WAS this our finest hour? About 70 years ago the aerial conflict known as the Battle of Britain was just getting under way. When it came to an end, the RAF was still standing, which was all it needed to do to legitimately claim victory.

Now an integral part of our national mythology, how much of a turning point was “the battle” in the wider war and our history as a whole?

That there are myths surrounding this episode is beyond doubt. Britain was actually far better prepared for this battle than for most other confrontations with the Germans during the Second World War, at least in the early years. Air defence, including the development of radar stations and the Spitfire fighter, had been one of the chief beneficiaries of a late burst of spending in the face of the growing Nazi threat.

The fact the investment came late may actually have benefited us, because it meant cash was spent on more up-to-date aircraft, though it is well documented that The Few had fewer Spitfires than sometimes suggested, and relied on the Hurricane as their workhorse.

The technology was backed up by an efficient warning system, a sound defensive strategy directed by such outstanding figures as Dowding and Park, and, of course, highly motivated RAF personnel.

The conflict was an unusual, possibly unique one, in that the campaign’s prime purpose was for one air force to try to destroy another. In other battles, from Germany’s 1940 defeat of France through the Six-Day War to Gulf War One, massive air attacks formed part of a wider battle plan involving other arms; this time the aerial conflict had a logic all its own.

The point of it was apparently quite simple – if the Luftwaffe could achieve domination over the RAF, it would pave the way for a German invasion, while failure to do so would put a mighty spanner in that enterprise.

Actually, it wasn’t quite that simple. Had a significant German force somehow landed in Britain, it’s hard to imagine our army, which had lost most of its equipment in France, being able to stop it. But, as Churchill remarked, we still had a navy, the biggest in the world at the time, and even with air superiority, getting an army across the Channel wasn’t going to be easy.

Some “revisionist” historians have taken these points so far as to suggest the Luftwaffe was actually the underdog in the battle, and Churchill knew full well the invasion threat was never serious.

I think they are arguing, as is often the case, with the benefit of hindsight not available to people at the time. Churchill made his “finest hour” speech before the Battle of Britain, when for all he knew his rallying call could have referred to a great naval clash or a last-ditch fight on land, just as well as to the aerial confrontation. Our leaders had to act on the basis our national survival was threatened; it was certainly as endangered as at any time during the Napoleonic Wars.

Unlike Trafalgar, this battle was fought where large sections of the British people could see it.

Though fought directly by The Few, the many could feel involved in this conflict far more than virtually any other conflict fought by Britain in recent centuries.

Most people reacted well to the crisis, although there were exceptions. So are we right to celebrate it as “our finest hour”? I think you’d be hard-pressed to find any other great recent British experience and achievement, in either peace or war, to match it.

It was a pivotal moment in history, for without air superiority the invasion really was a non-starter, and the check to Nazism emboldened others to oppose Hitler, especially in America.

It was also, for the most part, a British victory, rather than one gained in collaboration with allies. The fact we went about winning that victory in a manner that was almost un-British is, perhaps, all the more reason to celebrate it.