The bomb mentioned in that document was actually a very ordinary small timed incendiary bomb. It's just that it's strapped to a bat. Most of the buildings in Japan are made of wood, and the fire performance is very poor. One biologist imagines that if a group of bats were given regular incendiary bombs and dropped over Japanese cities at night, the bats would have to find a place to sleep when dawn approached. They instinctively hide under the eaves of the Japanese. And at this time, a small incendiary bomb with a set time will set fire to the house where the bats are hidden. And this time is also the time when people sleep the most soundly.

Although each incendiary bomb is very small, and the ignition head is also very small, it cannot hold many ignition points. No single Japanese city has enough firefighting power to deal with a fire with thousands of scattered fire points. In this way, it was possible to destroy a small and medium-sized Japanese city with just a few bombers.

After reading this plan, even Ron had to sigh at the imagination of these guys.

"Ron, people call you 'Wizard', you always have the best nose for new weapons, what do you think of this plan?" General Arnold asked.

Ron thought, "This plan doesn't seem to have come in handy in the original history. At least I've never heard of a bat bombing story. In this way, there must be some issue that is affecting its use. What exactly is the problem? ”

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After thinking about it seriously, Ron spoke:

"General, this plan looks beautiful. But I'm worried about some of these problems. First, there is the issue of security. These bat incendiary bombs must be temporarily loaded with a timing signal before sorting, so will there be a problem that the incendiary bombs will explode in the bomb bay due to human error and the wrong time? You know, we need to set up more than one fuse before takeoff, and every big bomb has hundreds or thousands of small bombs in it.

Secondly, if these fuses have to be installed before the sortie, the workload is too great. Not to mention the price of labor, it is impossible for any airport to have so many logistics personnel to do such a thing.

Finally, there are some problems with the bats themselves. Can these bats withstand long flights, bombers fly at high altitudes, and can these bats be able to withstand the low pressure and lack of oxygen brought by high altitudes. Also, do these bats have a time difference? If it's as jet-lag as we are, what problems does that cause? These need to be taken into account.

I think that if all these problems can be solved, this incendiary bomb should still have a future. ”

"Do you think there is a solution to these problems?"

"There should be hope for a solution." Ron said.

"Ron, it seems that handing over this plan to you was definitely the right decision." Arnold said, "You can rest for a few days, take a jet lag, and next Monday, I'll go to Nevada and keep an eye on the project." ”

……

A few days later, Ron showed up at one of Army Airlines' training bases in Nevada. He was received by a scientist-like man.

"Hello, my name is Paul?? x?? Hopkins. He is an expert in biology. You can call me Dr. X. ”

"Dr. X?" Ron wondered, shouldn't a Wolverine or Magneto come out in a moment?

"This is Don?? Dr. Hughes, an expert in building; This is ......Dr. X" begins to introduce Ron to the members of his research team. Fortunately, until the end, neither Wolverine nor Magneto appeared.

"Can you give me an update on your progress?" Ron asked.

"Okay, General, let's go see my bat." Dr. X replied.

Dr. X takes Ron to a lab. Through the entire glass wall, Ron saw a swarm of bats hanging from half of the house. "This is a bat that we caught from some caves in North America. It is about the same size as those commonly found in Asia. ”

"Can such a small guy carry an incendiary bomb?" Ron asked, frowning.

"We've tested them with a decent counterweight. Experiments have shown that the effect of our small incendiary bombs on their ability to fly is not particularly noticeable. ”

"Can you show me a sample of an incendiary bomb?" Ron asked.

"No problem. Clark, go get a sample of an incendiary grenade for General Ron. Dr. X said to an assistant.

The assistant turned to leave, and in a few moments he came with something about the size of 4-5 cold capsules bundled together.

"Well, this is it." "Despite its small size, it has a whole set of timing devices inside, which are very compact and reliable." ”

"How much does this thing cost?"

"It's about the same as a regular watch. If production continues to increase, costs can fall further. ”

This cost is not cheap, you must know that in those days, watches were not cheap things. However, compared to those large incendiary bombs, the cost of this thing is indeed much lower.

"It's so small, and there is a timed ignition device in it, is the charge enough?"

