ok, let's make a short analogy here, maybe our islander friends will get it better this way:
if a tiger is fighting a cat, and at some point the tiger has to go away because he has to pee, that doesn't mean the cat won the fight.. right?!!
But go ahead, call it a THE GREATEST VICTORY EVER for my part.
Truth is.. brits always need their big thug nephews help to get our from the mess they've got themselves into (think any other WWII brit operations). Kind of like the italians
But they were great warriors, and look, they won BoB.. Of course they did, otherwise.. what else would have they to celebrate?!! The almighty colonial british empire? Battle of France? Dunkerque? Singapore? Dutch Indies? North Afrika? Market Garden?!!
Using another analogy, is like trying to get away from him the only rotten bone a skinny dog ever had.. of course he'll jump to bite you for trying to get his only reason for life away from him.
It's a normal denial behavior as we know it from kindergarten psychology.