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This from the Wikipedia article on the subject...
"The explosive rats never saw use, as the first shipment was intercepted by the Germans; however, the resulting search for more booby trapped rats consumed enough German resources for the SOE to conclude that the operation was a success".
The lump of coal bomb was potentially more effective. Dead rats might get thrown in the trash rather than the boiler. Something that looked like a lump of coal in a boiler's coal bin wouldn't raise any suspicion and was surer of making it to the boiler fire.
Apparently the idea originated with those evil secessionists...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_torpedo
but was adopted by the British, Americans, Germans and Japanese in WWII.
"Both the American OSS and the British SOE used forms of exploding coal in World War II.[18][19] The German commandos who came ashore on Long Island in 1942 as part of Operation Pastorius carried plastic explosives disguised as coal for use against coal-fired electric generating plants."