I don't know where this comes from Dave as you didn't quote a source. It's a pretty reasonable account but I would argue with some points.

For example: This leads me to believe it was written by an American. Quote:

Nothing wrong with that but Americans commonly confuse England with Britain or vice versa. While most of the action took place over Southern England the threat was to the whole country which is the reason it's known as the Battle of Britain. The RAF fighter pilots came from all over the British Empire & other parts of the world including the US.

PS. Quote:

I'm not sure about that. Forgetting the ancient empires, in 1939 the British Empire covered something like 1/3 of the world's land mass. It was still much the same when I was at school in the 1950s.



The problem with many modern historians is that they base their ideas & arguments on modern concepts. To get the complete picture you need to try & appreciate the way things were at the time they occurred. This can be difficult for anyone not there at the time as life for ordinary people (including their outlook on it) was often very different to what we're familiar with now.

Quote:
That's, unfortunately, quite true; they often don't even know facts within our own union. We're free to roam from state-to-state but some don't seem to comprehend that we are 'unified' individual states and not all of our laws are the same. Many I spoke with in the midwest U.S. thought that New York was part of New England and that the entire northeast is basically concrete (when I led a group into the Guamanian 'jungle' -- oops, Safety Officer with us said never to mention it  -- I found it little different, aside from fauna types, than the forest I grew up with). After an immigrant has studied for citizenship they wind up knowing more about the U.S. than many of its native citizens .

PS. Quote:
This may possibly be true if restated: "In the spring of 1940 the Third Reich was the largest Continental European Empire the world had ever seen." Most previous lacked major portions of Europe (although they may have controlled more adjacent Asian, as well as African, territory).

Quote:
Wow! You'd think they already had a score to settle .

Quote:


You could say that about the French, Czechs and Belgians too...


[edit]I had another thought about this point too. The Poles tally may also have been assisted by their geographical location, as for most of the battle (if not all) the Polish Sqns were based at RAF Northolt. In this case, they were probably not often the first Sqns to be scrambled (I'd have expected these to be from the Kent and SE London airfields). Hence I wouldn't be suprised if many of the Polish victories were aircraft returning (and/or unescorted as the German fighters had left for) home, particularly as they were flying Hurricanes...

(Group Captain) Johnny Kent's book is well worth a read. A Canadian pilot, I think he was either a Flt or Sqn Cdr on one of the Polish Sqns in the BoB...

Quote:


What's the title of the book Charlie?

Quote:


Wrong and wrong. The Wehrmacht got involved on the African continent in February 1941 and the Reich had its peak in the late summer of 1942 after the summer offensive, when the german flag waved on the Mt Elbruz in Georgia.

Quote:
Africa and Asia don't count in my statement. Rome was unable to successfully annex much further in the northeast of the continent than the Rhine, never nearing Scandinavia nor through Russia southward; as well as Iberia, they did incorporate a part of Britain, this being their furthest thrust north in all of Europe: only the predominantly Brythonic areas of the south were annexed, walls (Antonine & Hadrian) being built to keep back the Scots and Picts from further north and Ireland was never touched. As for Italy, it may have been Germany's ally from the start of the war but it was the German occupying forces --  there prior to DDay -- of main concern in the Allied invasion of Italy.