"The charge is not much, but it is enough to ignite the semi-dry wood. We've done a lot of experiments with this. Dr. Hughes explained on the side.

"Dr. Hughes, can you tell me how the timing fuse of this ultra-small incendiary bomb is set?"

"It's still hand-loaded...... This is indeed a problem. So we're now working on a method of loading all the small bombs in a big bomb at once. At present, we mainly have the following ideas.

The first idea is that we can design a mechanism that will automatically disfuse the fuse in microgravity conditions that last for a certain period of time. You know, when a big bomb is falling, the little bomb inside will be in microgravity for a long time.

The second idea is to set it all at once by some means before it is dropped. For example, a miniature relay is installed in each bomb, and before it is dropped, all the fuse switches are turned on at one time through an electrical signal.

The third idea was to build a fuse-setting machine that would quickly set the time for the bomb to explode before departure.

Now these three ideas are being promoted, especially the first one, and we are confident that we will make a breakthrough in the near future. In this way, the manpower required for the use of bombs is greatly reduced. Just strapping a bomb to a bat is still a very labor-intensive thing. ”

"Dr. X, I wonder how the bomb was tied to the bat, through a rope or with glue?"

"With viscose? That's a good idea. "Just press the bomb in the right place." This can improve the efficiency a lot! ”

After getting a general idea of what was going on, Dr. X said to Ron, "We're going to have a massive test the day after tomorrow. When the time comes, we will see what the future holds for this vision. ”

……

Dr. X said the test was prepared to be conducted in a desert in Nevada. Here, Lu Hang built a simulated town with 1,200 wooden buildings to simulate the situation in Japan. In Japanese cities at this time, most of the houses were made of wood. Houses of this structure have an inherent advantage in resisting earthquakes. The wooden house has good integrity, strong tensile resistance, and is not easy to fall down in an earthquake, plus the overall weight is light, and most of the people who fall down can not be crushed to death, and it is also convenient for rescuers to rescue people, and there is basically no need to use a crane or something. Therefore, it is especially suitable for countries with many earthquakes such as Japan. In fact, until the 21st century, there are still quite a few such wooden houses in Japan.

But there are gains and losses. These wooden houses are very good at earthquake resistance, but they have always been problematic when it comes to fire protection. It often happens that a fire breaks out in one house and burns down one street or even several streets. In fact, China, which also uses a large number of wooden buildings, also has this kind of problem. In "Dream of Red Mansions", a fire broke out in the gourd temple and burned down an entire street. This was unimaginable in an era when masonry and even reinforced concrete buildings were used extensively.

Since most buildings in Japan have fire protection weaknesses, it is only natural to combat such weaknesses. In addition, Japanese-style architecture is basically a copycat version of Chinese Tang style architecture, with the same eaves and complex dougongs that stick out far away. These places in turn provide a good habitat for bats. So, theoretically, the incendiary bomb is really one of the most effective means against the Japanese.

The next morning, Ron first visited the "town". To say that the Americans are really serious about their work. Although it was a town destined to burn down, the Americans gave it plenty of material when it came to building it. Look at the pillars and roof beams, they are all real and practical, and they are authentic and good wood. If it wasn't burned, Ron felt that these houses would be fine for decades in this dry desert.

And except for some details that are not decorated, these houses really have a bit of a Japanese flavor. It's just that the street is too narrow, and the eaves of the houses on both sides of the street are almost touching.

"Who is the designer of this town? There's a little bit of a Japanese flavor. But the street is too narrow, isn't it? Ron asked.

"General," replied one of the attendants, "the town is actually exactly a replica of a certain neighborhood in Tokyo. That's how narrow the streets of that neighborhood are. In fact, if you had been to Tokyo before the war, you would have noticed that apart from the main street, some of the other streets were actually narrower than the one we built, and when we built this "town", we made the streets a little wider for the convenience of vehicles. And the Japanese also like to build knick-knacks on the streets. Those things burn faster. We've saved this too. ”

"What's the weather tomorrow and what's the wind?" Ron asked.

"General," replied another, "tomorrow will be sunny, and there will be only a light wind of force 1 or 2 from early morning to dawn, and the direction of the wind will be uncertain. ”

"Well, that way you can get the wind out of it." Ron thought so.