Beschreibung:

The Ron Penhall Collection The Second World War K.B.E., C.B. group of fourteen awarded to Air Vice-Marshal Sir Victor Tait, Royal Air Force, late Canadian Army and Royal Flying Corps, who as Director-General of Signals (Intelligence) and Director of Radio/Radar Direction Finding played a crucial role in many wartime operations, from the Bruneval and Dieppe raids of 1942 to the Normandy landings in 1944: it was he who persuaded Churchill of the importance of countering the enemy’s Freya system The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, K.B.E. (Military) Knight Commander’s 2nd type set of insignia, comprising neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, and breast star, silver, with gilt and enamel centre, in its Garrard, London case of issue; The Most Honourable Order of The Bath, C.B. (Military) Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, in its Garrard, London case of issue; 1914-15 Star (5470 Spr. V. H. Tait, Can. Eng.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut. V. H. Tait); 1939-45 Star; Defence and War Medals; Jubilee 1935; Coronation 1937; Egyptian Order of the Nile, Commander’s neck badge, silver, silver-gilt and enamel, in its Lattes, Cairo case of issue; U.S.A. Legion of Merit, Commander’s neck badge, gilt and enamels, the suspension loop numbered ‘710’, in its case of issue; U.S.A., Legion of Merit, Officer’s breast badge, gilt and enamel, in its case of issue, enamel work very slightly chipped in places, generally good very fine and better (14) £1800-2200 Footnote K.B.E. London Gazette 19 September 1944: ‘In recognition of services in planning the landings in Normandy.’ C.B. London Gazette 2 June 1943. The original recommendation states: ‘For services as Deputy-Director of Signals (Intelligence), Air Ministry, from April 1939; Director of Radio, Air Ministry, from May 1941; Director-General of Signals, Air Ministry, from August 1942; and special duty in America, October 1942.’ American Legion of Merit (Commander). The official White House citation states: ‘Air Vice-Marshal Sir Victor Tait, C.B., O.B.E., Royal Air Force, performed exceptionally meritorious service from July 1942 to May 1945, as Director-General of Signals in the British Air Ministry. He was responsible for the operational employment by the Royal Air Force of all types of radar, radar counter-measures and communications equipment. He was especially effective in promoting Allied co-operation with the Eighth Air Force. Through his early appreciation of the possibilities of electronic devices and his co-operative efforts, Air Vice-Marshal Tait contributed immeasurably to the field of scientific research and development and the success of Allied Aerial Warfare.’ Victor Hubert Tait was born in Winnipeg in July 1892 and completed his education at Manitoba University prior to enlisting in the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force in September 1914. Embarked for England, he went out to France with the Canadian Engineers in February 1915, where he served for several months, but in January 1916, having attended an O.T.C. at Shorncliffe, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 8th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment. In the following year, however, he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and was granted a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force at the end of the War. Although by trade a pilot, his chosen profession was the then new science of radar and air navigation and, having helped ‘deal with a brief post-war trouble spot in Gallipoli’, he returned to the R.A.F. Signals Branch at the Air Ministry. Here, over the next decade, he was instrumental in setting in motion many of the navigational aids and air defence systems that proved so valuable on the renewal of hostilities, vitally, too, in time for the creation of Fighter Command. Tait was next posted to the R.A.F’s Middle East Headquarters at Cairo, where he was advanced to Squadron Leader in July 1930. Three years later he was seconded to the Egyptian Army Air Force, which corps he nurtured