Firstly the leaders were significant in the Battle as Sir Hugh Dowding had been making important progress in the British air defence system since 1936 and had some very intelligent ideas that were to prove essential to the outcome of the Battle.
Command and communication systems (which he himself had introduced this new invention) were very useful for sending orders directing the fighters to enemy fighters. He also was the introducer of the bulletproof glass for pilots’ windscreens, this was a small part to the campaign but very substantial to the success of the safety of pilots who were crucial to the success of the entire war.
Dowding was also a supporter of Radar (the German intelligence core took a long time to realise how important Radar was going to be in the future). This was a new and helpful mechanism, which worked by transmitting Radio waves out which, in turn, bounced off any object within a certain area and then the rebounding waves would tell the pilot very important information about how large, fast and how far away the enemy fighter was. Radar was important when the British planes were on the ground so that they were not bombed and caught off guard on the ground.
The British fighters were more than a match for the German fighters and only the Messerschmitt 109 could rival the Spitfire, which were quick and powerful. All these technological advances contributed to the success of the RAF in this Battle.
It was of course a huge advantage to be fighting on home soil. British fighters who bailed out in battles were effectively recycled because they not taken prisoner as the German pilots were. Also the German fighters could evidently not fly in British airspace for long periods of time as they ran out of fuel, in all cases they could not guarantee a stay for longer than half an hour. The RAF could clearly refuel at nearby airbases and rejoin the battle in relatively short periods of time therefore not wasting any time flying large distances to merely refuel as the Luftwaffe had to do.
The British planes were very affectively organised in Battle by Dowding, who understood modern war strategies, he also prearranged the RAF into regions so that when the Germans launched an attack they could meet the Luftwaffe quickly and effectively even if they were arriving from different directions, this also reduced the chance of large parts of the RAF being wiped out in single raids.
The German fighters, in direct contrast, were organised poorly by Goering who did not appreciate modern war tactics and ordered his pilots to frequently change the direction of an attack, thus understandably throwing the pilots into chaos, and confusing them on the strategy of the attack.
The German command made a decisive blunder on the 7th of September 1940; Goering stopped bombing the airfields and started raiding London (The Blitz). This gave the RAF a chance to recuperate and rebuild the damaged airbases. This error in Goring offensive principally saved the RAF as they were no longer bombed on the ground and could reach the German fighters with full force. The German fighters could not remain over London long enough to defend their bombers so many German bombers were shot down. All these minor differences amounted to a large advantage for the RAF and the Battle of Britain was slowly beginning to turn in their favour.
Ultimately the RAF began to shoot down more and more of the German fighters and bombers as Goering made more and more mistakes, which were became very costly. The Germans took a series of minor defeats leading up to September and on September 11th Hitler postponed Operation Sealion until the 24th September but on September 17th, following an obvious change of plan, he deferred it ad infinitum. The Battle of Britain was won and the German had lost 1,733 planes contrasting the British loss of 915, nearly half the amount, and the RAF were given enormous praise by Churchill and the British people,
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so little.”, Winston Churchill, in 1940, speaking to the House of Commons.
The Blitz continued and the War was most definitely not won but the British population rejoiced as the threat of invasion was over.