[epow]

The Hawker Hurricane did the majority of the work during the Battle of Britain while the Supermarine Spitfire got most of the glory. The Spit was a newer design and unquestionably the better fighter, but of the RAF fighters in service in the summer of 1940 the Hurricanes far outnumbered the Spits, and more Nazi bombers were shot down by Hurricanes than by Spits during the Battle of Britain.

The Spitfire was credited with many more kills in both the press and the public's mind than it actually made because the reporters incorrectly identified practically all RAF fighters as Spitfires. It was also very common for German ME109 pilots who were shot down by Hurricanes to claim they were downed by a Spitfire. I suppose it was more comforting to their egos to believe they were beaten by the famous Spitfire than by the more lightly regarded Hurricane.

[DMZFrank]

The Spitfire was Britain's air superiority fighter. They relied upon it to take on the Messerschmidt M. E. 109 fighter that was its technological equal. The Spitfire was more complex to manufacture, and what Britain needed at the time was large numbers of fighters to counter the qualitative superiority of the Luftwaffe. The Hurricane had already been in production longer than the Spitfire, was very rugged, reliable and easier to manufacture and repair. Owing to these unique circumstances, the two fighters complemented each other quite well, with the Hurricane being used to take on the bomber stream and when possible, the Spitfire was mainly vectored to counter the German fighter escort.