The Battle of Athens (also known as the Battle of Piraeus harbor ) on 20 April 1941 was a dog-fighting air battle over Athens fought for half an hour between the RAF and the Luftwaffe towards the end of the Battle of Greece. Marmaduke Pattle died in the battle in which Roald Dahl also fought; he describes it in his second autobiography, Going Solo and in the short story 'Katina' which can be found in the book The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories. A somewhat different account of this battle together with citations will be found towards the end of the entry for Marmaduke Pattle.
The battle began when the fifteen remaining Hawker Hurricane aircraft of the Royal Air Force (RAF)'s 80 Squadron, flying in formation over Athens were attacked by a large group of German Luftwaffe planes (which, according to the citizens of Athens, had 200 planes; and according to Roald Dahl, had 152 bombers and fighters), mostly Messerschmitt ME-109s and Bf 110s along with some Junkers Ju 87s and Junkers Ju 88s. In the resulting battle five RAF pilots were shot down and killed, including the famous Marmaduke "Pat" Pattle and one pilot lost his Hawker Hurricane. However, in this first sortie as many as twenty-two German fighters were also downed.