The Bat Bomb Invention and Other Odd Facts from History and War

39. Hardscrabble Anguilla

The Caribbean island of Anguilla was conquered and colonized by English settlers in 1650. Attempts were made to transform Anguilla into a typical British plantation colony worked by African slaves, but the island’s climate and soil were unfavorable, and the plantations were largely unsuccessful. By 1819, there were only about 300 Europeans, 300 free blacks, and 2500 slaves on the island.

When the British abolished slavery in the 1830s, most whites returned to Europe, while the blacks continued to eke out a living as fishermen and subsistence farmers. To economize on the costs of administering an island that produced little of value, the British forced Anguilla – against its inhabitants’ wishes – into union with the more populous nearby islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The Anguillians grudgingly accepted the forced union. Resentment remained, however, and reared its head a century later when Britain decolonized its Caribbean holdings.

Also Read: The British Abolitionist Who Devoted His Life to Ending Slavery.

38. The Colony That Feared Independence

So long as the British were in charge, the Anguillians accepted being part of the colony of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, which combined the three islands into a single unit for ease of administration. That changed in 1967, when the British granted the amalgamated colony its own constitution, a considerable degree of self-government, and the status of an “associated state”. It was a major step on the road to eventual independence.

Anguillians had long resented playing second fiddle to the more populous St. Kitts. In an independent state that included its bigger neighbor, Anguilla would have been dominated. Resenting and fearing the prospect of such political subservience, the Anguillians rebelled.

37. Fighting Against Independence

On May 30^th, 1967, the people of Anguilla rose up and forcibly evicted the police, which was dominated by officers from their disliked sister colony, St. Kitts. They tore down the flag of the fledgling state of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla and replaced it with a Union Jack. The Anguillians also set up a provisional government which requested that Anguilla be ruled by the US, but Washington declined.

That July, a referendum on secession from St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla was held. Secession won overwhelmingly, 1813 to 5, and an Anguillian legislature was established. It eventually negotiated a return to the federation with St. Kitts and Nevis, so long as Anguilla was granted a measure of self-rule.

36. British Obliviousness

Back in London, the British were oblivious to the mutual antipathy between Anguilla and St. Kitts, as they went about their plans to grant them independence in a united country that the Anguillians wanted no part of. It did not help that the more populous St. Kitts was dominated by a leader named Robert Bradshaw, who openly despised Anguillians.

Indeed, as Bradshaw once said of Anguilla: “I will not rest until I have reduced that place to a desert“. The Anguillians tried hard to let London know that they could not abide rule from St. Kitts, but nobody in the British government paid them any attention. In the meantime, things in the Caribbean descended into comedic farce.

35. Comedy in the Caribbean

As the situation deteriorated in the newly semi-independent St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, things took a turn towards comic opera. Robert Bradshaw, the St. Kitts leader who loathed Anguillians, threatened to invade their island, insisting that it had been taken over by the American mafia. In the meantime, Anguilla’s provisional government launched an abortive raid on St. Kitts. It hoped to kidnap Bradshaw and hold him hostage, until Britain recognized Anguilla’s independence from St. Kitts.

Britain sent an incompetent diplomat named William Whitlock, to try and solve matters. The Anguillians greeted him with pro-British posters, and crowds sang God Save the Queen. Whitlock responded by demonstrating his contempt for Anguillians, refusing to ride in a motorcade organized to receive him or to dine with the island’s leader. Instead, Whitlock had his flunkies toss out leaflets to the crowd – “as a famer might throw corn to fowl” in the words of an Anguillian newspaper – detailing his proposals for a settlement.

34. The British Invasion of Anguilla

The Anguillians were understandably upset by the disrespect shown them by British diplomat William Whitlock. Some young toughs who styled themselves Anguilla’s Defense Force brandished firearms, which caused Whitlock to promptly flee the island. London, mistakenly believing that the Queen’s representative had been fired upon and violently ejected from Anguilla, organized an invasion.

Codenamed Operation Sheepskin, the invasion was an open secret, giving the Anguillians plenty of time to prepare. They did so by completely demilitarizing the island, rounding up all firearms and burying them. On March 19^th, 1969, the invasion force of 2 frigates, 135 paratroopers, and 40 Scotland Yard cops, landed in Anguilla. They met no resistance, but were greeted instead by welcoming crowds and a horde of journalists.

