Hitler had failed to establish air superiority and his fleet of invasion barges assembled in French ports had also suffered heavy losses in RAF bomber attacks. In mid October he ordered his invasion fleet dispersed. The battle was over and Britain was safe. About 1,700 Luftwaffe bombers and fighters had been shot down in just a few months and Britain had lost more than 900 fighter planes. Nearly 500 British pilots and aircrew had also been killed. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill memorably said: "Never... was so much owed by so many to so few."