SUBMARINE DUTY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 8, 20 October 1943, Page 3

SUBMARINE DUTY.

TWO BROTHERS FROM TIMARU (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, Oct. 18. Two brothers, Lieutenants A. G. Tait, R.N., and J. E. Tait, R.N.Z.N.Y.R., of Timaru, . are among the few New Zealanders serving in submarines. Lieutenant A. G. Tait joined the Royal Navy in 1939 and -was a midshipmen in the Nigeria before becoming a submarine officer. He was a gunnery officer and he is now a first lieutenant and is serving iij the boat commanded by Lieutenant-Command-er Wingfield, R.N., who surfaced in an Italian harbour .and bombarded a. warehouse. Lieutenant J. E. Tait, a former Otago University student, arrived in England in 1941 :as an ordinary seaman. He served in the Arethusa, in which he took part in two Malta convoys. After being commissioned lie did two more Malta convoys in the destroyer Ithuriel. She once rammed an Italian submarine off Sicily. Lieutenant Tait was among those sent aboard to try to take her over. He was below when the boat started to sink, so he scrambled up and he was sitting on the conning tower when the submarine sank under him. He swam in the war sea for half an hour before being picked up. He began his submarine course in December, 1942, and for a month he took the same course as his younger brother. He is now a navigator in a submarine serving on home stations.

Lieutenants A. G. Tait and J. E. Tait are sons of Mr A. G. Tait, rector of the Timaru Boys’ High School, and Mrs Tait. Advice was received by his parents yesterday afternoon that Lieutenant A. G. Tait has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.