Fewer than 3,000 pilots decided whether Britain would be invaded in 1940

Through the summer and autumn of 1940, RAF Fighter Command held off the Luftwaffe's campaign to win air superiority ahead of a planned German invasion, forcing Hitler to indefinitely postpone Operation Sea Lion. Churchill's tribute to the pilots, 'never was so much owed by so many to so few,' gave the battle its enduring nickname.

— Winston Churchill (tribute); RAF Fighter Command, Battle of Britain — July–October 1940