33. Anguilla Gains Its… Continued Colonization

The British invasion of Anguilla was ridiculed by the world press. Newsweek headlined it “The Lion That Meowed“. Time Magazine termed it “Britain’s Bay of Piglets“. Referring to the incompetent British diplomat who triggered it all, the Spectator termed it “The War of Whitlock’s Ear“. Whitlock was fired, and never again worked for Britain’s government.

The invasion force departed a few months later, to be replaced by British Army engineers brought in to improve Anguilla’s infrastructure. A more competent diplomat was sent, and he worked out a solution. Anguilla got its own constitution and effectively seceded from St. Kitts and Nevis in 1976, and formally disassociated from them in 1980 to become a British dependency. St. Kitts and Nevis went on to gain full independence in 1983, but Anguilla remains a British Overseas Territory to this day.

32. A King Killed by His Throne

Bela I of Hungary (circa 1020 – 1063) reigned from 1060 until his death. Bela was born into Hungarian royalty. His father, prince Vazul, had been a nephew of the childless Hungarian king Stephen I. When the king bypassed Bela’s father to name another nephew heir, Vazul rebelled, but was captured and blinded as punishment in 1031. Bela and his siblings fled Hungary, but returned in 1046, when Bela’s eldest brother successfully deposed the king and seized the crown.

When Bela became king, he solidified Hungary’s Christian identity by putting down a final pagan rebellion. He also fought a successful war against Holy Roman Emperor Henry III to defend Hungary’s independence. Bela accomplished much during his relatively brief tenure on the throne. Unfortunately, it was his very throne that would prove his undoing: it literally killed him.

31. Securing Power

According to Hungarian royal custom, whereby the crown passed from brother to brother by seniority, Bela was made a duke and named heir. However, while away from Hungary, Bela’s brother changed the rules by naming his four-year-old son heir. Bela responded by raising an army in Poland, and marched into Hungary to reassert his rights. During the ensuing struggle, the brother on the throne was killed, and Bela was crowned in his place.

Soon after becoming king, an uprising erupted, demanding a return to paganism, and an end to Christianity, which had become the official state religion a few decades earlier. Bela responded by mobilizing an army and crushing the pagans. In 1063, he successfully fought off a German invasion under the auspices of the Holy Roman Emperor, and asserted Hungarian independence from foreign domination.

30. A Deadly Throne

King Bela did not get to enjoy his victory for long. Later in 1063, he came to an undignified end just when he had achieved his ambitions and was at the height of his success, after his throne tottered and fell. “Throne tottered and fell” is not meant here as a figure of speech, or an allusion to a weakening of his power and authority, but literally.

One September day in 1063, Bela I held court in his summer palace in Domos. Flanked by his senior advisers, and with his noblemen and officials gathered before him, the king regally ascended the steps to his throne and took a seat. Unregally, the heavy wooden throne collapsed once the royal posterior sat down. Bela I was severely injured in front of his horrified court, and died of his wounds soon thereafter.

29. A Glorious Empress’ Inglorious Demise

Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great (1729 – 1796), ruled Russia from 1762 until her death. A German-born princess, she ascended the throne after she had her husband, Tsar Peter III, assassinated. She continued the westernization work begun by Tsar Peter the Great, and by the end of her reign, Russia had fully joined the mainstream of European political and cultural life.

However, Catherine’s regal reign was not to be matched by a regal demise. Rumors circulated that the insatiable Tsarina had died after sustaining injuries from having sex with a horse. The truth was less scandalous, but embarrassing all the same: she died taking a dump.

28. The Great Empress’ Great Constipation

In her last days, Catherine the Great had been feeling constipated. During a heroic effort to force relief on the toilet, she overstrained herself and suffered a fatal stroke. When her loud gruntings ceased, her maids waiting outside assumed that her majesty had finally found relief.

They started getting nervous, however, as the minutes dragged on without Catherine emerging or summoning them. Eventually, they delicately inquired if all was well. Hearing no answer, they took a peak, and found the Empress dead on the toilet.

27. The Kleptomaniac King

King Farouk I (1920 – 1965) ruled Egypt from 1936 until his overthrow in a military coup in 1952. His years in power were marked by endemic corruption, incompetent governance, and bizarre conduct. Among other things, Farouk was a kleptomaniac who could not resist stealing things and picking people’s pockets.

