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The test was the Battle of Britain, and Britain's Fighter Command "had been training for this event for years."*Consequently, Author Michaelis modestly denies the contention that if Hitler had attacked directly after Dunkirk "he could have walked [into Britain] and helped himself." His vital air power, thinks Michaelis, would simply have been defeated "two months sooner." The German bombers, "with their oldfashioned, manhandled gun mountings, were insufficiently armed to protect themselves." Their escorting Messerschmitts, designed according to German fighter tradition for "a very fast dive, snap shoot, and away," were not built to "stay and fight a delaying action while the bombers got through." The price paid by the Germans in the decisive 84 days of the Battle of Britain was 2,375 aircraft definitely destroyed, and the loss of 7,000 trained pilots and air crew. Britain's price: 700 aircraft, and 375 fighter pilots killed, 358 wounded.
* Total British fighter strength at that time was estimated at 2,500 planes.