The Few were not as few as all that. A total of 2,917 Fighter Command aircrew have been recognised as combatants in the Battle of Britain, earning a clasp to their Second World War medal.

More strikingly, in the crucial weeks of the battle, the RAF had a constant supply of at least 1,400 pilots, which rose to 1,500 at the battle's climax. The Luftwaffe had only between 1,100 and 1,200 pilots. The gap prompts Richard Overy, Professor of Modern History at King's College, London, to observe: "If Fighter Command were the 'few', German pilots were fewer.''

This summer brings the 60th anniversary of the battle, which has become, as Overy says, "a defining moment in recent history".

But does the myth match the reality? Pilot numbers apart, what of the Spitfire? Overy notes: "The great bulk of Fighter Command was composed of Hurricanes. The almost complete identification of the Spitfire with the Battle of Britain has come to obscure the true balance of power between the two models.''

In detail, over the whole of Fighter Command in mid-1940, Hurricanes provided 55 per cent of operational fighters, compared with only 31 per cent of Spitfires.

Over South-East England, literally the cockpit of the battle, Hurricanes outnumbered Spitfires two to one. But their loss rate was significantly lower.

As Overy bluntly puts it: "Spitfires were shot down faster than Hurricanes.''

The very name of the battle originally had nothing to do with it. For when Winston Churchill coined the phrase, telling the House of Commons on June 18 that "the Battle of France is over; I expect the Battle of Britain is about to begin",' he was referring to the full field of conflict, not just air defence.

In 1941, his phrase was adopted by the Air Ministry as the title of a morale-boosting booklet chronicling the epic deeds of the previous summer. It sold over a million copies, and Overy declares: "More than anything else, it gave the conflict the legendary dimensions it has borne ever since.''

The booklet says the battle started on August 8 and concluded on August 31. But in reality, it had no beginning or end. Air fighting was continuous from June.

One possible starting date is July 11, when Hitler ordered "intensive air warfare against England'' (synonymous to him with Britain).

On August 1, the Fuhrer demanded the overthrow of "the English air force in the shortest possible time". And on August 6 he and his high command endorsed "Adlertag", day of the Eagles, an all-out attack intended to wipe out Fighter Command in southern England over four days.

With bad weather intervening, this assault didn't start until August 18. Two days later, Goering, the German Air Minister, ordered the Luftwaffe to mount "ceasless attacks'' day and night, to pave the way for an invasion landing in Kent on September 15.

As Overy explains - in one of two new books marking the battle's anniversary - the German tactic was to use bombers as bait to draw in Fighter Command. The battle was fought over land rather than sea because clusters of German fighters gathered over the North Sea ready to escort the bombers.

In fact the German fighters were handicapped by their escort role, which reduced their room for manoeuvre. No doubt contentiously, Overy suggests that the German Messerschmitt 109E was "arguably the world's best all-round fighter". Though it could be out-turned by both the Hurricane and Spitfire, its two-stage supercharger gave it a clear superiority at heights above 20,000ft. Overy says: "If the Battle of Britain had been fought at 30,000 ft, the RAF would have lost it.''

But of course it wasn't fought there. A journalist who witnessed the spectacular dogfights wrote shortly afterwards: "The fate of civilisation was being decided 15,000 ft above your head, in a world of sun, wind and sky.'' Aircraft could be seen "falling earthwards, a mass of flames, leaving as their last testament a smudge of black against the sky''.

This observer was struck by the appearance of the pilots - "little boys with blonde hair and pink cheeks, who looked as though they ought to be in school".

The decisive period was September 1-15, during which the Luftwaffe lost 298 planes to the RAF's 129. On September 17, with the RAF clearly far from defeated, Hitler shelved Operation Sealion, his invasion plan, after which the air attacks subsided.

But the two sides still had around 700 operational fighter planes each, and enough pilots to fly them. Overy describes this even balance as "not very different from the start of the battle.''

So the Luftwaffe was not truly defeated. Overy claims that not much was needed to dissuade Hitler from invasion, which had always been only one of several options, which included economic strangulation. The Fuhrer once confessed to being "shy of the water'', and there was serious doubt about the German navy's ability to support a land army. Bred by an awareness that they were not a maritime nation, the German nervousness even led them to consult accounts of invasions of Britain by Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror in preparing Operation Sealion.

Overy believes another Hitler decision, in mid-August, to switch bombing from south coast towns to London, contributed to the German failure. It gave the RAF more time to counter attack. But Overy also pays full tribute to the fighter pilots, Britain's superior communications' system, Coastal Command, miracles of aircraft production, and the overcoming of difficulties like a shortage of skilled ground staff and tankers to maintain re-fuelling.

Overy's broad view of the battle - "a defensive triumph'' - is condensed in a chapter of the second book, The Burning Blue, to which he is one of a score or more specialist contributors.

Broader in scope than his own book, which aims to place the battle in history, this includes special pieces of topics ranging from the Luftwaffe and the RAF (obviously) to the Battle of Britain on film and in children's literature, and the conservation of sites.

A collection of an airman's letters home mirrors the shocking exhilaration of the battle - and the kill. "Ran into about 50 Jerries and I had my first baptism of firing... I may have got my man for he went into a vertical dive. It was terrifically exciting.''

Describing another mission, he wrote: "Chased a couple of single-seater fighters off Beachy Head, but had to let them go. Boy! This certainly is the life.''

But for 443 of his fellow fighter pilots it meant death.

Another contributor - incidentally confirming Overy - notes: "The 'few' were more numerous than the term suggests.''

It's odd that Churchill's famous tribute to them was paid while the battle was still raging - on August 20. And the battle figured only briefly in his full speech, which dealt mainly with the war in Italy and Africa.

Nor did Churchill single out fighter pilots. The term he used was "British airmen" - and he said more about Bomber Command than Fighter Command. The "Battle of Britain" had yet to take its grip on the popular imagination. Or even Churchill's.

l The Battle by Richard Overy (Penguin, small-format (approx four inches by five and half inches) unillustrated paperback, Penguin £4.99); The Burning Blue edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy Crang, illustrated pb, Pimlico, £14.)