Squadron Leader MTSJ Pattle “Pat”

Links of Long Standing

Several joined well before war was declared including amongst others, TH Archbell, AS Ainslie, I Bocock, CBE Burt-Andrews GL Cruickshanks, G Chater, IB Difford, FA Harte, GDL Haysom, CB Hull, GLB Hull, AG “Sailor” Malan, EJ Morris, MT Pattle, H Rosofsky, JF Roulston RN Selley, HWL Sheahan CR Taylor and FL Watson.

Links of Long Standing

Pattle commissioned in 1936 after responding to a Johannesburg newspaper advertisement, EJ Morris, one of three “General Botha” graduates in that group, “………joined the RAF because of a strong desire to fly. This was stimulated by the fact that my brother, who was some six years older than I, had joined some years before and while I was sea, I met him in Hong Kong where he was enjoying himself as a pilot on the aircraft carrier ‘Eagle’. A secondary cause was the undoubtedly better life that the RAF offered in every way in those days at the end of the depression…” 10.

More than a “Few” South Africans

Twenty-four-year-old Marmaduke Thomas St John “Pat” Pattle, arrived in Ismailia with No 80 Squadron in mid-1938 enduring desert heat, flies, insects and dust storms. Born in Butterworth in South Africa’s Eastern Cape in 1914 and educated at Victoria Boys High School in Grahamstown, Pattle joined the “Special Service Battalion” 2 after being turned down by the SAAF. He subsequently responded to a Johannesburg newspaper advertisement offering short service commissions to British Empire cadets and commissioned in the RAF in 1936.

More than a “Few” South Africans

He claimed his first enemy aircraft flying a Gloster Gladiator on the Libyan border in August 1940 and was almost immediately shot down but when the February 11th, 1941 “London Gazette” announced his “Distinguished Flying Cross” award, Pattle was flying Hurricanes in Greece and had by then accounted for at least 15 enemy aircraft.

More than a “Few” South Africans

Squadron Leader MT St John “Pat” Pattle DFC and Bar (left) was in command of No 33 Squadron flying Hurricanes when this picture with the Squadron Adjutant Flight Lt Rumsey DFC was taken in Greece in March 1941. Pattle, having by then accounted for at least 40 enemy aircraft and possibly the highest-scoring Gladiator and Hurricane ace, was killed a few weeks later.

More than a “Few” South Africans

By the end of February, Pattle had claimed another six enemy aircraft including three in a matter of minutes and had destroyed at least 23 enemy aircraft when the “Bar” to his “Distinguished Flying Cross” was announced on March 18th.

More than a “Few” South Africans

Squadron Leader “Pat” Pattle DFC and Bar, possibly the highest scoring Second World War Gladiator and Hurricane ace had a unique combat record and, one of few RAF fighter pilots who earned the “Distinguished Flying Cross” and “Bar” within six weeks. He is commemorated at El Alamein Memorial among an estimated 3 000 Commonwealth airmen including 441 SAAF airmen without known graves.

A Different Kind of Enemy Flak

Names like “Sailor “Malan, “Pat” Pattle, JD Nettleton, Robin Johnson and Edwin Swales are virtually unknown to an electronically indulged generation of South Africans with little or no interest in the Second World War.