Carrots praised by night flying heroes; Letters.BILL SUTTON was quite correct in his recent letter when he explained the lack of success by the RAF in night fighting (during the Blitz of Coventry). The aircraft we were using were withdrawn from the Battle of Britain Battle of Britain, in World War II, series of air battles between Great Britain and Germany, fought over Britain from Aug. to Oct., 1940. As a prelude to a planned invasion of England, Germany attacked British coastal defenses, radar stations, and shipping. On Aug. because they were too slow and also the Blenheim bombers (the British light bombers) were painted black. Seeing the enemy in pitch darkness was not easy but there was a night flying ace called Catseyes Cunningham who notched up some successes. At that time we had a glut glut pronounced as rut, slut Vox populi An excess of a service or skilled labor in a particular area. See Physician glut. of carrots, so our then wartime Minister of Food persuaded Catseyes to credit eating carrots which improved his night vision. As everybody was blundering blun·der n. A usually serious mistake typically caused by ignorance or confusion. v. blun·dered, blun·der·ing, blun·ders v.intr. 1. To move clumsily or blindly. 2. about in the unlit streets and stumbling over kerbs, the sale of carrots soared. Eventually we introduced Beaufighters fitted with forward scanning radar. Behind the Beau-fighters was a Hurricane which would leapfrog the Beaufighters to attack enemy planes detected. Alan Hartley Staverton Close, Mount Nod Coventry. |
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