Pat Pattle - Top African Ace and his African Kills 

Yo what game is that in the back?

@@CasperTheRamKnight War Thunder

Yes, sources seem to agree that he was very respected. Thanks for the comment!

SAME here. THANKS RD, & PP. BECAUSE he was KIA in Greece, that's why we haven't heard of him more. NICE narration & graphics.

Yeah i also read about him

Pattles biography is called "Ace of aces" written by E.C.R Baker. It's definitely worth a read if you can get hold of it.

@@olesuhr727 he flew a hurricane later on

It is possible. Did you have a chance to talk to him about his experiences?

Thanks, once again! I wonder if Hs-123s ever fought any I-15s in Soviet Union. Those might be the last such cases ever.

Thanks for sharing!

I appreciate it, thanks a lot!

They deserve it. Thanks for appreciating the content!

Thank you for watching! Many of those stories deserve to be told.

I'm getting to like them more and more too. The music felt like something they would have used had they made a movie about Pattle in the 1960s, Lawrence of Arabia kind of a thing.

Thank you for appreciating the content!

Thanks for the comment! Rhodesia is potentially interesting, I have some general idea about it and we have some of the aircraft they used in War Thunder. There isn't exactly a proper map for the region I guess. As for your other suggestion, I'm not sure but it does sound potentially interesting. I'll have to research it a bit.

Those would be AMAZING.

Mate without the contributions from commonwealth countries early in the war i don't think the British could have succeeded in north africa and the middle east. Be proud of your countries efforts and contributions.

@@crow7505 bruh I'm talking about now ANC has taken the rand from at worst R3-4 (when SA was sanctioned) to damn R18-9 Most of our fighters are either unable or too dangerous to fly And one of the biggest causes of this being a reality Zuma got released from prison ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ why should I be proud?

@@alk3326 Yeah fair call mate i'm not full bottle on SA politics.I do often wonder what might have been if Aus and SA developed our defense industries cooperatively you guys make /made some wonderful kit in the 2000s.

Thanks a lot! He definitely deserves more attention and some of those battles will be covered in the future.

The book you are talking about, could be, Ace of Aces by ECR Baker, I've read the book, very detailed,I've also started to build model aircraft of the Gladiator and the Hurricane he flew.

I'm happy to hear it! The secret is that I'm really doing the videos I'd like to watch myself 😉

Thanks for watching and commenting!

That's encouraging, thank you!

He seems to have been held in high regard by those who knew him, according to the sources I could find. Thanks for the comment!

Thank you very much for your repeated financial support!

Thank you very much, I'm glad you appreciate the content! Next Saturday is just around the corner :)

Thank you for appreciating it!

Thank you for the comment! He does deserve some more attention, that's for sure.

Thank you for commenting!

I'm glad you liked it, thanks!

Thanks a lot!

Thanks a lot, I'm happy to see you've been subscribed for a while!

@@showtime112 Is a new tradition for saturdays, your videos and a coffe mug.

Hvala na pozitivnom komentaru! Da, Pattle je ratovao u ovim krajevima i u planu mi je obraditi i tu temu. Nisam još točno siguran kada ali bit će.

Hvala na komentaru! Slažem se da bi Gladiator sigurno bio zahvalna tema za izgradnju.

He is often overlooked but I hope this video helped a bit. Thanks for another comment!

Thank you for the very positive feedback! I'm experimenting a bit with YT video classification and trying to move the content away from just gaming (because, it's more history than gaming). If you see biplanes, it is definitely War Thunder :)

He does deserve more attention for sure.

Thanks a lot, I'm happy that you appreciate the video!

I appreciate your feedback!

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

That is a very interesting insight, thanks!

Well yeah who wouldn't shun someone who comes from a group who in recent history (at that time) put their wives and children in death camps ...

