VICTORIA CROSS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1941, Page 6

VICTORIA CROSS

WON BY NEW ZEALAND SERGEANT

NOW A WOUNDED PRISONER

HEROIC ACTION IN GREECE.

GUNS TAKEN FROM PURSUING GERMANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) announced today that his Majesty the King had been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Victoria Cross to Sergeant John Daniel Hinton, of the Twentieth Battalion of the New Zealand Military Forces. Sergeant Hinton belongs tp Colac Bay, Southland. The following citation was published in the “London Gazette:” “On the night of April 28, 1941, during fighting in Greece, a column of German armoured forces entered Kalamai. This column, which contained several armoured cars, two-inch guns, three-inch mortars and two six-inch guns, rapidly converged on large forces of British and New Zealand troops awaiting embarkation on a beach. When the order to retreat to cover was given, Sergeant Hinton shouted: “To hell, with this! Who will come with me?” He ran to within several yards of the nearest guns. The guns fired an missed him and he hurled two gren-. ades, which completely wiped out the crews. He then came on with the bayonet, followed by a crowd of New Zealanders. The German troops abandoned their first six-inch gun. and retreated into two houses. Sergeant Hinton smashed the windows and then the door of the first house and dealt with the garrison with the bayonet. He repeated his performance in a second house and as a result, until overwhelming German forces arrived, the New Zealanders held the guns. Sergeant Hinton then fell with a bulletwound through the lower abdomen, and was taken prisoner.

RECORD OF SERVICE MEMBER OF FIRST ECHELON. FRIENDLY & UNASSUMING MAN. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) (N Z E.F. Official News Service.) CAIRO, October 17. New Zealand’s new V.C., Sergeant Hinton, is a son of Mrs Mary Hinton, of Colac Bay, Southland. He was born, in Riverton, Southland, in 1909, and is single. . Before the war, Sergeant Hinton lived in Greymouth, where he was employed as a driver with the Public Works Department. He had had no previous military experience when he enlisted at Greymouth on September 13 1939. He entered Burnham Camp on October 5 and sailed .with the Southern Battalion of the First Echelon Sergeant Hinton is thus the second winner of the V.C. in this battalion, the first being Second Lieutenant Upham. Sergeant Hinton was appointed a temporary lance-corporal on Octobei 14, and promoted temporary corporal on November 22, 1939. He received further promotion to sergeant in the field cn August 13, 1940. By the short space of two days Sergeant Hinton just managed to make the trip to Greece, having previously been away from his unit owing to illhealth. A former company commander described Sergeant Hinton as a mediumbuilt, wiry individual, who appeared to be ten years older than he actually is. By nature quiet and unassuming, Sergeant Hinton is a man who. made friends freely. When his exploit was described to a man who served in the same unit, his remark was: “That’s exactly the sort of thing Jack would do.” Sergeant Hinton was coach to a. football team on the West Coast prior ,to joining the Army, and took a great interest in Rugby.