Overall, the few Gladiators and CR.42s clashed with a substantial parity: considering all theaters, the kill ratio was 1.2-to-1 in favour of the former, a ratio similar to that of the BF.109 and the Spitfire in the Battle of Britain, a duel considered even by most historians.[69] However, the Gladiator (optimised for dogfighting) met with only little success against the relatively fast Italian bombers, shooting only a handful of them and suffering almost as many losses in the process, which could be one of the reasons for its quick retirement from first-line duty; the CR.42 on the other hand was successful against early British bombers, shooting down a hundred of them with minimal losses.[70]