Bilberries? Lol. Never come across this before in relation to aircrew and the idea they were given Bilberry Jam sarnies to supplement a poor diet is completely apocryphal! Bomber Command aircrew were amongst the most well-nourished and well fed people in Great Britain during the war. Much in the same way as the condemned man is offered a choice of last meal.
Although it's quite possible Bilberries can be good for maintaining healthy eye-sight bombing accuracy increased during the very latter stages of the war due to more sophisticated target-marking techniques and the decline in the LW night-fighter force.
However, I do think the origin of this story can be found in wartime food shortages. Great Britain has had to import foodstuffs since around the mid-eighteenth century. The difficulty in maintaining food supplies to the general population in the face of the early successes of Doenitz U-Boat campaign led to a drive to encourage the British people to grow and eat all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff they were not familiar with.
The Wiki quote is hilarious and shows how this source has to be treated with extreme caution. I love the statement it wasn't Bilberries but infact Carrots that improved accuracy!!! Complete bollox
This story originated from a guy called John "Catseyes" Cunningham - the RAF's first night-fighter ace. He was built up by the Press as a morale-boosting hero for hacking down quite a few night-bombers during the LW blitz of British cities following the Battle of Britain in the winter of '40-'41. His success was due to the successful introduction of airborne radar into twin-engined night fighters. This certainly was a very big secret so the Air Ministry put out the story that his success was due to improved night-vision from eating a great deal of Carrots!
01-13-2013, 12:45 PM
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