air battles against Pattle's unit, have drawn attention to the fact that 97–98 percent of all German primary records belonging to the Luftwaffe have been lost either through Allied bombing or through Hermann Göring's order to destroy all records in the first week of May 1945. This makes any research into German bomber losses difficult. Memorials Pattle is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial at El Alamein together with 3,000 other Commonwealth airmen who lost their lives in the Middle Eastern Theatre during the Second World War, and who have no known grave. Air Marshal Sir Peter Wykeham, recalled: "Pat Pattle was a natural. Some fighter pilots did not last long because they were too kind to their aircraft; others were successful because they caned it half to death. And their victories were accompanied by burst engines, popping rivets, stretched wire, wrinkled wings. But Pat was a sensitive pilot, who considered his machine, but, somehow he got more from it than anyone else, and possibly more than it had to give." Pattle is mentioned in Roald Dahl's second autobiography, Going Solo. He flew with Pattle in Greece and called him "the Second World War's greatest flying ace." The novel Signed with their Honour (1942), by war correspondent James Aldridge, is a fictionalized but realistic account of 80 Squadron's activities in Greece. It is dedicated to Pattle and 80 Squadron's CO, Hickey, who was also killed in action in Greece. Notes References Citations Bibliography External links South African Aces of WW2 Biography 1914 births 1941 deaths People from Mnquma Local Municipality White South African people South African people of English descent Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Royal Air Force squadron leaders South African World War II flying aces Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Alumni of Graeme College Aviators killed by being shot down Non-British Royal Air Force personnel of World War II South African military personnel killed in World War II