This Weapon Have Killed 5 Crore People But How?
On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., a U.S. bomber plane dropped an atomic bomb called Little Boy on Hiroshima. Three days later, on August 9, another bomb, Fat Man, hit Nagasaki. These two bombs killed about 250,000 people. But even that number is small compared to the destruction caused by another weapon: the human body, which was responsible for over 50 million deaths. If not controlled, it could have wiped out humanity.
Let’s explore how the human body became such a powerful weapon and take a look at other strange weapons from history, like rat bombs, bat air forces, and dolphin spies. These unusual weapons reveal just how far people have gone to win wars.
The Rat Bomb
During World War II, in 1941, British forces came up with a strange idea: they would place small bombs inside dead rats and sneak them into German factories and furnaces. If a worker threw one into a furnace, it would explode.
At first, the plan worked, and a few bombs went off. But soon, the Germans figured out what was happening. When Hitler heard about it, he and his generals panicked, worried that live rats might also be turned into bombs. Soldiers were ordered to kill any rats they found, and this strange weapon caused more fear than actual damage.
The Bat Bomb Disaster
During World War II, the U.S. also tried to develop unusual weapons. Dr. Lytle Adams suggested using bats to carry bombs. His idea was simple: cool the bats down so they would hibernate, attach bombs to them, and load them into canisters. Planes would drop the canisters over Japanese cities, and once the bats woke up, they would fly to buildings and set off explosions.
The first test went well. Thousands of bats were released from the canisters, and they flew around as expected. Encouraged by this, the military decided to run a second test, this time with real bombs. But things quickly went wrong.
Some bats woke up too early and escaped with the bombs still attached. They flew into military hangars, office buildings, and storage areas, causing chaos and explosions everywhere. The experiment was successful in terms of testing, but it also caused massive damage to the military base. In the end, the U.S. didn’t use the bat bomb because it had already developed nuclear weapons, but many believe the project was not completely abandoned.
The Dolphin Navy
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, both the U.S. and Russia began using animals like dolphins for military purposes. Dolphins are excellent at finding underwater mines using echolocation, which works like sonar. They send out sound waves, and when the waves bounce back, they can “see” objects under the water.
There are also reports that dolphins were trained to carry hypodermic needles on their noses. If they spotted an enemy diver, they could inject them and quickly return to the surface. While most details about these programs remain secret, it is believed that dolphins are still used in military operations today.
The Most Dangerous Weapon: The Human Body
The deadliest weapon in history is not a bomb or a gun—it is the human body itself. One of the most frightening examples comes from the 14th century during the siege of Kaffa, a city near Crimea.
The Mongol army, led by Janibeg, surrounded the city, hoping to force the residents to surrender. But when his soldiers started dying from the bubonic plague, Janibeg had a different idea. Instead of burning the bodies to stop the spread of disease, he catapulted the infected corpses over the city walls.
The people inside the city caught the plague and fled to Europe, unknowingly spreading the disease. This outbreak became known as the Black Death, which killed more than 50 million people worldwide. The plague showed how easily diseases can spread from one person to another, just like what happened recently with COVID-19.
Why Countries Avoid Biological Weapons
Even though diseases can be powerful weapons, most countries avoid using them. Infections don’t follow borders—they can spread to anyone, even the country that first released them. This makes biological weapons extremely risky.
However, countries like the U.S., Russia, China, and North Korea are known to have researched these weapons. Although the details are not public, experts warn that in desperate situations, some nations might still use them. A single infected person could bring an entire country to its knees.
Conclusion
Throughout history, people have created some truly strange weapons, from rat bombs to bat air forces. But the deadliest weapon remains the human body—capable of spreading diseases that can destroy entire nations.
Biological weapons are rarely used today because they are unpredictable and dangerous. But they remind us that war isn’t just about guns and bombs. Sometimes, the most powerful weapon is something invisible, lurking inside a person, ready to spread devastation far and wide.
