Here is a comparison of British and German fighters lost during BOB lifted from Len Deighton's fine book "Fighter":
These are combined claims for 4 dates, 15 August, 18 August, 15 September, 27 September.
RAF 1940 Claim 678 RAF Claim Post War 258 German High Command Diary 196
The official figure of Spitfires and Hurricanes written off during all of BOB is 1,960. Only 934 are listed as lost to German action.
Even today there are bitter disputes regarding exact figures and even why RAF bomber losses over Germany aren't tallied in overall figures since German bomber losses are.
Any way you sum the bloody figures up, a lot of fine young men died for their country on both sides. If not too high a cost it was an enormous, even staggering price to pay for glorious victory. Indeed, conversely, it was therefore by far too high a price to pay for unconditional defeat at the end of the war.
What is Victory anyway? Here is one definition.
Victory is that which must be bought with the lives of young men to retrieve the errors of the old. Victory is a battered thing courage must salvage out of the wreckage which stupidity has wrought. Victory is redemption purchased for men's hope at a cost so terrible that only defeat could be more bitter. - Gordon R. Munnoch
------------------ "Blessed are they who expect nothing. For they will not be disappointed." - Edmund Qwenn, "The Trouble with Harry"
[This message has been edited by Jolly Roger Too (edited 07-26-2002).]
