Marmaduke Thomas St. John Pattle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Pattle

RAF S/L - DFC & Bar

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Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross

Air Ministry, 11th February, 1941. ROYAL AIR FORCE. The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the following awards:

Flight Lieutenant Marmaduke Thomas St. John PATTLE (39029), No. 80 Squadron.

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Born in Butterworth, Cape Province, S. Africa 3 July 1914

Son of Cecil John St. John Pattle and Edith Pattle, - of Boksburg, Transvaal, South Africa

Attended Keetmanshoop Secondary School, SW Africa Victoria Boys High School, Grahamstown Matriculated (graduated) in 1931

Worked in his uncle's garage in Komgha in 1932

Tried to enter the SAAF but was rejected in 1933

Worked in an Assayers office at the Sheba mine until 1936

Left for England to join RAF in April 1936

To No 12 Elementary & Reserve Flying Training School, - Prestwick, in Ayrshire County, June 1936

No. 10 Flying Training School, Ternhill, Shropshire Graduated with distinction & Posted to

No. 80 Squadron (F) in early 1937

They left for Egypt at the end of April 1938

Took command of "B" Flight, summer of 1939

Promoted to F/L - 3 September 1940

Killed In Action on 20 April 1941 - Hitler's birthday

- Shot down by Bf110's of 5/ZG26 Last seen slumped forward & going down in flames

British Flyer Bags 23 Nazis

London, March 15, 1941 - (CP) - F/L Marmaduke Thomas St. John Pattle was credited officially today with the destruction of 23 German war planes - three within the last month. He was awarded a bar for the Distinguished Flying Cross.

_________________________________________________ Bar to Distinguished Flying Cross

Air Ministry, 18th March 1941. The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the following awards in recognition of gallantry displayed in flying operations against the enemy: Flight Lieutenant Marmaduke Thomas St. John PATTLE, D.F.C. (39029), No. 80 Sq.

In March 1941, during an engagement over Himara, Flight Lieutenant Pattle shot down three enemy fighters. This courageous and skilful fighter pilot has now destroyed at least 23 enemy aircraft.

_________________________________________________ South African Ace Missing

London, May 22, 1941 (AAP) - Squadron Leader M. St. John Pattle, DFC (with bar), a 27 year old South African, is reported missing. His total of 23 (sic) enemy planes shot down is still the highest officially credited to any (Allied) pilot in the war. The Air Ministry casualty list of 517 names include 91 killed, 31 missing, believed killed and 115 missing, 44 presumed killed.

________________________________________________ AFRICAN AIRMAN BLASTS 32 NAZIS OUT OF SERVICE Wing-Commander Malan Is Ace Sharp Shooter of Royal Air Force OTHER HIGH SCORES

London, Sept, 18, 1941 —(CP)— A cool-headed young South African, Wing Cmdr. A. G. Malan holds individual scoring honours in the Royal Air Force with an official tally of 32 German aeroplanes blasted out of the sky. In announcing that the fighter command's leading pilot had shot down 32 machines, the air ministry news service did not name him. But previous references to Malan's achievements make it safe to assume he is the individual ace of Britain's flying sharpshooters.

Has High Awards Malan, who joined the R.A.F. six years ago, has been awarded the D.S.O. and bar and the D.F.C. and bar for some of his outstanding exploits in the air. He also holds a ship's second officer's certificate. Four other pilots have individual scores of more than 20, said the news service, issuing an impressive summary of the losses inflicted by the fighter command on the Luftwaffe in two years of sky warfare. They also were unnamed, but are believed to be Squadron-Ldr. J. Mungo Park, D.F.C, Squadron-Ldr. M. T. St. J. Pattle, Squadron-Ldr. Roland Tuck, D.S.O. and D.F.C. with two bars, and Flight-Lieut. E. S. Lock, D.S.O., D.F.C. and bar. Mungo Park and Pattle, both officially listed as missing, have shot down 27 machines each. Tuck's total was 27 last July and Lock, also missing, has 25 to his credit. Wing-Cmdr. Douglas Bader, D.S.O. and bar, D.F.C, former leader of the R.A.F. all-Canadian fighter squadron, is believed to have shot down at least 20. The curly-haired Briton who flew with two artificial legs was himself shot down over northern France in August and taken prisoner. The leading squadron of fighter command has accounted for 175 German aircraft since the war began. Fifteen squadrons have each topped the century mark, and three of them have shot down more than 150 machines.

_________________________________________________ Victories Include :

Shores & Williams has his score as

(Approx.) 50 & 2 shared destroyed, 7 & 1 shared probable & 4 & 2 shared damaged with 3 more destroyed on the ground (OTG) equaling =

50.66 / 7.5 / 5 + 3 OTG

See Aces High 2nd Edition & Aces High Vol. 2 for details concerning claims

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--- RAF Aces ---

--- South African Aces ---

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Pattle on Wikipedia

Biplane Fighter Aces

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On these pages I use info from the London Gazette Archives, Newspaper articles via the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (CMCC) as well as other sources both published and private

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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.
ImageHis 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).

Source http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal4/3801-3900/gal3846_Hurric...

The above section written by Pat Pattle's last Hurricane by Pablo Calcaterra.

Image

   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.

other links http://modelingmadness.com/review/preww2/gb/calglad.htm http://www.hyperscale.com/features/2000/gladiatorpp_1.htm http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal4/3801-3900/gal3846_Hurric...