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On this day, Squadron Leader Marmaduke Thomas St. John Pattle, RAF, commanding No. 33 Squadron, was killed in action during the Battle of Athens when his Hawker Hurricane fighter was shot down by german planes. Pattle’s airplane crashed into the sea near the Port of Piraeus, southwest of Athens.
Pattle may have been the highest-scoring Allied fighter ace of World War II. The exact number of enemy aircraft destroyed cannot be determined precisely because records were lost or destroyed during the Battle of Greece. The last officially acknowledged score was 23 airplanes shot down, mentioned in The London Gazette with the notice of the award of a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross. It is widely acknowledged that he shot down many more, and on at least two occasions, shot down five enemy airplanes in one day. Authors who have researched Pattle’s combat record believe that he shot down at least 50, and possibly as many as 60 aircraft.
Marmaduke Thomas St. John Pattle was born at Butterworth, Cape Province, South Africa, 23 July 1914. He was the son of Sergeant-Major William John Pattle, British Army, and Edith Brailsford Pattle. After failing to be accepted by the South African Air Force, at the age of 21 years, he traveled to England to apply to the RAF.
On 20 April when suffering with fever and a high temperature he led the surviving fighters up over Athens to intercept a heavy raid, against superior numbers, of German fighters and bombers, over Eleussis Bay. Here he succeeded in shooting down 2 Messerschmitt 110s and a Messerschmitt Bf 109, before being shot down and killed by a Me 110. As he went to the aid of another Hurricane.
Pattle may have been the highest-scoring Allied fighter ace of World War II. The exact number of enemy aircraft destroyed cannot be determined precisely because records were lost or destroyed during the Battle of Greece. The last officially acknowledged score was 23 airplanes shot down, mentioned in The London Gazette with the notice of the award of a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross. It is widely acknowledged that he shot down many more, and on at least two occasions, shot down five enemy airplanes in one day. Authors who have researched Pattle’s combat record believe that he shot down at least 50, and possibly as many as 60 aircraft.
Marmaduke Thomas St. John Pattle was born at Butterworth, Cape Province, South Africa, 23 July 1914. He was the son of Sergeant-Major William John Pattle, British Army, and Edith Brailsford Pattle. After failing to be accepted by the South African Air Force, at the age of 21 years, he traveled to England to apply to the RAF.
On 20 April when suffering with fever and a high temperature he led the surviving fighters up over Athens to intercept a heavy raid, against superior numbers, of German fighters and bombers, over Eleussis Bay. Here he succeeded in shooting down 2 Messerschmitt 110s and a Messerschmitt Bf 109, before being shot down and killed by a Me 110. As he went to the aid of another Hurricane.