Cats Awaaaaaay!!!

In the midst of a long discussion on the debate between cats and dogs over at the Corner this morning, Jonah relates this rayther startling nugget:

The most creative way to use a cat as a weapon happened in World War II. The United States’ OSS (Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the CIA) needed a way to guide bombs to sink German ships. Somebody hit upon the inspiration that since cats have such a strong disdain of getting wet and always land on their feet that if you attached a cat to a bomb and drop it in the vicinity of a ship, the cat’s instinct to avoid the water would force it to guide the bomb to the enemy’s deck. It is unclear how the cat was supposed to actually guide a bomb attached to it as it fell from the sky but the plan never got past the testing stages since the cats had a bad habit of becoming unconscious mid-drop.

Without researching it further, my finger hovers over the b/s button on this one, pleasant idea though it is. It reminds me of a story Mom told me years ago about a British Admiralty plan (perhaps suggested by Winston himself) to train seagulls to poop on Nazi U-boat periscope lens, another legend I never made up my mind whether or not to believe.