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Pat Pattle

Marmaduke Thomas St. John “Pat” Pattle:

 

The Allies’ Greatest Fighter Ace

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Considered the greatest fighter ace on Gloster Gladiators and Hawker Hurricanes, “Pat” Pattle was the son of South African-born parents of English descent who lived in Butterworth, Cape Province, South Africa. A good student, Pattle developed an interest in aviation and traveled to the United Kingdom. He joined the RAF in 1936 on a Short Service Commission. He qualified as a pilot in 1937.

He was assigned to No. 80 Squadron and sent to Egypt in 1938. In June 1940, when Italy entered the war, Pattle began combat operations against the Italian Air Force, gaining his first victories during Italy’s invasion of Egypt. Unfortunately, Italian Spanish Civil War ace Franco Lucchini shot Pattle down in August 1940.  He landed and played dead to avoid being strafed. He headed toward the Allied lines and crossed the border at about midday the next day. Embarrassed by being shot down, Pattle determined that he would not get lost and flew to Alexandria to buy a compass, which he never flew without.

Later than month, Pattle claimed two more victories while leading 14 Gladiators of 80 Squadron in a surprise attack over Gabr Saleh inside Italian territory. In September, Pattle was promoted to flight lieutenant. Three days later, Pattle found his squadron involved in close air support operations but under orders to avoid air-to-air combat unless attacked. Pattle did damage an enemy bomber, but its speed allowed it to escape. 

In November 1940 his squadron was redeployed to Athens, Greece. In subsequent operations, he claimed about 20 Italian aircraft shot down and received the Distinguished Flying Cross on February 11, 1941. On February 28, RAF pilots in Greece celebrated their biggest success in combat. Pattle’s squadron claimed 27 Italian aircraft without loss in 90 minutes of combat. The next month, Pattle was promoted to squadron leader and reassigned to No. 33 Squadron, the members of which resented his promotion over those in the ranks. Pattle gathered the pilots together and told them the following:

This is my first command. I intend to make it a successful one. You have done well in the desert, but you are not a good Squadron. A good Squadron looks smart. You are a scruffy looking lot! Your flying, by my standards, is ragged. Flying discipline starts when you start to taxi and doesn't end until you switch off your engine. In future you will taxi in formation, take off in formation, and land in formation at all times unless your aircraft has been damaged, or in an emergency

In April 1941, the Germans invaded Greece, and Pattle’s squadron was put on alert. During the 14 days of operations against the Luftwaffe, Pattle claimed more than 20 victories; all but 3 were German. Pattle claimed five or more aircraft destroyed in one day on three occasions, which made him an “ace in a day.”  By this time, he’d claimed more aerial victories than any other Western Allied pilot.

On April 19, just before an air raid alarm, he laid in the mess on a couch, shivering under blankets with a fever. He hid his condition from his squadron for fear it would deflate morale. The commanding officer of No. 80 Squadron saw Pattle and noted his gauntness and weight loss. He helped Pattle change into his flying gear. When the alarm sounded, he ran toward a Hurricane. His adjutant tried to stop him to no avail. He took off against orders, even though by now he had full-blown influenza, to engage German aircraft near Athens. At one point, he dived down to rescue a fellow pilot with a Messerschmitt Bf-110 on his tail. Pattle managed to save his buddy but was attacked, and his aircraft plunged into the sea, killing him. He was only 27 years old.

If all claims made for him were correct, his total for downed planes could exceed 51. His final total was at least 40 and could have been more. Unfortunately, the squadron war diary and his log books were lost in the retreat from Greece. Squadron personnel suspected the figure to be closer to 60. A total of 26 of Pattle’s victims were Italian planes; 15 were downed with Gladiators, the rest with Hurricanes.

Pattle is regarded as the unofficial highest scoring Western allied fighter pilot of WW II. His medals are on display at the Ditsong National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg, South Africa. Aside from this, Pattle and other great South Africans who served in the RAF in the war have gotten little recognition in their native country. Their reputations suffered because of the views of the Nationalist faction, which, in 1948, ridiculed them and branded them as traitors for siding with the British. Pattle is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial at El Alamein along with 3,000 other RAF airmen who lost their lives in the Middle Eastern theatre and have no known grave.

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