How can you not read this book after seeing the cover?

Bat Bomb : World War II's other secret weapon

by Jack Couffer

An eccentric inventor, a prestigious chemist, a biologist and his student assistants, a movie star, a Texas guano-collector, an ex-mobster, and Marine colonel -- toss in a tiger, a World War II backdrop, and a race against time and you've got a great (and true!) adventure story.

Author Couffer, who was one of the "student assistants" mentioned above, is a good storyteller, introducing us to the cast of characters, and leading us through the development of the "Bat Bomb."

Inventor Lytle S. "Doc" Adams, wanted to create a device that would release thousands of bats carrying incendiary devices over Japanese cities, the idea being that the bats would crawl into hard-to-reach spaces in city buildings to roost, and start thousands of fires in those hard-to-reach places. Since Japanese cities were primarily built of wood at that time, this could actually have burned cities to the ground, if it worked. This book is the story of how he pulled his development team together, and what they had to do to develop the project.

Find this book on WPL's 2nd Floor, 940.544 COU.

c Waterloo Public Library 2007