Todd Secrest
Airman
- 35
- Jan 16, 2016
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Well that gets very complicated.In the Battle of Britain, the Hurricane shot down about twice as many Nazi (german) aircraft, compared to the Spitfire.
How many bombers (HE-111, Stuka, etc) did the Hurricane shoot down and how many bombers did the Spitfire shoot down?
And how many German fighter were shoot down (Hurricane vs Spitfire)?
'In the Battle of Britain, the Hurricane shot down about twice as many Nazi (german) aircraft, compared to the Spitfire.
How many bombers (HE-111, Stuka, etc) did the Hurricane shoot down and how many bombers did the Spitfire shoot down?
And how many German fighter were shoot down (Hurricane vs Spitfire)?
Well that gets very complicated.
The problem with the details is that the devil is in the detail. People still believe that Hurricanes were used to attack bombers while Spitfires took on the escorts. Not only was this not true, it couldn't be true. If 2/3s of the RAF planes are Hurricanes and 1/5 to 2/5 of LW planes are bombers it is impossible to have such a distribution. If you are in a squadron in NE England or Scotland you wont see a Bf 109 or a Ju 87. Park didn't use squadrons as Spitfires or Hurricanes he just used them as squadrons so the relative kill to loss rate depended on the deployment which depended as much on geography as anything else. In 12 group you had the largely ineffective "big wing" philosophy but in 11 group there was 1 squadron of aces (303 squadron) which changes the overall number count drastically.Hopefully someone who knows the details on this will see this thread.
'The problem with the details is that the devil is in the detail.
People still believe that Hurricanes were used to attack bombers while Spitfires took on the escorts.
Not only was this not true.....,
The date on that is important.I can't find the thread where this myth was addressed but it is what they endeavoured to do -- at least when operating the larger formations. Naturally it wasn't always possible.
Whenever possible the minimum fighter formation to meet a large enemy formation should be a wing of two or more Squadrons, and when necessary, to secure superiority in numbers or to reduce inferiority as far as possible, a force of two fighter wings should be operated as a tactical formation. In the latter case it is important that Spitfire Squadrons should be available for engaging enemy fighters, owing to their superior performance at high altitudes.
Fighter Command Tactical Memorandum
Operation of Fighter Forces By Day
14/12/40
Good to see another (like myself), who'll debunk that stupid, stupid "myth"
Whenever possible the minimum fighter formation to meet a large enemy formation should be a wing of two or more Squadrons, and when necessary, to secure superiority in numbers or to reduce inferiority as far as possible, a force of two fighter wings should be operated as a tactical formation. In the latter case it is important that Spitfire Squadrons should be available for engaging enemy fighters, owing to their superior performance at high altitudes.
Yup, it was actually a policy that 12 Group put into practise, 'fraid to say.
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