High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Flight Lieutenant Paterson Clarence Hughes DFC (19 September 1917 ? 7 September 1940) was a Royal Australian Air Force fighter pilot, assigned to the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain in World War II. The top-scoring Australian flying ace of the Battle of Britain and one of the 24 Australians who lost their lives during the battle, Hughes has been described as the "real driving force behind No. 234 Squadron RAF."