Military - Page 17

In some of the most formidable Allied battles, British fighter air power proved dominant. Such celebrated conflicts like the infamous Battle of Britain being wholly outnumbered, 704 Hurricanes, Spitfires and other British fighter planes faced off against a force of 3,500 German Luftwaffe fighters and bombers, culminating in one of history’s most dramatic and infamous

In 1939, Italy had almost as many fighters as Britain and France combined. However, nearly half of them were obsolescent bi-plane types, with fixed undercarriages such as the Fiat CR.32 and CR.42 Falcon, which has fought on the nationalist side during the Spanish civil war. Italian industry had been slow to respond to changing demands,