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John Cunningham: The Man Behind the RAF's Cat's Eyes Myth
A pilot sits in the cockpit of a Bristol Beaufighter somewhere over Cambridgeshire, in total darkness, with no idea where the enemy bomber actually is. Behind him, a radar operator reads a flickering blip on a small screen and calls out corrections in a flat, steady voice. Neither man can see a thing outside the aircraft. Somewhere ahead, a German bomber is about to become John Cunningham's first confirmed kill, and the start of a legend that has almost nothing to do with what really happened that night.
This episode matters because Cunningham's story is usually told as one about extraordinary natural night vision, when the real story is about radar, teamwork, and one of the best kept secrets of the war. Britain let the public believe carrots gave him the ability to see in the dark, because the real answer, an airborne radar set and the operator who read it, was too valuable to let the Germans find out about.
In this episode:
- How John Cunningham became a highly trained pilot years before the war, working as a de Havilland test pilot alongside his RAF service
- Why RAF night fighters struggled to intercept German bombers during the Blitz, and how ground controlled interception and airborne radar solved it
- The story of radar operator Jimmy Rawnsley, and why the partnership between pilot and operator was the real engine behind Cunningham's success
- How the RAF and Britain's wartime carrot campaign combined to hide the existence of airborne radar from Germany
- Cunningham's record of twenty confirmed victories, and his later career as the test pilot who flew the de Havilland Comet's first flight
Listen if you're interested in:
- RAF night fighter operations in the Second World War
- The hidden history of British radar technology
- Wartime propaganda and the stories governments tell the public
- Test pilots and the postwar British aviation industry
Explore more from The RAF Chronicle: For more on the history of the Royal Air Force, visit therafchronicle.co.uk to read the latest articles and explore the archive.
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