and the fact that most battles took place over the UK meant that pilots shot down could return to their units, while German pilots ended up as POWs.

Dosing was. Scot. Radar was created by a Scot, telephones were created by a Scot, TV was created by a Scot!

Dowding

The point being that he had flown in the Polish airforce after the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939. Then flew with the French airforce, and follwing the fall of France flew with 303 squadron during the battle of Britain.

Could I please ask what these sentiments have to do with the subject?

What a pile of disingenuous, lefty, revisionist garbage. Why have you chosen to "cherry pick" your figures from different sources, was it to show the RAF at its strongest, and the Luftwaffe at its weakest? Why have you chosen to represent RAF defensive strength to include bomber and coastal command? They were NOT defending and took NO part in the defensive airwar over England in 1940. Lets look at some official figures shall we? AIR 40/1207 - Air Ministry: Periodical Returns, Intelligence Summaries and Bulletins. Dated 10th July 1940 (officially the first day of the battle of Britain). Total fighter command returns 645 aircraft to include all Spitfire / Hurricane / Blenheim / Defiants. That is 645 serviceable fighter aircraft to DEFEND the whole of Britain, NOT the 1963 you try to suggest which included the likes of defensively useless types such as Battles, Hampdens, Wellingtons & Whitleys. Facing the 645 fighters of RAF Fighter Command were the assembled forces of Luftflottes 2, 3 & 5. As you may imagine, Luftwaffe records from 1940 are piecemeal and hard to correlate, but a fair aggregation of serviceable aircraft (Which does NOT include the Do 18s / FW 200s etc of the Küstenfliegers, Ju52s etc of KG zbV1, and other assorted offensive units stationed in Germany / Poland) as of July / August 1940 are as follows. Single-engined fighters 787 Twin-engined fighters 219 Night fighters 63 Fighter-bombers 119 Dive-bombers 294 Twin-engined bombers 960 Four-engined bombers 7 Long-range reconaissance aircraft 185 Total Offensive A/C available in France the Low Countries, and Scandinavia 2,634 Which gives an offensive luftwaffe strength (2634) to defensive RAF strength (645) ratio of 4.08 luftwaffe aircraft to every 1 RAF fighter. Save your slanted, biased nonsense for those who can't read facts for themselves.

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 I am a retired barrister/trial lawyer (it depends on where you come from in the English speaking world). I was not previously aware of many of the details given in the video and set out in the comments below. As far as I can tell, I came to the discussion without any bias either way. I have read in full the many exchanges between yourself and Jon south. I have concluded that neither of you have established (to my satisfaction) your respective and highly polarised positions, and the "truth" if it could be known would lie somewhere in between, and is far more complicated than either of you present "it". What I do want to say is that I found your style highly aggressive throughout and sometimes abusive, and for me that tended to weaken rather than strengthen the impact of the points that I think you were trying to make. If you feel you must attack, I suggest you attack the message and not the messenger. "What part of ... do you not understand?" is a modern expression which I, for one, find offensive rather than clever. It seems to imply stupidity on the part of the recipient and infallibility and all knowing wisdom on the part of the questioner, as well as his or her ability to communicate ideas clearly. Then, having put the messenger in his place, you have described his message as "nonsense", presumably on the grounds that it differs from your wise and sensible message. I recognise that other readers of your output may admire your style. It is obvious that I don't. If in general you wish in future debates to persuade people like me, you might like to consider the feedback I am offering here, and spend a few minutes coming up with comments you could make which assert your point of view without putting the other protagonist down. With me, and those of my ilk, you are otherwise likely to shoot yourself in the foot, if I may use that metaphor. As an example, I offer the style that barristers invariably used in Court when I was active: "With great respect to my learned friend, he appears completely to have overlooked or misunderstood the point that I was endeavouring to make." Obviously, you wouldn't use those pompous words! Finally, I understand that both traditional Buddhists and modern psychologists regard anything that one says about another person actually says more about oneself than it does about the other person. (That applies equally to my post here, btw.)

@@bruce_c_in_nz Fair enough. I'm happy to have acted as a counterweight to the original asserion. Balance has been restored.

