History is a myth agreed upon

Originally posted by Suzianne
Did the Hawker Hurricane 'win the Battle of Britain'?

Yes.
Or at least that is a better generalisation.
The big advantage of the Hurricane over the Spitfire was it was low tech.
(But still a bloody good plane). It was repairable in 24 hours whereas
the Spits might take a week to be patched up.

Originally posted by Suzianne
.... but the Spitfire was the plane the British depended on to win, and win they did.

No.
That is the myth.

Originally posted by NoEarthlyReason
Richard Overy argues that the Me-109's two-stage engine supercharger only gave it an advantage in manoeuvrability well above 20,000 feet.

Rolls Royce Merlin was inferior because of the float chamber in the carb which had tendency to cut out during steep dives. Fuel injection on Messerschmitt did not have this problem. German pilots learned to exploit this by going into a steep forward dive.

Originally posted by josephw
History repeats itself because each successive generation has to learn all over again what the previous generation learned in the same way. It's the same story retold time and again. Brother killing brother.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! 😉

Everything but Hitler. Never compare Hitler to anyone because there was no one like him before or after he died......at least according to Godwin.

Originally posted by FMF
What are your favourite beefs with historical received wisdom ...

Peter Quennell, in his book on The Colosseum describes what has now become the generally accepted scenario:
In the sovereign's presence. the crowd advised their ruler. Waving cloths and displaying up-turned thumbs, they shouted 'Mitte!' (Let him go free); or, by turning down their thumbs, they vociferated 'lugula!' -- recommending that the fallen man should pay the penalty. When the emperor happened to share their feelings, he confirmed the crowd's verdict ... and ... with polico verso, downturned thumb, ordered his immediate execution.

Because of stuff like that, and of course Hollywood, I'd thought that thumbs up meant to spare the fallen gladiator, and thumbs down meant to kill him. But now I think that is exactly wrong.

To the ancient Romans, a thumbs up mimicked the upward thrust of a sword through the heart. It meant, kill. A thumbs-down meant "put your sword down." 😕
-----

I despise it when there is blatant revision, like when the ancient Egyptians chip the name of the past ruler right out of the hieroglyphics, or the stupid extremists destroy ancient temples.

Originally posted by FMF
What are your favourite beefs with historical received wisdom and/or conspiracy/alternative theories [about what you think actually came to pass] that you subscribe to or are tempted by?

Here's one I am not tempted by: that Christianity triumphed over paganism because it is the true religion. [I expect some thumbs down on this, which in itself will be a comment on received opinion.]

Originally posted by Suzianne
Really? Then the Germans won the Battle of Britain?

Defenders always have more to fight for than the invaders.

In fact we have a multitude of reasons, one being Hitlers Obsession with territory (Lebensraum im Osten).
There is a load of literature about this out there. You can start with the Wikipedia if you are really interested and work from the literature cited there.