​@@showtime112Not really. Just more Anglo nonsense. These people cant understand how there is resentment towards English for starving our women and kids (and 70 000 Africans) in camps for gold mining rights in SA only 30 years later during ww2...to them its inconceivable, mind of psychopaths. And most SA pilots went to UK to help including Afr largely because SAAF didnt have the money or capacity to accomodate them - most notable is Sailor Malan and Jacobus le Roux. And UK rang its little servant bell which is another reason we resent them (proxy rule). He ran to some foreign Country to exploit the women there with currency exchange to British pound too it seems. Also, when a Irishman or Scotsman does well he is considered 'one of theirs' but if they do poorly they are referred to their heritage background. They starved the Irish too like our people. And today they stand on the corpses of 400 000+ Ukrainians because of Boris Johnson. Another proud Englishman. Sorry for the rant but I cant stand these scumbags running their mouths about us when we know their true nature that is supressed in a Anglo dominated media world. Good health to you Showtime and thanks.

The reverse is also true though. Any South African who rises to prominence gets claimed by the British as being one of theirs. Roger Bartlett, James Greathead and Tolkien come to mind. As are there many others.

Roger Bartletts parents were both English . Tolkein ancestors arrived in England in 1770 , he considered himself English. Greathead was of English descent , moved to England was he was 15. Colin Cowdrey and Guy Gibson were born in India , Ted Dexter in Italy . Each would say they were English.

Hvala na komentaru!

Yes, he did really well but was then completely forgotten until about 1960s.

Read his book "Ace of Aces" by ECR Baker.

@@Robin-rk4tm Thanks for the advice!

Thank you for watching!

Thank you very much for your positive comment!

Thank you for watching these older videos!

I'd say, if he was born and raised in Africa and he was a citizen of an African country, that makes him an African of European origin. Thanks for the comment!

Much like Elon Musk who is a true African American

He was African. Nowadays I simply say he was from one of the white tribes.

Thank you so much for your continuous support!

Exactly! DCS (and even IL-2) are quite limited when it comes to WWII, and especially the early period. Thank you very much for considering becoming a Patreon supporter!

Never thought of that 😁

Hvala na komentaru!

Thanks! I intend to cover the Pucara operations in the 1982 conflict. I found some sources but I need to find time to study them. Also, I don't have the period correct skins for the aircraft mod, it might take time to produce. But I think you might find the next video particularly interesting.

Ok.,,thanks For Your time and dedication. We love arcraft 🤷🏻‍♂️.

Thanks a lot for the positive comment!

I appreciate your positive comment!

Yes, a very interesting read.

I certainly plan to make another episode or two about him. Thanks for the feedback!

It's War Thunder. Not exactly a sim 😁

On the Allied side, he seems to be bested only by a handful of Soviet pilots in the number of kills. I hope to cover at least some of his battles over Greece in the future. Thanks for another positive comment!

@@showtime112 Yes, I have forgotten the soviet pilot which I don't remember the name with 69 victories on P-39 Airacobra.

@@showtime112 It's a russian pilot, its name is IVAN NIKITOVITCH KOJEDOUB with 62 victories. this IS THE TOP ALLIED ACES, in reality he has shot down a ME-262 !!!

Pilote peu connu dans un théâtre d'opérations peu médiatisé a l'époque. On se demande comment en sous effectif il a réussi à en abattre tant. Surtout c'était biplan contre biplan au début et italien. Le 109 est arrivé plus tard. Pour les as thomas Mac Guire était au même niveau que Bong. Et on oublie un as inconnu Finlandais Eimo Juutilainen. 94 victoire homologué et avec des zincs ", hétéroclites

@@dominiqueroudier9401 Le problème est bien la médiatisation. Guynemer on en parle Fonck beaucoup moins alors qu'il a 75 victoires et qu'il est sorti vivant du conflit il a même obtenu une place de député à al sortie de la guerre. Le B-17 on en parle beaucoup alors qu'il y a plus de B-24 produits pendant la dernière guerre mondiale. Thomas Mac Guire connait pas et le finlandais encore moins sauf que ce n'est pas un allié mais quand même faut le faire dans les deux cas. Les as féminines russes on en cause encore moins de notre côté.

He didn't tell anyone because he was killed in a battle early in the War.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience. I hope to cover some of the fighting done by the RAF in Greece too someday.

There still isn't (and never will be) an official credit and the score can be debated. But all victory claims are debatable to some extent, even confirmed ones. African theater was probably the last one although Greece before the German invasion saw plenty of biplane combat too.

Thanks a lot! Glad you liked it!

