Squadron Leader M.T. St. John Pattle was an outstanding fighter pilot and with some justification could well be regarded as the top-scoring Allied ace. Unfortunately all his combats took place in the Middle East and the Balkans, areas isolated from admiring press releases and resultant fame. More drastically the records of No.33 squadron were destroyed during the 1941 Greek campaign and evacuation, thus depriving authorities of essential details of Pattle’s magnificent fighting career. The future ace was born in Butterworth, South Africa in July 1914 and spent his early years on his father’s farm at Keetmanshoop. It was there that the young Pattle developed his marksmanship skills while on hunting expeditions in that area. On leaving school Pattle applied to join the South African Air Force but to his disappointment he was rejected and instead he found employment as a clerk at a gold mine. He also joined the Special Service Battalion, a paramilitary unit through which he hoped would provide a means of entry into the SAAF.
Royal Air Force
However his aviation career came about through a newspaper advertisement urging young men to join the RAF. Seizing the opportunity Pattle sailed to England in April 1936 and was duly accepted for pilot training. On completion he was posted to No.80 squadron, originally a World War 1 unit and recently re-formed. Their aircraft was the biplane Gloster Gladiator, although an interim type pending the introduction of the Hurricane and Spitfire it represented the RAF’s front-line equipment at the time. The squadron’s UK tenure was relatively brief, for shortly afterwards it was posted to the Middle East, arriving in Egypt in April 1938.
Middle East Unrest
Although the area was not officially at war there still existed a strong undercurrent of anti-British sentiment. More pertinent however was the build-up of Italian land and air forces in Libya, at that time an Italian colony. Their fascist dictator Benito Mussolini envisaged a re-birth of Italian glory in the Mediterranean theatre in the mould of Julius Caesar and his contemporaries. Already Mussolini had earned world-wide condemnation with his invasion of a helpless Abyssinia where tribesmen faced a modern army equipped with tanks, artillery and aircraft. Altogether it was a dastardly action, made even more so by the use of poison gas by the conquering Italians,
Desert War
With no involvement in the Abyssinian debacle, British forces in the Middle East acted as policemen in the control of dissident Arab tribesmen in Palestine. It was an opportunity for Pattle and his fellow pilots to gain some early operational experience before the inevitable entry of Italy into the war. Hostilities began in July 1940 when Italian land and air forces launched their campaign against General Wavell’s Desert Army and although numerically inferior in troops and materiel this force inflicted significant defeats on the advancing Italians, notably at Sidi Barrani, Bardia and Tobruk. First Combats In August Pattle’s No.80 squadron relieved No.33, also a Gladiator unit which had been holding the area since the outbreak of hostilities and on 4 August Pattle made his first victory claims with the downing of a Breda 65 bomber and Fiat CR32 fighter. During the combat Pattle and another pilot were forced to take to their parachutes, both coming down behind the Italian lines. They managed to make their way on foot to safety and reported to their squadron on the following evening. Only four days later Pattle claimed two Fiat CR42 fighters, however these were his last Western Desert combats for in November 1940 his squadron was despatched to Greece.
Invasion of Greece
In October 1940 Mussolini had made an unprovoked invasion of Greece and although vastly outnumbered and lacking tanks and modern aircraft the Greek army resisted the invaders stubbornly. The involvement of British forces was the result of an assurance by Winston Churchill to assist Greece and Romania in the event of an axis invasion. His long-term vision was for the opening of a second front against Germany via the Balkans but as events were to prove, such a scheme was quite beyond the resources of the Allies. Meanwhile the Gladiators commenced operations from a forward airfield at Trikkala from where they began a series of offensive patrols over the front lines where some hard-fought combats took place. On 19 November Pattle claimed two Fiat CR 42s of the nine credited to the squadron and on 2 December he downed two RO37 reconnaissance biplanes. Despite the onset of winter and a reduction in the level of ground operations Pattle’s squadron still remained active, mainly against bomber formations. This period also saw an even heavier air battle, involving over 50 escorting Fiat CR42 fighters, ten of which were brought down for the loss of two Gladiators. These combats were significant in the fact that they were possibly some of the last encounters between biplane fighters in modern warfare.
Hurricane Replacements
At this point the harsh Greek winter clamped down, putting an end to operations for several weeks and in late February No.80 squadron began receiving Hurricanes to supersede their obsolescent Gladiators. This was particularly opportune, for the opposing Italian fighters now included monoplane types such as the Macchi 200 and Fiat G50. Meanwhile Pattle’s score mounted steadily, with successes against these newcomers which represented his last combats with No.80. On 12 March Pattle, now a recipient of the DFC and Bar and with a confirmed victory tally of 23 was posted to command No.33 squadron, also a Hurricane unit.
Battle of Athens
On 6 April 1941 the anticipated German invasion of the Balkans began and with their overwhelming superiority in troops, armour and aircraft it was the beginning of the end for Allied forces in Greece. It was also the point that No.33 squadron records ceased to exist; however its remaining pilots fought desperately in a one-sided rearguard campaign. On 20 April Pattle led 15 Hurricanes to challenge over 90 Luftwaffe fighters and bombers in an operation remembered as the Battle of Athens. Pattle was observed as having despatched a BF109 and BF110 but in going to the rescue of a fellow pilot, Pattle himself fell to the guns of two BF110s who closed from behind and shot him down into the sea off Megara. He was quickly avenged by a Hurricane pilot who brought down both of Pattle’s attackers but the sad fact remained that the redoubtable ‘Pat’ Pattle had fallen. During his tenure with No.33 he was credited unofficially with 30 victories and this combined with the 23 from No.80 places him as the top Allied ace but with the loss of No.33 squadron records this claim can never be confirmed.
Sources:
- The Hawker Hurricane (Mason)
- The Gloster Gladiator(Mason)
Murray McLeod - Murray has maintained an involvement in the arts for many years and for a time he operated his own gallery at Mt., Tamborine overlooking ...
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