smartypants wrote:Gmatt, I can definately see where you are coming from so I'll leave it at that!
Thanks for the interesting discussion, it certainly has made me think out my views more thoroughly, and that is always a good thing.
OurDLF wrote:Ironically, the British owed their victory in the Battle of Britain to the Poles. The Polish element in the RAF greatly over-performed the rest of the RAF. They had a much lower casualty rate, and more kills in less time. One of the British generals (can't remember his name) basically said that without the Polish pilots, the battle would have had a different result.
They certainly played their part, but I wouldn't say they Battle of Britain was won solely by their efforts. 89 Polish pilots, in four RAF squadrons took part, out of 30 entire squadrons in 10 and 11 Groups in August 1940, (Those being the ones to take the brunt of the fighting being based in South England), 15 in 12 Group and 14 in 13 Group, 59 in total.
The battle was won for a few different reasons.
-The excellent service of the Poles, us Canadians, and the other foreign pilots in the RAF
-The shift of the German targets from the airfields to London
-Fighting over friendly territory where our pilots could often be recovered, while the Germans could not and all the experience was lost
-The output of the British factories to get aircraft to our pilots.
The foreign pilots certainly played their bit with valour, as pilots at that time were disparately needed, but there wasn't really one reason why we triumphed.