REMARKABLE RECORD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 October 1941, Page 6

REMARKABLE RECORD

OF DECORATIONS WON MEMBERS OF NEW ZEALAND RIFLE COMPANY. GREAT CELEBRATION STARTED: (Official Wai’ Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) WESTERN DESERT, Oct. 18. Two Victoria Crosses, one Distinguished Conduct Medal, and one Greek Military Cross have all gone to members of a single New Zealand rifle company as rewards for valour in a single campaign. And there are still further recommendations yet. to be decided. In the words of the battalion commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Kippenberger, who himself, won the Distinguished Service Order, this company, which is the West Coast, Blenheim and Marlborough section of the oldest South Island infantry unit, is today in a daze. The men were proud enough when the earlier announcements of decorations were capped by 2nd Lieutenant Upham’s Victoria Cross, but this morning’s news of Sergeant Hinton’s similar honour has left them justifiably up in the air. They are commencing immense celebrations from which they are not expected to emerge for three days. It is believed that the distinction won by this single company is without precedent. The South Island, of course, has further cause for pride in the fact that the third Victoria Cross was gained by Sergeant Hulme. Moreover, the citations, particularly of 2nd Lieutenant Upham and Sergeant Hulme are regarded as extraordinary in that they set out a series of incidents every one of which is worthy of some decoration. The most staggering thing of all was that from the time his battalion was in Servia Pass in Northern Greece to the end of the Crete battle, Lieutenant Upham suffered from severe dysentery. By all the rules he have been classed as unfit for service, but he refused to leave the front line. In Crete he could not eat the “bully” biscuits which were our staple diet—instead his men fed him on tinned milk whenever they were able to obtain it. “He came out of Crete like a walking skeleton,” said his commander. “The only thing that kept him going was his indomitable will.” Lieutenant Upham’s creed seems to be that a soldier’s job is never done till he dies. He saw so little unusual in his own exploits that the account forming the citation had to be pieced gradually and painstakingly together. He was genuinely distressed at being singled out for distinction and I know he will always regard his Victoria Cross only as something he holds in trust for his battalion. He says: “It was the men of the battalion, not myself, who won it. I have been fortunate in having the best of commanders above me and the best of N.C.O’s. and men around me. Right through the division the New Zealanders’ morale is the highest in the Army and nothing could stop them. It is very easy to do any job under those circumstances.” Radio listeners will shortly hear Lieutenant Upham speas and they may accept as typical of him the way he quickly changes the subject from the decoration to a plea for comforts for our captured and wounded and aid to the Greeks after the war, and his final “I would like the Government to know it is impossible to send too much tobacco to our troops here.” Little was known here of the glorious act of defiance which won Sergeant Hinton fame. He had been cut off from the battalion during the last stages of the withdrawal from Greece, and later was reported captured, but the story of his classic “To hell with this,’ ’and his refusal to accept defeat reached the authorities through British Army channels. The War Office verified it, and gave the West Coast company the thrilling surprise of a second Victoria Cross. Like Lieutenant Upham, Sergeant Hulme and the rest, he is what we have been able to describe only as “a fair dinkum New Zealander.” Sergeant Kirk, who received the D.C.M., in the recent list of immediate awards, fought with Lieutenant Upham as a member of his platoon. Their original company commander was Major Cliff Wilson, who won the Greek Military Cross posthumously after a distinguished career. Commanding a Greek battalion in Crete, he died while blazing a path through the encircling German troops with a Bren gun, firing from the hip. The Germans so respected him that they gave orders to bury him apart from the rest.