Marmaduke St. John Pattle was born in South Africa en 1914. After joining the South African Air Force, he moved to the RAF in 1937. His first squadron was the 80 th, which had just been equipped with Gloster Gladiators. One year later the unit was transferred to Egypt, where his marksmanship and superior airmanship as a pilot was evident - for instance when he landed his plane minus a wheel without damaging more than the undersides of the lower wing tip.

His experience and ability made him a Flight Commander and as such, he went to war with his Squadron facing the Italians in 1940. During the first contact with the enemy, he shot down a Breda 65 and a Fiat 42, but all four outnumbered British planes, except for one were shot down. Franco Lucchini may be the Italian pilot who shot down Pattle, during this encounter. From that moment onwards, the aerial encounters followed without rest. His score mounted steadily. One of the planes that were giving the British pilots a hard time was the SM 79 “Sparviero” as it was faster than the British Gladiators. However, Pat developed a system to shoot the SM 79 down before they were out of range. The technique consisted of puncturing the fuel tanks and then firing into the leaking fuel. This would engulf the plane in flames.

In November 80 Squadron was transferred to the Greek front, to support operations in the Albania area. This meant renewed action for the pilots. In February 1940, with 15 kills awarded, Pattle received his first DFC and the Hurricanes started to replace the Gladiators. On 20 February 1940 he claimed the first Hurricane victory ever in this front. His wingman, “Ape” Cullen, was shot down and killed in combat on March 4 th. During this month, he was given the command of 33 Squadron and a Bar to his DFC was announced. His score stood at 23 victories. As the Greek campaign started to turn out in a disaster for the Italian forces, and to secure his Southern Flank, Hitler decided to invade Yugoslavia and Greece on 6 April 1940. This new foe, better equipped and trained than the Italians, didn’t prevent Pattle from scoring aerial victories. In fact, on the first mission against the Germans in Bulgaria, he shot down two Me 109s of JG77. The Blitzkrieg proved successful again in this theater, as the Allied forces did not have adequate warning and their planes were generally speaking outclassed by the Germans. Strafing attacks followed without reprieve, and the RAF found that it was caught in a struggle to survive. Reinforcements were thrown into the fray but there was nothing that could overcame the deficits the Allies had. The last 15 Hurricanes in Greece (9 of 33 Sqn and 6 of 80 Sqn) took off in late afternoon of April 20 th to face more than 100 German planes that were raiding PireusHarbour in Athens. Pattle had influenza and was very weak after fighting in ever worsening conditions for more than 8 months without stop. Nevertheless, he led his men into this last combat of his career. One of his friends, Timber Woods, climbed to attack some Me110s from a disadvantage position and was jumped by a Messerschmitt. Pat went to his aid, while a couple of Germans swiftly jumped him to protect their mate. Another British pilot (Flight Leutenant Kettelwell) rushed to his help. Another 110 latched to his tail. So a train of a Hurricane, Me 110s, Hurricane, 2 Me 110s, Hurricane, Me 110 was formed like it happened in other theaters (ie: Saburo Sakai). At the moment that Woods was being shot down in flames, Pattle was claiming Woods victor. A fraction of a moment later, his plane was caught by the gun fire of the 110s on his tail, and crashed in flames in the bay. One of these 110s was claimed by Kettelwell, who in turn was shot down by the last 110 but managed to parachute to safety and was able (along with Vernon Woodward who had took off with Pattle) to tell us the last moments of the RAF pilot. Five German pilots claimed victories during this combat (Rossiwall, Baggoe, Schonthier, Muller and Pietchsmann) so one of these is the final victor of Pat Pattle.

PERHAPS THE ACE OF ALLIED ACES:

At the time of his death, his official score stood at 34 confirmed victories (there are no official records of him being 33 Sqn leader!), but his fitter’s and friends’ testimonies put his score in the 50s area. Records of 33 Sqn, with all his last claims, were destroyed during the retreat. Afterwards, in Egypt, a new 33 Sqn Book was written using the memory accounts of the survivors. Most of the authors place him at the top the Western Allies list, with a number of claims that go from as low as 41 to 50. Nevertheless, recent research cast doubts on the claims. As a consequence, only 32 planes seemed to have been actually shot down by him as several of his last claims could not be verified with German and Italian surviving records. “Johnnie” Johnson is officially considered the top scoring British pilot of the war with 38 victories. Later studies like the ones carried out initially with Pattle and several other pilots downgraded his score to 34 and some shared.

Note: the official website of the British Ministry of Defense considers Pat Pattle the unofficial top scoring pilot of the war and an article devoted to him was published for the 60 th anniversary of this death (see References).

• PattlePattle, ace of aces - ECR Baker
• Gloster Gladiator home page - Alex Crawford
• Military History Journal Vol 1, No3 - The South African Military History Society - Douglas Tidy
• Aces high volume 2 - Christopher Shores
• Commonwealth biplane fighter aces
• IPMS Stockholm web site (for Rick Kent's profiles and detailed pictures of a Finnish Glad)
• www.1000pictures.com (yet another aces list)
• Going solo - Roald Dahl
• Pictorial History of the Mediterranean Air War Volume One, RAF 1940-1943 - Christopher Shores
• Detailed picture of the engine
• Hurricane aces 1939-40 - Chris Holmes
• Bristol Blenheim - Theo Boiten
• Me 110 aces of WWII - John Weal
• Spitfire - J.A. Guerrero
• Air war for Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete – Shores, Cull, Malizza
• Hurricane aces 1941-1945 – Andrew Thomas
• IPMS SA Website - Pat Pattle info article.
• UK MoD Website - Tribute to Pat Pattle.