British secret agents went to war behind enemy lines armed with exploding soap, clogs, bottles of chianti, bicycle pumps, suitcases – and rats.

A hundred of the rodents were procured by an SOE officer posing as a student needing them for laboratory experiments. The rats were skinned, filled with plastic explosive, and sewn up. The idea was to place a rat among coal beside a boiler. When they were spotted, they would immediately be thrown on to the fire, causing a huge explosion.

The Germans intercepted the container of dead rats before they could be used for “operational purposes”. But all was not lost. According to an SOE report, their discovery had an “extraordinary moral effect”: the rodents were exhibited at all German military schools, prompting a hunt for “hundreds of rats the enemy believed were distributed on the continent”.

Before this week I had heard of the infamous “Bat Bomb” intended for use against Tokyo. Then, earlier this week I hear about the “Cat Bomb“. Now I hear about a “Rat Bomb”. All from World War II. I get that people were scratching the bottom of the barrel for ideas to squeak out an edge, but…really?

Via The Guardian.