Explanation:
During the Blitz, an aerial bombing campaign waged against Britain by the Nazis between September 1940 and May 1941, the German Luftwaffe often struck under the cover of darkness. To make it more difficult for enemy planes to hit their targets, the British government issued citywide blackouts. The Royal Air Force (RAF) also repelled the German fighters with the aid of a new, secret radar technology.
First used by the RAF in 1940, the onboard aircraft interception radar (also known as A.I. radar) could pinpoint enemy bombers before they reached the English Channel. To keep that information under wraps, however, the ministry provided another reason for the RAF’s success: carrots.
In 1940, RAF fighter ace John Cunningham, nicknamed “Cat’s Eyes,” became the first British pilot to shoot down an enemy plane with A.I. radar. He’d later rack up an impressive total of 20 kills, 19 of which were at night. The government told newspapers that the reason for the RAF’s success was the fact that pilots like Cunningham ate an excess of carrots.
The ruse, perhaps meant to send German tacticians on a wild goose chase, may not have fooled the Nazis as planned.
“I have no evidence they fell for it, other than that the use of carrots to help with eye health was well ingrained in the German psyche,”
Is that seriously where “eating carrots will improve your eyesight at night” came from? It’s more than ingrained in German culture. I heard it growing up too.
Yes, but as with many urban legends there is a grain of truth.
TL;DR - Carrots have a lot of a substance that breaks down into vitamin A, which is used in vision among other things. But this isn’t exclusive to carrots.
Yep, 100% where it comes from. Here in the UK you hear that advice constantly growing up as well. So at least we both got lied to the same in our childhoods.
We even believed it growing up in the US. I take it as a fun example of how fast misinformation can spread and pass through generations
Brought to you by the same people who decided chaff was too dangerous to use once invented because the Germans might find out about it and call it something weird and German like Düppel
Heh, AI radar.
Radar was actually a cover story, to hide that they’d been training cats as navigators.
The Rote Armee Fraktion did what now? /j
Yep, my reaction too, every time I see RAF