Thank you for the comment! In Churchill's defense, this was a lose-lose situation. At that time, it still looked like the Axis could be stopped in that part of Europe and some countries were still not decided. Had he not sent forces to aid Greece, he would have probably been criticized for abandoning British allies.

@@showtime112 true enough although I think his main motivation was to show to the world at large (i.e. America) that Britain was still capable of fighting an offensive war and taking the fight to the enemy. But I suppose it's easy to criticise from 80 years later, so perhaps I should go a bit easier on him :)

No, this was done in War Thunder. DCS is quite limited in WWII.

Thanks! Yes, it is WT. The best selection of WWII airplanes.

Thanks for the comment!

Living in England, the victors write the history, and the full on propaganda machine narrative is this myth " We stood alone, nobody helped us" said with a working class cockney accent. Plucky Brits won the war single handed.

I quite agree. Thanks for another inspired comment!

Hvala!

Which conflict do you mean? There were clashes between P-51s and Corsairs in the Hundred Hours War between Honduras and Salvador.

@@showtime112 Costa rican P51 vs Nicaraguan P47

@@alphaaquilla1359 It is a potentially interesting story. If I manage to find enough details about it, I'll probably cover it.

@@showtime112 TY :)

I often get comments (which I find a bit annoying) saying something like 'yeah right, and they didn't see the attackers?'. Of course they didn't! Having a good SA is extremely hard with all that flying, navigating and formation keeping. You can't just look back all the time. Italian fighters had no radio, they relied on hand signals and basically, you needed to watch your leader almost all the time if you didn't want to miss a signal. Thanks for making that point.

You're right, that is supposed to be wing. I guess the wheel nacelle made it look like an engine from a distance and I mispronounced it. I apologize for the mistake.

True, thanks for the comment!

Italians made a few good aircafts But allies had better stuff

Not unusual when you look at the circumstances. Half of his kills were achieved when he was the CO of No 33 Squadron in Greece during April of 1941. The Squadron records were destroyed, Pattle was killed and the British forces pulled out of Greece which was a secondary (if not a tertiary) theater for them. That's not where the attention was.

Welcome back! 😁 You are probably right about the Home Front being in the focus at that time. And I really need to do more videos about Finns (your comment reminds me of that)

@@showtime112 Ilmavoimat was full of obsolète but.... efficient planes. Like Buffalo. In USA and UK this plane was not at good place at good moment except in Finland

@@showtime112 Finland was an Axis country and then flipped late into the war. In aerial combat reference, the Axis powers did have superior pilots with much more experience. South Africa had no Air Force prior to WWII with hand-me down planes from WWI (Biplanes). That said, Mr. Pattle immerged.

Yes, it's not a bad looking thing.

@@showtime112 👍

I'm happy to hear you think so! Feel free to check other videos if you haven't already.

Thanks a lot for the support!

Glad you liked it, thanks!

We can only speculate. I suppose a lot would depend on the tactical situation.

Yes, only decades after the war was his combat record brought to people's attention.

Early in the war, too. Others came in pretty quickly to fill the void.

He was killed in a battle against Luftwaffe fighters over Piraeus harbor.

No, those nicknames refer to the Gladiators which fought over Malta in 1940. There's more info here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tz6y-uU_fvo.html

"Faith", "Hope" & "Charity were Sea Gladiators stationed on Malta.

What exactly is a vedio camera? 😁😁😁

Thank you for commenting!

He was sick and insisted no flying combat despite being grounded

...ON flying combat....!

He was killed over Piraeus battling German 110s, true.

@@mikegreenfield5102 He was sick and broke his own golden rule about a particular manoeuvre, in order to come to the aid of a fellow RAF pilot.