Farouk took pick-pocketing lessons, and his victims included Winston Churchill, whom the Egyptian king invited to a dinner during World War II. At the meal, Churchill discovered that his pocket watch – a prized family heirloom that had been a gift from Queen Anne to his ancestor John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough – had gone missing. After an outcry and search, Farouk, who had been seated next to Churchill, sheepishly turned it in, claiming to have “found” it.

26. The World’s Biggest Porn Stash

Early in World War II, King Farouk had repeated nightmares in which he was chased by a ravenous lion. Frazzled from loss of sleep, he consulted the rector of Cario’s ancient Al Azhar University, who advised him “you will not rest until you have shot a lion“. So Farouk went to the zoo and shot two lions in their cages. By 1952, the corruption and maladministration had completely eroded his standing, and he was overthrown in a coup.

Hastily fleeing Egypt, he left most of his possessions behind. The new government auctioned his belongings, and it was discovered that he had accumulated the world’s then-largest pornography collection. Farouk settled first in Monaco, then in Rome, where he literally ate himself to death, collapsing at a restaurant dinner table after a heavy meal in 1965.

25. Hard Pressed Soldiers Request Ammunition, Get Candy Instead

In the darkest days of the Korean War (1950 – 1953), desperate American troops fighting for their lives requested more ammo, but instead got candy delivered to them. The war was a seesaw affair, that began with the North Koreans launching a surprise attack that routed their opponents. Within weeks, they overran most of the Korean Peninsula, and all that was left under the control of South Korean and US forces was a small corner around the port city of Pusan.

Then American war general Douglas MacArthur outflanked the North Koreans with a brilliant amphibious landing at Inchon, which led to the invasion’s collapse. MacArthur then chased the routed North Koreans up the Peninsula. Despite warnings that China would intervene if his forces reached the Chinese border, MacArthur insisted that they would not dare, and his forces pushed up to the Sino-Korean border. Unfortunately for MacArthur, the Chinese dared. In a sudden attack, they caught MacArthur off guard, routed his forces, and chased them down the Peninsula even faster than they had raced up it a few weeks earlier.

24. Confusing Tootsie Rolls and Mortar Shells

In the desperate fighting following the Chinese intervention, American troops in the Chosin Reservoir found themselves in dire straits. They numbered only 15,000, while the Chinese attacked them with around 120,000 men. Supplies were running low, temperatures plummeted to minus 25 degrees, and what food they did have was almost impossible to warm up. And to top it off, they were running low on mortar shells – which were particularly effective in the mountainous terrain. So they called for an immediate airdrop of mortar shells, using a code name they had established for the munitions: Tootsie Rolls.

Quartermasters in the rear jumped into action, and the Air Force swiftly organized an airlift and airdropped their cargo within US positions in the Chosin Reservoir. The beleaguered troops eagerly rushed to recover the precious mortar shells. However, when they cracked open the crates, they were horrified to discover that instead of life-saving munitions, they were packed with actual Tootsie Rolls.

23. American Can-Do Makes The Best Out of a Bad Situation

Fortunately, the troops soon discovered that Tootsie Rolls were among the few food items that were actually edible when frozen, and the sugar boost gave the weary fighters a needed jolt. Additionally, American can-do spirit soon found other innovative uses for the candy.

Chewed-up Tootsie Rolls became like putty in the mouth, but froze solid when exposed in the frigid conditions of the Chosin Reservoir. So using Tootsie Rolls as improvised epoxy, the troops’ patched-up bullet holes in equipment, and repaired broken tools. Then, on a sugar high and with their equipment fixed, the American forces broke out of the Chosin Reservoir, and fought their way to safety.

22. The Rhinoceros That Ran For Office

In 1959, the voters of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city, were fed up. Corruption was rampant, garbage went uncollected, sewers overflowed, inflation was rising, and supplies of basic foodstuffs such as meat and beans were dwindling. As elections loomed that October, they faced a choice of a crowded field of 540 candidates, ranging from the uninspiring to the outright criminal, competing for the City Council’s 45 seats.

Faced with such dismal options, some local students decided: “Better elect a rhinoceros than an ass“. Their candidate of choice was a 5-year-old female black rhinoceros named Cacareco, a local celebrity on loan from Rio de Janeiro’s zoo to the recently inaugurated Sao Paulo zoo. So the students printed and distributed 200,000 ballots with her name on them.

21. Charging To Victory

On election day, not only did Cacareco win, she charged to first place and won in a landslide, garnering over 100,000 votes, amounting to 15% of the total cast. As The New York Times reported, Cacareco “earned one of the highest totals for a local candidate in Brazil’s recent history“. It was actually the highest ever total won by any city council candidate up to that date.

