RAF severly underclaimed own Battle of Britain Losses?

[Rob Romero]

I realize this book may be outdated, but in the last chapter of Len Deighton’s “Fighter” he states on p. 275 of my Ballentine paperback edition that: “The official figure for Hurricanes and Spitfires lost is 1,960, yet only 934 were entered as lost by enemy action. This has yet to be satisfactorily explained.”

While I realize a number of fighters would have been written off, and lost in accidents, etc. the difference we are talking about here is significantly over 100% (109.8%) -a statistically startling figure.

Also - and perhaps relatedly - are there any overall statistics for RAF fighters lost on the ground by bombing and strafing?


Rob Romero

[Rob Romero]

I guess I'm too used to posting on Luft Board.

Rob

[Graham Boak]

One additional loss for every combat loss is not unusual. Any air force of this period lost many aircraft in non-combat missions, whether specifically in training units, during non-operational flights, or non-combat-related on operational flights. Reliability was not up to modern standards, nor was the average standard of the pilots. Flights took part in poor weather conditions, and with what nowadays would be regarded as a lamentable (or even actionable!) lack of flying discipline.