In early 1942, the United States has just entered into World War II by way of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. President Franklin Roosevelt was ready to entertain any ideas for winning the war, no matter how crazy, from dazzle camouflage to building a nuclear weapon. One of the craziest ideas came from a Pennsylvania dentist who thought the military should deliver tiny incendiary bombs to the buildings of Tokyo by flying bats. Roosevelt approved the idea, and the Army Air Force granted Lytle $2 million to give up his oral surgery practice and make bat bombs happen. Lytle assembled a motley crew of misfits, just like in a movie, to design and test the bat bombs. The first step was to design bombs that were small enough for a bat to carry. Then they had to catch a bunch of bats. Sure, it was a crazy idea, but even stranger was the fact that somehow it worked. -via Kuriositas