Lies, damned lies, and wehraboo posters on YT comments sections. Why have you chosen to "cherry pick" your figures from different sources, was it to show the RAF at its strongest, and the Luftwaffe at its weakest? Why have you chosen to represent RAF defensive strength to include bomber and coastal command? They were NOT defending and took NO part in the defensive airwar over England in 1940. Lets look at some official figures shall we? AIR 40/1207 - Air Ministry: Periodical Returns, Intelligence Summaries and Bulletins. Dated 10th July 1940 (officially the first day of the battle of Britain). Total fighter command returns 645 aircraft to include all Spitfire / Hurricane / Blenheim / Defiants. That is 645 serviceable fighter aircraft to DEFEND the whole of Britain, NOT the 1963 you try to suggest which included the likes of defensively useless types such as Battles, Hampdens, Wellingtons & Whitleys. Facing the 645 fighters of RAF Fighter Command were the assembled forces of Luftflottes 2, 3 & 5. As you may imagine, Luftwaffe records from 1940 are piecemeal and hard to correlate, but a fair aggregation of serviceable aircraft (Which does NOT include the Do 18s / FW 200s etc of the Küstenfliegers or Ju52s etc of KG zbV1 or other assorted offensive units stationed in Germany / Poland) as of July / August 1940 are as follows. Single-engined fighters 787 Twin-engined fighters 219 Night fighters 63 Fighter-bombers 119 Dive-bombers 294 Twin-engined bombers 960 Four-engined bombers 7 Long-range reconaissance aircraft 185 Total Offensive A/C available in France the Low Countries, and Scandinavia 2,634 Which gives an offensive luftwaffe strength (2634) to defensive RAF strength (645) ratio of 4.08 luftwaffe aircraft to every 1 RAF fighter. Save your slanted, biased nonsense for those who can't read facts for themselves.

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 I have never been accused of being a Wherbou or whatever as for the statistics the ones I used are the official statistics as recognized by the Battle of Britain association showing both sides the total number of planes used and in fact, you are the one cherrypicking statistics to suit a narrative.

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 You sire are the one who is cherry-picking data and you are deliberately conflating the total number of planes use in the German forces with the maximum strength. You are also conflating the total number of planes in Western Europe with those used in the BOB completely ignoring the sheer number of planes that never took part due to being unserviceable after the battle of France or assigned to other operations Hanger queens don't count that is why I used the total number of planes that actually took part in the battle as recognized by organizations like the Battle of Britain association and using records from both sides. You also conveniently forgot that during the Battle of Britain RAF Bomber command were also conducting strikes on German airbases in Northern France as well as on the transport fleet being assembled a major but often overlooked part of the battle thus you are massively misleading the readers on top of this you are also not counting the role of other RAF bombers like the Bristol Blenheim that was used as an auxiliary night fighter and Bomber interceptor first seeing action over London a month before the traditional start of the Battle of Britain this success as a night fighter being the spur for the rapid conversion of Bristol Beaufort bombers into what became the first model of the Bristol Beaufighter that started to be introduced a month into the battle or the units of the Fleet Air Arm that took part that is on top of the FAA pilots that took a temporary assignment with the RAF all of which are included in my figures which are the official figures as recognized by multiple organisations. You also completely made up a number of 645 fighters for the RAF especially as the Operational RAF Fighter command Strength on 1st July 1940 was 754 single-seat fighters, 149 two-seat fighters Bungay, Stephen (2000). The Most Dangerous Enemy: A History of the Battle of Britain. London: Aurum Press page 107 while the total German numbers that I used which are the officially recognized numbers can be found in the Quater-master Generals report of 6th Battalion that states The number of serviceable aircraft amounted to 805 single-seat fighters, 224 two-seat fighters, 998 medium bombers, 261 dive-bombers, 151 reconnaissance, and 80 coastal aircraft. from Wood, Derek; Dempster, Derek (2003). The Narrow Margin. Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-84884-314-1. page 308

@@jonsouth1545 What part of my typing "a fair aggregation of SERVICEABLE aircraft (Which does NOT include the Do 18s / FW 200s etc of the Küstenfliegers or Ju52s etc of KG zbV1 or other assorted offensive units stationed in Germany / Poland) as of July / August 1940" Do you NOT understand? The figures I've provided with regard to German force strength can be seen in any number of publications on the battle. You state 2550, my figures state 2634 Don't split hairs over that. Please concisely explain what part did Whitleys, Wellingtons, Hampdens & Battles play in repelling the Luftwaffe air assault on Britain During 1940? I will answer for you, they played NO PART in the defending against the Luftwaffe's air assault, therefore Britain's defending force was 645 fighters against Germany's assaulting force of ~2600 aircraft. and my figure of 645 fighters comes from air ministry files (as I stated above Boxfile AIR 40/1207) via the UK national arvchives. Therefore the offensive / defensive force ratio is as I stated above is approximately 4.08 / 1. QED.

@@walterkronkitesleftshoe6684 As I have already mentioned during the Battle of Britain the RAF were conducting raids on German air bases in Northern France as well as on the fleet of cross channel transports both of these were part of the Battle and should not be ignored. This was part of the defensive operations and played a major role in preventing hundreds of German planes from being repaired as well as severely hampering their logistics often preventing raids from taking place. While traditional views of the BOB have focused on the role of the Spitfire and Hurricane this was a deliberate act to make the victory seem bigger and to deflect from the often disastrous raids on German air-bases this was part of the deliberate Government policy of distancing itself from Bomber command after Dresden as shown by Bomber Command not being invited to the victory parade. Modern scholarship however takes a broader view and thus also credits the role of other organizations in the battle.

No now go away