September 1939 also saw the maiden flight of the first Spitfire MkII. The following month, Spitfires from 602 and 603 Squadrons claimed the first enemy combat victims when two Junkers Ju-88s were shot down over Rosyth.

When war was declared, the MkI was the mainstay of Fighter Command along with the Hurricane and was to remain in service throughout the Battle of Britain. It was a worthy adversary for its Luftwaffe equivalent – the Messerschmitt Me 109.

At the end of the so-called Phoney War in April 1940, Germany blitzkreiged Denmark and Norway into submission. In May, Hitler attacked Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and France. By 18 June, Dunkirk was history and all British forces had quit France.

As Winston Churchill put it: “…the Battle of France is over, the Battle of Britain is about to begin”.

The Battle of Britain was waged between 10 July and 31 October 1940. At the beginning, Fighter Command had 640 fighters - 27 squadrons of Hurricanes and 19 Spitfire squadrons. (The Luftwaffe had 2,600 bombers and fighters!)

Although Spitfire and Hurricane success rate was virtually in proportion to the numbers deployed, the top scoring fighter squadrons, based in the front-line, flew Spitfires. No 609 Squadron, for example, based at Middle Wallop, was the first to 100 kills.

In August at the height of the Battle, the Spitfire MkI gave way to its faster and more powerful successor, the MkII with its magnificent Rolls-Royce Merlin XII powerplant.

When it was over and won, 565 Hurricanes and 352 Spitfires had been lost. In all, 2,827 young pilots and aircrew fought in the Battle, 544 of them paying the ultimate sacrifice.

Operation Sea Lion, Hitler’s plan to invade Britain, had failed.

A Pilot’s Perspective

After being involved in a dogfight with a German pilot, Alan Deere wrote a report on the relative merits of the Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Me 109.

“In my written report on the combat I stated that in my opinion the Spitfire was superior overall to the Me 109, except in the initial climb and dive; however this was an opinion contrary to the belief of the so-called experts.

“Their judgement was of course based on intelligence assessments and the performance of the 109 in combat with the Hurricane in France. In fact, the Hurricane, though vastly more manoeuvrable than either the Spitfire or the Me 109, was so sadly lacking in speed and rate of climb, that its too-short combat experience against the 109 was not a valid yardstick for comparison.

“The Spitfire, however, possessed these two attributes to such a degree that, coupled with a better rate of turn than the Me 109, it had the edge overall in combat. There may have been scepticism by some about my claim for the Spitfire, but I had no doubts on the score; nor did my fellow pilots in 54 Squadron. Later events, particularly in the Battle of Britain, were to prove me right.”

Did you know?

Development of the Spitfire airscrew

From the prototype’s two and the Mk I's three blades, the Spitfire's propeller evolved through four and five blades to the Mk 22's six–blade contra prop

Squadron markings

The Spitfire's basic Battle of Britain camouflage colours of Dark Green and Dark Earth changed considerably in later years but there was always a squadron marking on the fuselage.

The finest defensive fighter of its era

Although challenged strongly by the Luftwaffe's ME109E, the Spitfire's thoroughbred flying characteristics made it a "fighter pilot's dream". The fastest variants reached speeds of 450 mph