A sore loser party leader complained bitterly: “A ridiculous vote for a ridiculous rhinoceros. Nowhere, and never before, have 100,000 literate adult voters cast their ballots for a silent, absent, and nut-brained quadruped“. One of the failed candidates was so humiliated that he lost to a beast, that he committed suicide. Cacareco’s victory caused significant concern and hand wringing in Brazil’s intellectual and political circles, as some worried it indicated the country was on the verge of revolt. In the meantime, the Sao Paulo zoo’s director asked the city to pay Cacareco’s City Councilman’s salary. However, the fix was in, and election officials nullified Cacareco’s ballots.

20. Burning Japan With Bats

Like many Americans, Pennsylvania dentist Lytle S. Adams was livid when he first heard of the Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor, and like many of his countrymen, he fantasized about payback. In his case, he got to thinking about what was then commonly known about Japanese cities: that most of their houses were flimsy wooden constructs. Wouldn’t it be grand, he thought, if somebody could take advantage of that?

That idea in of itself was neither revolutionary nor original. It was common knowledge that the Japanese usually built their houses out of bamboo and paper. In 1923, an earthquake struck Tokyo, triggering fires that devastated the city, killing and wounding hundreds of thousands. So the vulnerability of Japanese cities to flames was well known. What set Adams apart was the creative method he dreamt up for igniting such fires: bats.

19. The Logic Behind Bat Bombs

Adams had recently returned from a trip to New Mexico, where he was impressed by the clouds of migratory bats that visited the state each year, roosting by the million in Carlsbad Caverns. He was particularly impressed by the Mexican Free-Tailed Bats – a smaller but hardier species than common bats. So the dentist, who apparently had as much free time as he had initiative, returned to Carlsbad, and captured some bats to study.

Between reading, observation, and experimentation, Dr. Adams realized that his nebulous idea of weaponizing bats was feasible. Bats – particularly Mexican Free-Tailed Bats – were hardy, could travel long distances, were capable of surviving in high altitudes, and best of all, could fly while carrying loads greater than their own body weight. Loads such as tiny, incendiary bombs. In theory, if bats with incendiary bombs were released over Japanese cities, they would naturally fly into and roost in the nooks and crannies of the mostly wooden buildings. Then the incendiaries would go off, starting numerous fires that would overwhelm firefighters, and cause widespread devastation.

18. “A Perfectly Wild Idea But Is Worth Looking Into“

Within weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Adams had drawn up plans for his bat bombs. On January 12^th, 1942, he wrote up a proposal and sent it to the White House. There, the idea would probably have been laughed off and dismissed out of hand, if not for the fact that Lytle Adams was a personal friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

With help from the president’s wife, the proposal made it to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s desk, and thence to the country’s top military brass. FDR thought it was “a perfectly wild idea but is worth looking into“. So he sent Adams to see William J. Donovan, Roosevelt’s chief intelligence adviser and eventual head of the Office of Strategic Services, the CIA’s predecessor, with a note advising him that “This man is not a nut!”

17. A Batty Proposal Finds Enthusiastic Support

Dr. Adams’ proposal eventually ended up with the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), which investigated and coordinated research into ideas that might help the war effort. The NDRC forwarded the proposal to a zoologist named Donald Griffin, who had conducted groundbreaking research into animal behavior, and who specialized in bats and their navigation methods.

It was right up Griffin’s alley, and he became an enthusiastic supporter of the plan. “This proposal seems bizarre and visionary at first glance,” he wrote in April 1942, “but extensive experience with experimental biology convinces the writer that if executed competently it would have every chance of success“. He went on to add that, properly executed, Bat Bombs were “likely to cause severe damage to [Japanese] property and morale“.

16. A Bat Collecting Expedition

Adams’ proposal thus went from a seemingly loony idea, to an official US government research project. A number of factors made the idea theoretically viable, and rendered it attractive to authorities. Bats fly at night, then seek dark and secluded places to roost in before dawn. Places such as attics, cubbyholes, and other nooks and crannies. Bats can also fly with loads exceeding their own bodyweight – loads such as tiny bombs.

Also, during wartime, when resources were scarce and had to be carefully husbanded, bats were abundantly plentiful. Finally, bats can be induced to hibernate, and while hibernating, they do not need food, care, or much maintenance. So Dr. Adams gathered together a coterie of supportive scientists, then took a team of naturalists from the University of California on a bat collecting expedition.