Two of the lads here HAVE rightfully mentioned he was ill & properly sick He was running a high fever & his body temperature was off the scale. Sqdn M.O actually ordered him to stay in bed & Pattle was physically LOCKED IN Pattle climbed out the top window, so as not to be seen welching out OR even letting his mates down as he knew they were at a HUGE numerical disadvantage He went to the assistance of his mate 'Caesar Hull' who was being attacked by several cannon armed Me.110's ("E" variant) who shot Hull down & killed him anyway.... As he did so, about x 6 Me.110's boxed him in & whichever direction he turned he would've been hit anyway - Much in the same way that German ace Gunther Rall was attacked & shot-down by Robert Rankin's flight(s) of P.47 Thunderbolts of the legendary 56th Fighter Group. Pattle's mistake (after being physically restrained & THEN 'locked in' to the airfield's own medical block), was, jumping out of the top window "to escape" & then putting himself in grave danger & attempting air-combat with a raging fever & his own body in a physically "F&&KED UP STATE" whilst shaking & trembling from the high fever & local virus that he'd gone down with. Flying a Hawker Hurricane whilst outnumbered 7-1 is NOT a good idea when you are vomiting & shivering hot & cold due to an overwhelming virus that might've even killed other people, before they even got off the ground. Such a shame we lost him so early in the war & on such a futile campaign (Greece) Ironically, my Grandad's Brother WAS there = Greece, B.E.F He was withdrawn from Greece by HMS Hotspur of all things "TO CRETE" Out of the frying pan & literally, into the fire !!!!!! Amazing escape story, but, I'll save that for another time...

Dude, I'm not sure what it is exactly you are trying to 'correct' here (or why you Eritreans have to mention Wikipedia in every comment) but if we are correcting each other, let me say two things. 1. You are apparently commenting under a wrong video. This one is about Pat Pattle, not Mario Visintini. 2. You have posted exactly the same comment three times. Maybe you just wanted to make a point, maybe you wanted to help with the algorithm, I don't know. The second thing might not be a mistake and in that case, I apologize 😁

I'd like to make a correction, the greatest Italian 800m runner in Italian history is in fact South African. Respect to Marcello Fiasconaro

If you mean because of gun jams, it looks like this was a common problem with the Gladiator. Not necessarily caused by bad mainteinance.

On the Gladiators: four .303 caliber machine guns (mm 7,7)

@@LevPicaresco Thank you.

Great pilots can achieve a lot even when their equipment is not state of the art. Thanks for commenting!

I suppose that had some political sense back then. Some European countries were not yet allied with Germany and Italy and sending troops to Greece gave a message 'we will support you if you are attacked'. Of course, that didn't help much but there's that benefit of a hindsight.

The SAAF must have been kicking themselves for not taking him. Kinda like Decca not signing up the Beatles in 1962 😁

@@showtime112 😂👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻🍻🍻

His score was actually 40.

Pattle had most of his kills over Greece in horrible living conditions flying Hurricane II’s. Most of the pilots and staff were suffering fro dysentery and other diseases. It is said that the squadron doctor forbade him to fly but he did with a 103 fever. They had few if any pilots then that could fly at all.

@@showtime112 & M.Telson9798 = I also read (in a very detailed account, many years ago now..) that the Squadron's own Chief Medical officer had ORDERED Pattle & DEMANDED that he do not fly (due to his fever/temperature) & that they actually locked him inside a medical room, that unfortunately had glazed window frames. Pattle felt awful about letting down his fellow pilots, so, he escaped from the locked room & ran to an ALTERNATE Hurricane that had been readied for the fight BUT NOT HIS REGULAR ONE Am told his regular(ly used Hurricane) was used & taken into combat by someone else instead, given that Pattle was 'confined under orders' & NOT supposed to be going up in combat at all - It's also said..... When he saw his former Sqaudron mate "Caesar Hull" being shot-down & attacked by 2 x Me.110's he is reputedly seen by eyewitnesses to "go to his aid & assistance" (again, despite his high-fever) & in doing so, got attacked by the top-cover flight (again, I was told it was ME.110's) who set about him, something in the region of 6-1 against - He never stood a chance & was shot-down into the 'Bay of Eleusis' (Excuse the spelling of the latter - I'm typing from pure memory alone, as I learned of this in the 1980's) By chance, my Gradad's next youngest Brother ALSO fought in Greece, in the 'ill-feted' Greek campaign** **( known as Churchill's folly - purely because of the logistic impossibility of it all ) Gordie (Gordon) my relative, was evacuated from Greece by HMS Hotspur - Not sure of the date By pure chance & $hit-bad-luck, he was 'evacuated to Crete' onboard the destroyer mentioned above. Caught defending one of the airfileds (I was told but cannot remember "if" it was Heraklion or Maleme) he was shooting the German Fallschirmjeager as they jumped from their Ju.52's, long before ANY attempted to land - He described it as "a Turkey shoot" although he was only using his service rifle, an 0.303 Lee-Enfield Bizarrely, when or rather as Crete 'fell' he WAS ordered to go to Sphakia (Bay) for naval extraction (again !) Seeing the bay had (like) "A Gazillion men there" he said "F&&K THAT" & took his squad of men in his truck further, much further across the Southern coastline, hoping to find an alternative - it happened too !! They came across a Royal Navy Motor Launch down in a bluff / cove area, whilst their truck was on a cliff Two men ran down to 'greet the Navy' & ask for help, only to be told - "We're meeting TWO high ranking officers here, that's WHY We're here" (so basically, "You can Buzz off") Two lower ranking guys walked towards them & said "Never mind him" adding "We're due to leave @ 17:15" "Be here by then & "if" those two bozos DO NOT arrive, we're casting-off anyways" (we'll smuggle you on board, they added) - That's exactly what happened & Gordie & his squad WERE saved The motor launch made it's way out to sea, out to it's Mother-Craft, which happened to be "HMS Hotspur" ( Again !!!!! ) This time, to Alexandria & relative safety - He later fought in the 8th Army, survived Tunis & Italy I last saw him in 1987 the year he died, but he looked fit & healthy when I saw him.... He kept on buying me pints of "Webster's Yorkshire Bitter" & spent postwar years as a Coach driver

