.
[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/old-w...
The Scientific Method: A Personal Account of Unusual Projects in War and in Peace
https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/the_scienti...
See in particular chapter 13, "Bat Bombs."
The Wikipedia article is also worth reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog
It's a good thing that horses have been superseded. Animals should not be pulled into our wars.
There is a joke about intelligent apes like orangutans and chimpanzees: they could probably learn to speak, but they refuse to do so out of fear that people would try to employ them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Dolphin
though admittedly in the fiction the dolphins were trained to place the explosives and leave.
About the supposed use of dolphins in Sevastopol:
https://www.livescience.com/russians-using-military-dolphins...
they seem like a marine version of the good ol' Roman geese:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brennus_(leader_of_the_Senones...
a sort of intrusion alarm.
If so, it’s usually considered ethically acceptable.
See: land mines, white phosphorus, etc.
Chemical and biological weapons are in the few exceptions, and that is generally because they are very difficult to control and use without hurting your own troops as much or more.
That’s the point where you must look inward.
The plan is so ludicrous and insane that without any attribution I would've guessed an unhinged lunatic or a child came up with it.
> Lovell had established his reputation in the OSS by pursuing eccentric ideas himself, such as trying to make Adolf Hitler’s mustache fall out by slipping female sex hormones into his vegetables—Lovell’s nickname was “Professor Moriarty”—but Operation Fantasia went beyond his tolerance for absurdity.
The guy who wanted to make hitler's mustache fall out with vegetables laced with female sex hormones was the sanest one of the bunch. The voice of reason.
Isn't OSS the predecessor to the CIA?
The Germans dropped a bunch of agents into the UK and established a large and vibrant spy network, several agents earning the Iron Cross. Every single one of them was faked by the UK, either turned or killed and emulated. The Germans never knew until they lost.
The stories of the secret war during WWII are amazing.