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There were many more Hurricane equipped Squadrons than Spitfire Squadrons in 1940. Statistics can distort facts depending on how they are interpreted. The historian and author Dilip Sarkar wrote a very interesting book ,"Why the Spitfire won the Battle of Britain." Basically, his reasoning was that without the Spitfire, the Hurricane may not have had the success it achieved, but that both aircraft complemented each other. The Hurricane was undoubtedly easier to repair and return to battle than the Spitfire, but because of the Spitfire's reputation with Luftwaffe Bf109 pilots, they tended to avoid both aircraft when over Southern England. Not many Luftwaffe pilots who were shot down claimed they had been beaten by a Hurricane pilot, most said that a Spitfire had beaten them.
But none of the RAF's front line aircraft would have got anywhere without the cargoes of aviation fuel brought across the Atlantic.
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