<P> Due to the failure of the Luftwaffe to establish air supremacy, a conference assembled on 14 September at Hitler's headquarters . Hitler concluded that air superiority had not yet been established and "promised to review the situation on 17 September for possible landings on 27 September or 8 October . Three days later, when the evidence was clear that the German Air Force had greatly exaggerated the extent of their successes against the RAF, Hitler postponed Sea Lion indefinitely ." </P> <P> Propaganda was an important element of the air war which began to develop over Britain from 18 June 1940 onwards, when the Luftwaffe began small, probing daylight raids to test RAF defences . One of many examples of these small - scale raids was the destruction of a school at Polruan in Cornwall, by a single raider . Into early July, the British media's focus on the air battles increased steadily, the press, magazines, BBC radio and newsreels daily conveying the contents of Air Ministry communiques . The German OKW communiques matched Britain's efforts in claiming for the upper hand . </P> <P> Central to the propaganda war on both sides of the Channel were aircraft claims, this discussed under' Attrition statistics' . These daily claims were important both for sustaining British home front morale and persuading America to support Britain, and were produced by the Air Ministry's Air Intelligence branch . Under pressure from American journalists and broadcasters to prove that the RAF's claims were genuine, RAF intelligence compared pilots' claims with actual aircraft wrecks and those seen to crash into the sea . It was soon realised that there was a discrepancy between the two, but the Air Ministry decided not to reveal this . In fact, it was not until May 1947 that the actual figures were released to the public, by which time it was of far less importance . Many though refused to believe the revised figures, including Douglas Bader . </P> <P> The place of the Battle of Britain in British popular memory is due in no small part to the successful propaganda campaign waged by the Air Ministry, between July--October 1940, but also in valorising the Few from March 1941 onwards . The publication of the immensely successful 3d pamphlet, The Battle of Britain, saw huge international sales, leading even Goebbels to admire its propaganda value . Focusing only upon the Few, with no mention of RAF bomber attacks against invasion barges, the Battle of Britain was soon established as a major victory for Fighter Command . This in turn inspired a wide range of feature films, books, magazines, works of art, poetry, radio plays and MOI short films . </P>

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