Marmaduke Thomas Pattle

On July 3, it was 110 years since the birth of Marmaduke Thomas St John Pattle, who is likely the best ace among the fighter pilots of the Western Allies during World War II. He was born in 1914 to an English family in Butterworth, Cape Province, then part of the Union of South Africa (now South Africa). His father Jack, a former officer of the British Army, had participated in the Second Anglo-Boer War and was now practicing law. His mother Edith was a qualified nurse. The couple also had an older son, Cecil.

From a young age, Marmaduke was passionate about sports and technology. He graduated with honors from primary school in Keetmanshoop and completed high school at Victoria School in Grahamstown in 1931. He was uncertain about his future career: whether to become a mining engineer or pursue aviation. The latter desire prevailed, and he spent nearly five years trying to join the South African Air Force (SAAF). However, the SAAF was small and only accepted trained professionals. Pattle was unable to obtain any aviation education and made a living doing various jobs, from working in a car repair shop to gold mines.

He began earning a decent salary and even considered studying to become a mining engineer again when he learned in early 1936 that the Royal Air Force (RAF) was accepting additional cadets "off the street." As South Africa was a British dominion, Pattle had no trouble joining the RAF. By March 1937, he had completed his training and become a fighter pilot. It is noteworthy that his instructors were impressed by his phenomenal accuracy in aerial shooting.

Pattle began his service in the 80th Squadron of the RAF, which received Gloster Gladiator Mk.I biplanes in May 1938. At the start of World War II, Flight Lieutenant Pattle and his unit were based in Egypt at El Amiriya airbase near Alexandria. However, he only began combat operations after Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940. The next day, Pattle led a flight of fighters to patrol the Alexandria area.

He fought his first air battle as part of a flight on the evening of August 10 and managed to shoot down an Italian bomber, Breda Ba.65/A80. However, the battle was not very successful for the British; Pattle was left alone in the air, and half of the four machine guns on his Gladiator malfunctioned. He had to engage in combat with enemy fighters Fiat CR.32 and CR.42 twice more. He managed to shoot down one, but soon all his guns jammed, and he spent 15 minutes trying to evade the Italians. Eventually, his damaged Gladiator became uncontrollable, and he had no choice but to use his parachute.

In the second half of November, the 80th Squadron was transferred to Greece, which was successfully fighting against Italian aggressors. On November 19, in the area of the Albanian city of Korçë, Pattle shot down two CR.42s in one battle, achieving his fifth and sixth aerial victories and becoming an ace.

By the end of March 1941, Pattle had 25 enemy aircraft to his credit. That month, he was promoted to squadron leader and appointed commander of the 33rd Squadron, which was equipped with Hurricane Mk.I fighters.

On April 6, the situation on the front worsened significantly: Germany came to the aid of its struggling Italian allies. On that day, Pattle first encountered Luftwaffe aircraft. In the afternoon, he led 12 Hurricanes on a patrol of the border area with Bulgaria and led his group in an attack on eight Bf 109E-7/Bs. After this skirmish, Pattle was credited with two victories.

However, military luck turned away from Pattle two weeks later. On April 20, he felt very ill: fever and high temperature, likely the onset of flu. At that time, Pattle commanded the remnants of the 80th and 33rd Squadrons, which had been merged into one unit, and as a commander, he considered it impossible to refuse combat flights. By evening, he had to engage in his third battle of the day. He set one Bf 110 on fire, but two others got on his tail and quickly shot down his plane. It seems Pattle was killed instantly, as one of his subordinates saw the commander slumped over the instrument panel. His burning Hurricane crashed into the waters of Eleusis Bay about 15 km northwest of Athens. In that battle, the British lost eight fighters and five pilots in total.

For a long time, Pattle remained forgotten by the general public. The most significant researcher of his biography, Edwin Baker, published one of his first articles on the subject in the British magazine Flying Review in May 1961, aptly titled "Pattle – the Unknown Ace." There is still no consensus in Western literature regarding Pattle's victories, partly due to documents of the 80th and 33rd Squadrons being partially lost in 1941. Numbers ranging from 24 to 60 can be found, with 51 being the most common, making Pattle the best Allied ace. However, researchers remain uncertain and are hesitant to draw definitive conclusions.