15. Testing For Project X-Ray

The bat collecting expedition’s studies and observations confirmed Dr. Adams’ hunch that the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat was the best candidate for the project. So Adams’ team netted hundreds of Free-tails, placed them in refrigerated trucks to induce hibernation, and sent them to Washington for further research.

There, Adams conducted an experiment in front of military brass using some Free-tails and dummy bombs. The results impressed his audience, and convinced them that the plan, which was designated Project X-Ray, warranted serious research. The US Army Air Force was put in charge of the project, whose subject matter was described as a “Test of Methods of Scattering Incendiaries“. Testing and research was ordered, so as to “[d]etermine the feasibility of using bats to carry small incendiary bombs into enemy targets“.

14. Drumming Up Bat Recruits

Work on Project X-Ray picked up the pace in 1942, starting with confirmation that bats could actually carry the weight of small incendiary bombs. Female bats routinely carry their young, and load-bearing tests conducted at Moffet Field Naval Air Station in Sunnyvale, California, confirmed that the species can, indeed, carry its body weight or more in sustained flight. It was now time for the next step, so teams were sent to delve into caverns throughout the American southwest, to drum up bat recruits for large-scale testing.

The flying critters were captured by the thousands, and transported to research centers, where they were placed in specially constructed “bat houses”. With the test subjects/ recruits in place, it was time to develop the tiny bombs that would transform bats into weapons of mass destruction. The job was given to Dr. Louis Fieser, an organic chemist best known as the inventor of militarily effective napalm.

13. Developing Tiny Bombs For Tiny Warriors

Dr. Fieser eventually settled upon a design for a light bomb made of a guncotton case, filled with kerosene. A capsule attached to the bomb contained a timed fuse and trigger assembly, which was affixed to the bat by a wire. When the bat was released, the bomb would dangle from the critter by the wire, and its weight would activate the timed fuse, which would eventually trigger the incendiary.

The Bat Bombs came in two models: a 0.6 ounce incendiary, which produced a 10 inch flame that burned for 4 minutes, and a 1 ounce model, which produced a 12 inch flame that burned for about 6 minutes. By then the critters, released over Japanese cities, would hopefully have roosted inside attics and other nooks and crannies. In theory, the bats would gnaw through the wire connecting them to their incendiaries before they went off, and thus survive their mission and go on to live happy bat lives. If not, they would have the thanks of a grateful nation for their sacrifice.

12. Testing… “Mishaps”

To deliver the individual Bat Bombs to their target area, the critters were first inducted into hibernation, then the tiny incendiaries were attached to them. Next, they were placed in a special bomb casing that contained 26 stacked trays, each with 40 bats, for a total of 1040 bat incendiaries per bomb. The bombs would be dropped at 5000 feet above a Japanese city, then deploy a parachute and break open at 1000 feet, releasing the by-now awakened bats to fly off and find roosting places.

There were some testing mishaps. The most notable occurred on March 15^th, 1943, when armed bats, accidentally released at Carlsbad Army Air Field, New Mexico, set the place ablaze. The silver lining was that it confirmed that weaponized bats can, indeed, start major fires. More controlled weapons testing at a specially designed “Japanese Village” confirmed that Bat Bombs were, pound for pound, between 11 to 21 times more effective than standard bombs. As the project’s chief chemist noted: “the regular bombs would give probably 167 to 400 fires per bomb load where X-Ray would give 3,625 to 4,748 fires“.

11. Abandoning the Bat Bomb

Notwithstanding the promising test results, authorities pulled the plug on Project X-Ray in mid-1944, when they were informed that it would not produce a deployable weapon until 1945. That was deemed too slow a pace, and since the Manhattan Project was on track to produce a war-winning bomb by then, X-Ray was canceled after a two-year life and a $2 million expenditure.

To his dying day, Dr. Lytle Adams insisted that his Bat Bombs could have won the war, with fewer horrors than atomic bombs. As he put it: “Think of thousands of fires breaking out simultaneously over a circle of forty miles in diameter for every bomb dropped. Japan could have been devastated, yet with small loss of life“.

