Originally Posted by
rolling20
Dowding built the air defence system. Regardless of the aircraft Dowding refused to send to France, Beaverbrook was pivotal in diverting resources to fighter production during the BoB.
Fighter Command lost 40% of its strength from early August to the end of August.
Yet the number of aircraft available rose steadily from late June until late October , actually peaking at the end of August.
Lots of people contributed to the Battle of Britain in lots of different ways. One of the points made by Derek Wood in the meticulously researched "Narrow Margin" is the way British industry comprehensively out-performed German industry from the mid 1930s to the end of the war (which is a controversial finding given the traditional views about German industrial efficiency). They produced larger numbers of aircraft (and tanks, and ships, and guns), they proved more resilient to attack by restoring production more quickly after bombing, and they had a far more effective support & repair organisation which gathered damaged aircraft & components to build usable ones from the damaged parts to supplement new production. This meant that Britain was never at any time short of aircraft - just pilots. In contrast the Luftwaffe often suffered AOGs due to basic lack of spares - the industrial focus was on building new types rather than sustaining the extant operational capability.
PDR