Tribute to a Forgotten ACE, Sqn/Ldr "Pat" Pattle DFC & Bar (COMPLETED)
Comments
Whilst this is an excellent kit from Merit, I think the PE set is sooo worth it!
All done! Not perfect but a great little kit & great fun to 🙂 It's a real shame that the canopy cannot be posed open and so you don't get to see all that detail 🙁
Album info
Squadron Leader Marmaduke Thomas St John Pattle DFC & Bar (3 July 1914 – 20 April 1941), usually known as Pat Pattle, was a South African-born Second World War fighter pilot and flying ace (an aviator credited with the destruction of five or more enemy aircraft in aerial combat) of the Royal Air Force (RAF).
Born in 1914 in South Africa, Pattle applied to join the South African Air Force at 18 and was rejected. He travelled to the United Kingdom and joined the RAF in 1936, on a Short Service Commission (SSC). Pattle was a pilot in 1937 and was posted to 80 Squadron based in Egypt upon the outbreak of war in September 1939. In June 1940 Italy entered the war on the side of the Axis Powers and he began combat operations against the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Air Force), gaining his first successes during the Italian invasion of Egypt.
After the Italian invasion, his squadron was sent to Greece in November 1940, where Pattle achieved most of his victories. Pattle claimed around 20 aircraft shot down and in Mar