The RAF won the battle of Britain in Late October 1940 because of one single unassailable fact. That the young men who served in fighter command , the famous 'Few' as Churchill called them, shot down more German Young men than they did our young men.

In a celebrated reposte to a minister from the war office, who asked Air Chief Marshal  Sir Hugh Dowding, if American journalist assertions that our claims for enemy aircraft kills were not accurate, Dowding replied so;

' I pay no great store on statisitcs minister, if we are correct then they will give up, if we are not, they will be goose stepping up Whitehall come the weekend' 

He calmly put the phone down and sent for his two senior group commanders
Sir keith Park who commanded  no 11 group fighter command and Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory who commanded 12 group.

After a full and frank discussion all three men agreed that the problem was not a shortage of aircraft at this stage, although the Lufwaffe had inflicted heavy losses to aircraft sat on the airfields during the middle stages of the battle, the real problem was a shortage of trained pilots, who were being shot down at a faster rate than they could be trained.

The real problem was the length of the training period and any measures designed to shorten that would be a boost to RAF morale.

Fortunately in the evacuation at a Dunkirk , a number of Polish and other  european evacuees were amongst the retreating soldiers. many had some aircrew training. These were pressed into fighter pilot training at the greatest of speed. It is here that the particular attributes of the two fighter aircraft employed by the RAF during the battle came to play a substantial role tactically. Non more so than the Hawker Hurricane, the 'Cinderella' fighter.

The legendry Spitfire and its role are well documented and yet, it is incorrectly lauded as the fighter that won the Battle of Britain, the victory was not entirely its own.

As a matter of fact over 60 % of the confirmed German aircraft shot down were shot down by Hurricane fighters.

It is however the Hurricane's  contribution to the pilot training dilema where it had its most spectacular effect. Quite simply it was an easier aircraft to fly. It was very kind to inexperience. One particular example of that contribution was in its flight behaviour. It was very manouvreable at low air speeds since it was built on the bi plane airframe principles of wood and metal ribbed structure and canvas outer skin. The spitfire by contrast was an all metal consrtuction and critical of any mistaken handling because of its heavier weight.

The differences were most marked when coming into land. The Hurricane was capable of dropiing like stone from about 10 feet in the air and its landing gear would withstand the bump. In fact the aircraft would  literally bounce along until it came to a standstill. The spitfire needed accurate and smooth gradiented landing or the landing gear could be pushed into its wing structure.

The implications of this were massive during this crucial middle part of the battle. Often pilots with only one days trial on Hurricanes could be pushed into squadron duty the very next day. Whereas Spitfire pilots would need a longer period to get used to merely landing and taking off.

Such an unsung tactical nuance gave the RAF the opportunity to contuniue the battle long after it looked as though it would succumb.

It is likely however, contrary to popular belief, that long before the decisive day of the battle Sunday the 17th of September 1940,  Hitler himself had already decided  that the Luftwaffe was not going to gain air supremity without suffering massive losses. Gorings boast that he would smash the RAF simply did not stack up  even  by the most optimistic German calculations.

Consequently soon after Hitler, ordered a cancellation of Operation Sea lion, the plan for the invasion of Great Britain for the forseable future. The 'Few' had prevailed.

The 'Few' to which this text is dedicated were:

Great Britain  2353 men
Poland             139 men
New Zealand     98 men
Canada              86 men
Czecchoslovakia 84 men
Belgium               29 men
Australia             21 men
South Africa        20 men
France                 13 men
ireland                 10 men
USA                        7 men
Jamaica                  1 man
Palestine                1 man
Southern Rodesia  1 man
Unknown               1 man

Total                    2927.

The total number of aircraft lossess of the beligerant nations

Luftwaffe losses 1598 aircraft damaged or destroyed
RAF                     902 aircraft damaged or destroyed

Germany never attained its goal of total air supremecy and Churchill was able to add to his earlier speech made on 18th June 1940.

' Never in the Field of Human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few'

The legend of the few was borne. In october 1940 Hitler cancelled the planned invasion of Great Britain until further notice.

The 'Few' had won the greatest air battle in History

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