The United States was engaged in a number of secret aviation projects during World War II. Two of them, not revealed to the public for many years, involved American fliers that were being trained to attack enemy forces and die in the process, kamikaze style. However, these fliers were not humans but common bats and pigeons, drafted to make surprise bombing raids on enemy forces...The book Secret Weapons of World War II: The Techno-Military Breakthroughs That Changed History, c. 2003 by William Yenne (author of Aces), devotes about three pages to the bat project. It is available in paperback, ISBN 0425189929, from Berkley, list price $7.50.
Jack Couffer, a team member on the project, wrote an entire book about it. Bat Bomb: World War II's Other Secret Weapon, was published by the University of Texas Press in 1992, hardback ISBN 0292707908, at a list price of $24.95. As of post time, I didn't see any new copies at my usual sources, but used prices started around $10 to $15 at various sites.
The link in this post's title goes to the several-page Aviation History article, on historynet.com. It's definitely in the 'ooh-ick' category at times. On the other hand, at least some of the people working so hard to perfect the bat project were searching for a way to start too many fires for the Japanese to fight simultaneously - but in a way that allowed civilians to have time to escape with their lives. I'd say that was decent of them.
The bat project was initiated by a Pennsylvania dentist named Lytle S. Adams. Burrhus Frederic "B.F." Skinner worked hard and heavy on the pigeon project.
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