I keep talking about my Dad and the war in various threads and one of the things I said was the truth isn’t necessarily in the history books. So over the next few days, I will recount some chats I remember about WW2 and what my dad told me really happened.
WW2 Window - basically chaff.
Radar was kept very secret and it wasn’t generally known about by aircrew, certainly not how it worked. They used to get these big bales which they were meant to cut. and throw out of the bay doors in loose handfulls. None of them believed it would be useful that way and the aircrews used to throw them out whole, in the hope a bale would land on an enemy….after the bombing run.
Carrots were good for your eyesight - Myth put around by the RAF to hide the fact they had H2S (onboard radar). Aircrew used to get special rations of carrots which they had to eat….my dad hated carrots. They were all told it improved their eyesight and that’s why our fighters could do so well in the dark…. This was of course bollocks, but my dad believed it for most of his life.
The swimming pool - Base commanders would change regularly. My dad always used to tell me about the swimming pool and how they would get some good guys and some bad ones. He said the first change of RAF base commander they had joined and said “what, no swimming pool”…walked in a square and marked out an area for a very large pool and asked them to dig it out to about 6-8 feet for the pool. 6 months later there would be a change of base commander and he would say “what’s that ruddy great hole”…“It’s for a swimming pool sir”.. “Never heard anything so ridiculous…fill it in!”. my dad said this happened twice. Of course, aircrew didn’t fly every night due to weather conditions and to keep them from thinking about their own mortality too much, it was felt they shouldn’t sit around brooding.
