Germany did not lose the Battle of Britain

[Avimimus]

Thank you, but I was the one who made the biggest mistake in the language I used. It serves me right for writing a message at two in the morning. I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone or derail the thread - I just wasn't thinking clearly.

Originally Posted by Roy

Achieving goals and not being victorious is one thing. NOT achieving goals and being victorious is something completely different. Both examples you provided (that are quite the opposite of what Former_Older said) could lead to several pages of discussion about who won/lost depending on the point of view, but that's another topic.

While there may be cases where you can fail certain goals and still be victorius (extreme example: if winning a war implies being victorious and the goal is to have less than X casualties in said war, you can fail that goal and still "win") it is not the case for Former Older's post!

Thanks, to amend my point: "Any action in warfare can have unintended and unforeseen consequences and implications, even to the extent that a victory could look like a defeat and a defeat could look like a victory". That is what I should have written and it is a relatively obvious point.