Spitfire Hurricane V the BF109e

[Jim P.]

One man's opinion for what its worth - and the old adage applies - opinions are like a certain part of one's anatomy - everyone has one - and you mentioned it yourself - it all depends on the pilot. Yes, there are recorded losses for the LW fighters of wings comimg off in hard combat or dives, but the fact remains, if any particular pilot, from either side, was willing to push his machine to its limits, then he might be successful. There were certainly a lot of other factors that came into play - altitude advantage, coming out of the sun, tactics (and the RAF during the early BoB was probably behind the curve here as to formations and whatever), but the bottom line is probably pilot skill. Over the years we've seen a lot of 'what ifs' of machine type versus machine type, generally with no consideration as to pilot aptitude, but to me these questions are pointless. Sure, one type of machine may have had it all over its opponent technically or tactically in battle, but, all things being equal, the skill of the opposing pilots more times than not determines the outcome.