Cool moments from History: How carrots helped defeat the Nazis.

We have all heard it said that carrots improve your eyesight, what if I told you they don't? And what if I told you the story was made up to help defeat the Nazis? Interested? Well read on.

source

Radar

At the beginning of World War II radar was a known technology but it was extremely large and only used from fixed land based positions, i.e buildings.

But the British had already begun to work on refining the technology enough that a radar could be used in a plane. Which they were able to implement very early in the war.

This system (AI) was allowing the British to have a lot of success in finding and combating night time bomber raids. In 1940 RAF pilot John "Cats Eyes" Cunningham was the first to shoot down an enemy plane with the help of the AI system.

John Cunningham source

The Cover UP

To help explain this success the British were having with night time operations, the story of carrots helping your eyesight was first created.

The war ministry planted a number of stories in the British papers about pilots, like Cunningham, that had fantastic night vision and put it down to the fact that they ate lots of carrots. And thus the legend began.

Did it Work?

While there is no clear evidence that the Germans believed this story, to this day in German and many places in the world, the belief that carrots improve your eyesight still prevails. So it clearly had an impact

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This post is part of my Repost Friday series, I originally posted this 8 months ago and when I went to repost it I realise how much I have improved at writing. So as you can see it is much revised.

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sources:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/a-wwii-propaganda-campaign-popularized-the-myth-that-carrots-help-you-see-in-the-dark-28812484/

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@fiveboringgames