10. The Hysterical French Chef

Francois Vatel (1631 – 1671) is best remembered as the cliche French chef prone to histrionics after he killed himself because he was embarrassed about a dinner that he had prepared. Vatel was born Fritz Karl Watel in Switzerland. He apprenticed as a pastry cook, then went to work for Nicolas Fouquet, who became King Louis XIV’s finance minister. Vatel became a celebrated master chef, often credited (inaccurately) for inventing Chantilly cream, and rose within Fouquet’s household to become his majordomo – the highest-ranking employee in an aristocrat’s household.

In 1661, Vatel supervised the grandiloquent inauguration fete of Fouquet’s chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte – now a famous tourist site southeast of Paris. Vatel did such a great job, and the inauguration was so splendid, that Louis XIV grew jealous of his finance minister’s display of opulence. The king fired Fouquet and threw him in jail, charged with maladministration of state funds and lese majeste, and kept him locked up until his death in 1680.

9. Getting Tapped to Prepare a Feast For the King

Out of a job, Vatel did not remain unemployed for long – apparently, throwing a party so great as to arouse the Sun King’s jealousy and ruin one’s boss was a CV plus in the French aristocracy’s eyes. He was quickly snatched up by prince Louis II de Bourbon-Conde, also known as the Grand Conde, who made him his master chef and majordomo.

In 1671, Vatel was put in charge of a grand banquet for 2000 people scheduled for April 25^th, in honor of Louis XIV, who was to visit the Grand Conde’s Chateau de-Chantilly that month. The royal banquet was scheduled on short notice, and Vatel, who had only 15 days to prepare, grew increasingly stressed by a series of minor mishaps while preparing for the grand feast.

8. Things Start to Go Wrong, And the Histrionics Begin to Flow

During a preliminary dinner a few days before the royal banquet, there were more guests than expected. As a result, two out of twenty-six tables had to go without roast. A mortified Francois Vatel wept that he had lost honor and could not bear the shame.

Reassurances from the Grand Conde that the dinner had gone great, and that King Louis XIV was pleased, did little to assuage Vatel. He kept obsessing about the tables that had gone without roast. Later that night, a grand display of fireworks flopped because fog and low clouds descended, which lowered Vatel’s spirits even further.

7. Committing Suicide Because of Fish

Early the following morning, April 24^th, 1671, one day before the banquet, Francois Vatel encountered a supplier bringing two loads of fish, and asked him if that was all. The supplier, unaware that Vatel was referring to all fish from all suppliers, not just himself, replied that it was. That was the final straw for a frazzled Vatel, who had hardly slept in the preceding fortnight. He broke down, crying “I won’t survive this insult. My honor and reputation are at stake“.

Unable to endure what he was sure would be a humiliation when the royal banquet turned into a flop, he took a sword and ran himself through. As it turned out, the fish misunderstanding soon resolved itself, as fish from other suppliers began arriving not long after Vatel had stabbed himself. A long train of wagonloads laden with fish trundled into the Chateau de-Chantilly, even as the master chef and majordomo lay dying of his wound.

6. George Washington, the Comedian?

George Washington was known for his adherence to formality and strict etiquette. Describing him as an upright and uptight prig would not be far off the mark. Little known, though, is that at one of the most dramatic and tense moments of his career, Washington took a stab at being a comic, and pulled it off.

Washington Crossing the Delaware, by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, is one of the most iconic images of the American Revolution. It depicts George Washington and a flotilla of Patriots in boats crossing the Delaware River on the night of December 25 – 26, 1776, for a surprise attack against enemy forces. The event was dramatic and worthy of commemoration. As 1776 drew to a close, things were going poorly for Washington and his men. They had been outgeneralled, outfought, and badly beaten. Most notably in New York City, where they had only avoided annihilation via a near miraculous escape.

5. The Dark Time of the Revolution

Morale was low, so George Washington planned a daring raid to score a quick victory and restore some confidence to the Revolutionary cause. From his base in Pennsylvania, he would cross the nearly frozen Delaware River, to suddenly descend upon and destroy Hessian forces on the opposite bank, in Trenton, New Jersey. Hence, Leutze’s painting of Washington standing at the boat’s prow, staring determinedly at the enemy shore, while flanked by other Patriot-laden boats.

Leutze’s portrayal of Washington is true to the essence of what is known of the man. His style was heavy on projecting an aura of detached dignity and a wall of formality that separated him from subordinates. It was not true, however, to Washington’s actual conduct during the crossing: it was one of the rare occasions when the general eased off on the formality, and cracked jokes.