'Confirmed' kill essentially means that your superiors believed your claims. Or that they chose to believe them. As opposed to a 'probable' kill. And yes, almost all claims are exaggerated. I'm currently working on the second part of CAI operations in the British campaign. On 11 November 1940, RAF claimed destroying nine Italian bombers (out of ten which participated in the raid). Only three were actually lost. But the point of this video was to show that Pattle is unfairly overlooked compared to other Allied pilots. And if his claims are overblown, so are probably those of others and Pattle still deserves more recognition as his score is very high by any measure.

@@showtime112 In WW2 "superiors" of all country accepted almost without doubt all tge mist fantastic and incredible claims they submitted. This is true not only for british pilots but also (and much more) for US ones. The 325th fighter group claims over Sardinia are incredible (in south Sardinia in 1943 there was only the 51 stormo of italian airforce) as example but also itakians abd gernabs overclaimed largely. In WW1 the action that lead to VC given to Billy Bishop is by now almost proved to be totally fake. Unfortunatly in every war propaganda was (and is even now) largely used. I have made research in WW1 archives for 20 years (only italian front ) and I can assure you that there are lot of "aces" that have not shot down a single aircraft. It funny to see that why some are quite reliable other are not.

You REALLY need to do some research BEFORE making silly comments. The British deployed 2 well-known biplanes during WWII: The Gloster Gladiator and the Fairey Swordfish. As far as I can tell, the last biplane to see military service is the Soviet/Russian AN-2 biplane, which entered production in 1947, and that line continued until the 2000's. Sometimes low and slow suits the purpose as far as the AN-2 is concerned. Google the Battle of Taranto, where obsolete British Swordfish tackled the Italian Navy in WWII.

Read his biography "Ace of aces" by E.C.R Baker.

@@olesuhr727 Biographies aside, one fight he was in he claimed 2 Cr42s, the British as a unit claimed 9, but the Italian records showed a loss of 2 Cr42s.

If his nationality was south african then he is african. You wouldn't say a black citizen of France isn't french.....

He was born and raised in Africa and a citizen of an African country. I guess that kinda makes him an African.

He was born and raised in Africa and a citizen of an African country. I guess that kinda makes him an African.

His skin not dark enough for you? Stop being a racist.

His nationally was South African! But no problem, from now on I'll refer to blacks with European passports as African!

I am a white African and proud of it! Fight the prejudices within you.

Yes, that apparently was a very serious issue. A pretty big one too :)

Nobody likes a smartass.

So the great liar Marseille was born in Africa like Pat Prattle?

@@robert-trading-as-Bob69 you were there boz🤡? How you know he's a liar?

Well, there's something nonsensical here. I agree.