The Luftwaffe had pounded and pounded at the RAF, and now it appeared that victory was now within their grasp. It had taken the German war machine much longer than they had anticipated, mainly due to their own mistakes, but slowly they were grinding away at Fighter Command, and slowly Fighter Command was weakening. Even on September 6th, the heads at the War Office were ready to implement the order of 'Invasion Alert No.1' It had already been served as a warning only to all RAF Commands, but as yet had not been released as 'official' to the public.

ACM Hugh Dowding knew the situation, he knew that if the RAF was at all to gain the upper hand, then his pilots would have to shoot down the German planes at a rate of three to one, a task which at this stage when his airfields were almost unoperational, and his pilots were tired and many were near to exhaustion. Dowding said in his office at Bentley Priory, "......all we can do now is to pray to God, because only a miracle can save us now."