Our Battle of Britain heroes were untrained and couldn't shoot straight

[Drone_pilot]

Their skill and bravery in winning the Battle of Britain is legendary.

But many of the RAF's Spitfire and Hurricane pilots were actually so short on
training they were unable to shoot straight, a historian has claimed.

Dr Anthony Cumming, writing in the latest edition of BBC History Magazine,
says the pilots' role in the nation's "finest hour" was a myth deliberately built
up by the Air Ministry to help its own battle for more resources.

Daily Mail Read More (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=490621&in_page_id=1770)

[Bombardier]

Interesting read but counter productive and pointless.The end result was a victory over the skies of england, what else matters.

Quote from somebody with some common sense in the article

"You could measure any military force against some ideal standard and find them wanting, but that's meaningless.

[Drone_pilot]

"In the final analysis who won the battle? The Luftwaffe suffered twice as many losses as the RAF and could not sustain them. Fighter Command did just enough to win."

I Like this comment, as it's so true.

[03Fox2/1]

Like the article says, in the final analysis, who won the Battle of Britain ? In retrospect, there were many factors that influenced the military decisions by both Germany and England that ultimately led to the final victory by Britain. A major mistake by Germany was ignoring the radar sites and also bombing civilan targets instead of British airfields. Without air superiority, Germany could not invade England and the bravery of the English pilots and their determination to deny this most critical need was foremost in the final outcome. Even if there is more truth than exaggeration to this article, it only shows what the British pilots did was even more remarkable.
This was indeed, "Their finest hour !"
Semper Fi

[Matzos]

According to Dr Cumming, the Air Ministry "skilfully marketed" the legend that "a handful of brave fighter pilots" prevented a German invasion by denying the Luftwaffe control of the skies in the summer of 1940.


What were they going to say, sorry but we will be off very soon to the camps like the rest of Europe.

[PanzerBob]

AAAAHHHH The media and it's renown ability to trip over it's own private parts when reporting on the military. Who the hell is it so called "Historian"? box;

[Reloader]

Well - it DID get them a helluva lot of free publicity, didn't it?