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| THE SAME
MEDAL, THREE TIMES OVER
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| This is something you will not
see every day; a gallantry medal with two bars. |
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The medal on the far left above (also shown
right) is the Military Medal.
The bars on the ribbon represent the same medal awarded
a second, and then a third time. What this means,
in terms of sheer, cold-blooded courage, is almost
impossible to imagine. |
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The medals were awarded to Sergeant 'Buck' Kite who served with
3rd Royal Tank Regiment.
The first Military Medal dates from 20 January
1943 when the regiment was fighting in North Africa.
Sergeant Kite, with two tanks, was on a reconnaissance mission
reporting enemy gun positions to his own artillery. Those
listening to him over the radio were impressed by how cool,
precise and good humoured he was. They could not know
that for much of the time he was in extreme danger and yet
he never missed a target.
Eighteen months later the regiment was in Normandy
and Buck Kite was commanding a troop of tanks in A Squadron.
Near the village of Bras, on 18-19 July 1944
he handled his tank with such skill and bravery that he destroyed
one Panther, a Panzer IV and one of two 88mm guns that were
holding up the entire squadron. This earned him a second
Military Medal.
Below is a copy of the citation for his third Military
Medal, which speaks for itself; but notice that this was
only fifteen days after the last one!
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| Just to give some idea of the tortuous
process a recommendation for gallantry has to pass through before
an award is made, look at the list of signatures on the right.
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| Colonel Silvertop commands Kite's regiment,3rd
RTR. Brigadier Harvey commands 29th Armoured Brigade
and senior to him is Major General 'Pip' Roberts commanding
11th Armoured Division. From there the award has to be
approved by Lieutenant General O'Connor commanding
8 Corps,then the Second Army Commander, Lieutenant
General Sir Miles Dempsey, before landing on the desk
of the top man, |
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery commanding 21st Army
Group |
Historically that is an impressive collection of autographs. |
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