"In WWII there was a plan to drop bats from B-29 bombers over Tokyo with incendiaries tied to their bodies. The bats would fly into the eaves of Japanese wood and paper houses and the incendiaries would explode, burning the homes to the ground. The idea came from Dr. Lytle S. Adams, a dental surgeon from Irwin, Pa.

On 12 January 1942, Dr. Adams sent the White House a proposal to investigate the possible use of bats as bombers. His idea, after being sifted through a top-level scientific review, was passed to the Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) for further inquiry in conjunction with Army Air Forces. The free-tailed bat was selected. Though it weighed but one third of an ounce, it could fly fairly well with a one-ounce bomb.

In March 1943, authority to proceed with the experiment came from the United States Army Air Force Headquarters. The test was to "Determine the feasibility of using bats to carry small incendiary bombs into enemy targets." Two sizes of incendiary bombs were designed. One weighed seventeen grams and would burn four minutes with a ten-inch flame. The other weighed twenty-eight grams and would burn six minutes with a twelve-inch flame.

In May 1943, about 3,500 bats were collected and placed in refrigerators to force them to hibernate.

On 21 May 1943, five drops with bats outfitted with dummy bombs were made from a B-25 flying at 5,000 feet. The tests were not successful; most of the bats, not fully recovered from hibernation, did not fly and died on impact.

By December 1943 the Marine Corps began similar experimentation. Using bats they started 30 fires. Twenty-two went out, but, according to Robert Sherrod's History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II, "four of them would have required the services of professional firefighters." When Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations, found that the bats would not be ready until mid-1945, he canceled the operation.

By that time, the project had cost the American taxpayer approximately $2 million dollars. In reality, a bat dropped from 20,000 feet would probably hit the ground like a frozen stone."
-- SGM Herbert A. Friedman (Retired)

From portable transistor radios and toilet paper to burying Hitler with hardcore porn and the Gay Bomb, here is an odd menagerie of "Strange Gifts from Above" that have either been dropped or proposed:
http://www.psywarrior.com/GiftsFromAbove.html