4. Cracking Jokes Before Facing Death

Cold, hungry, and demoralized Patriots clambered into boats on a frigid winter night, made even more miserable by driving sleet. When it was Washington’s turn to get into a boat, he looked at Henry Knox, his overweight artillery chief, and said: “Shift your fat ass, Harry! But don’t swamp the damn boat!” All things considered, it was not comedy gold. But any levity from George Washington in public, especially on such a serious occasion, was highly unusual.

At first, the men were stunned, and stood looking at each other in shocked disbelief. Then somebody chuckled, and before long, contagious laughter rippled throughout the attacking force, as Washington’s comment was spread and repeated. With their spirits lifted, the Revolutionaries crossed the river, and fell upon the enemy in Trenton, killing, wounding, and capturing about a thousand men, for the loss of only two dead and five wounded.

3. An Unfortunate Officer

Englishman Sir Arthur Aston (1590 – 1649) was a scion of a prominent Catholic family from Cheshire, and descended from a long line of professional soldiers. During his lifetime, he gained a reputation as a solid military professional. Unfortunately, he is best remembered for the manner of his demise: he got beat to death by his own wooden leg.

Aston’s father had served in Russia in 1610, then in Poland, for whose king he raised thousands of British mercenaries for a war against the Ottomans in 1621. Aston joined his father in Poland with 300 mercenaries, who went on to form the Polish king’s bodyguard. He fought for the Poles in the Polish-Swedish War of 1626 – 1629, and was captured in 1627. After the war’s end, Aston joined the Swedes, whose king, Gustavus Adolphus, commissioned him in 1631 to recruit an English regiment to fight for Sweden in the Thirty Years War. He did, and Aston and his Englishmen fought in Germany in the 1630s.

2. A Catholic Fighting For a Protestant King

By the time he returned to England in 1640, Sir Arthur Aston was a grizzled and highly experienced professional soldier during the war. He commanded a regiment for King Charles I in the Second Bishops’ War against the Scots, but his Catholicism became an issue. Catholics back then were legally prohibited from a variety of public positions, and expressly barred from serving as army officers. The outcry forced Aston to resign, but as consolation for his efforts, Charles knighted him.

When the English Civil War erupted in 1642 between the king and his royalist supporters, pitted against the forces of Parliament, Aston, now Sir Arthur, sought to join Charles’ forces, but was initially rejected because of his Catholicism. As the royalist cause deteriorated, however, desperation and the intercession of Prince Rupert, the king’s nephew and main military commander, finally convinced Charles I to commission him into the royalist army.

1. An Undignified End

Sir Arthur Aston’s authoritarian style of command, learned on the continent, was unpopular in England. He was disliked by his troops, who viewed him as a martinet. Aston was wounded and captured in 1642, then released in a prisoner exchange. He was then appointed governor of Oxford, headquarters of the royalist cause. There, Aston was severely injured in a fall from a horse, lost a leg, and used a wooden prosthetic thereafter. While recovering, he was relieved of his command and pensioned off.

In 1648, Aston joined royalists in Ireland, and was made commander of the port town of Drogheda. There, he was besieged in 1649 by Parliamentary forces led by Oliver Cromwell, who stormed and captured the town on September 11^th. Aston was captured, and Cromwell’s soldiers, convinced that his prosthetic must contain hidden gold, demanded that he show them how to access its secret hidden compartment. They refused to believe his denials, and frustrated at his perceived obstinacy, they ended up beating him to death with his own wooden leg.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Anguillian, The, March 27^th, 2017 – The Last Invasion of Anguilla

Atlantic, The, April 4^th, 2011 – Old, Weird Tech: The Bat Bombs of World War II

British Battles – Battle of Trenton

British Civil Wars Project – Sir Arthur Aston

Cooks Info – Francois Vatel

Daily Beast – The Rhinoceros Who Won an Election by a Landslide

Disciples of Flight – Napalm Bats: The Bat Bomb

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McLeave, Hugh – The Last Pharaoh: Farouk of Egypt (1970)

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We Are the Mighty – Marines Were Once Saved by Candy From the Sky

Westlake, Donald E. – Under an English Heaven: The Remarkable True Story of the 1969 British Invasion of Anguilla

Wikipedia – Bela I of Hungary

Wikipedia – Farouk of Egypt

Wikipedia – World War I

Wikipedia – World War II

Wikipedia – Korean War

Wikipedia – English Civil War

Wikipedia – Civil War

Wikipedia – American Revolutionary War

Wikipedia – French Revolutionary War

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