WW2 NAVY Spitfires

[HeloBubba]

How about:

Hurricane kills / Hurricanes lost = 656/317 = 2.07
Spitfire kills / Spitfires lost = 529/497 = 1.06

So the Brits traded 1 for 1 with Spitfires but got a 2-fer with the Hurricane.

You can bend the numbers many ways.....

...and there were 50% more Spitfires than Hurricanes.

Not trying to bend numbers. Just trying to reconcile the conclusion offered by the referenced article with the numbers/data that the article offered.

So I guess my next question is which facet is a better indicator of "combat record"? Kills / Acft? Or Kills / Acft lost?

 

[A4sForever]

Maybe this has already been considered -- so I'm not gonna try to match this with previous posts/quotes .... but: as soon as more SPITs became available, they were generally used against the Bf-109 fighter cover while the less agile Hurricanes went against the Kraut bomber formations and Me-110's. There's a reason why ....

BIG DIFFERENCE.

Sooooooooo ... any reckoning of Hurricane vs. Spitfire capabilities, desirability, losses, effectiveness, or "superiority" in the Battle of Britain has GOT to take this critical point into consideration. Because of total numbers available for the critical 4 months, turn-around time, and ability to sustain damage, the Battle of Britain would probably have been "lost" without the Hurricane. Or course, you gotta figure in RADAR and that idiot Austrian corporal's schizophrenic tactics and targeting priorities, as well ....

BUT: When you're goin' up against the likes of Galland, Moelders, Steinhoff, and Marseille, just to name a few ... you'd better be on your game. I'll take a Spitfire.

The biggest thing going against the Brits early on was their tactics. The 3-ship VIC -- it sucked. The Germans, on the other hand, were pioneering fighter tactics that are still relevant today ...

 

[nittany03]

The biggest thing going against the Brits early on was their tactics. The 3-ship VIC -- it sucked. The Germans, on the other hand, were pioneering fighter tactics that are still relevant today ...

They were doing that for a long time. Something about a guy who wrote a bunch of dicta, another guy who scored 80 kills, and another guy they named a maneuver after. Didn't someone once have a signature about that?