PRISONER OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1942, Page 3

PRISONER OF WAR

CAPTAIN C. H. UPHAM, V.C. CAPTURED BY GERMANS ON RUWEISAT RIDGE. SOME BATTLE EXPLOITS. (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) CAIRO, July 26. Captain C. H. Upham, the first New Zealand officer to win the Victoria Cross in this war, is now a prisoner of war. He was captured when German tanks overran his South Island Battalio.n during the brilliant assault by the New Zealanders on Ruweisat Ridge. Upham was in his first campaign since he won his V.C. for his magnificent exploits in Crete. When the New Zealanders went into action in Libya last November, Upham was taken to a desert hospital with sandfly fever two days before his battalion left its forward base. Back with his battalion when the New Zealanders rushed to reinforce the Eighth Army, Upham was again outstanding in every action in which the New Zealanders engaged up to the time of his I capture. He was seen in a jeep, racing across the battlefield, rallying his scattered company as the German tanks came toward them. Surrounded by German armour, Upham was forced to surrender. Earlier in the campaign, Upham escaped serious injury when a grenade he threw into a truckload of German infantry exploded after the time he had allowed for the fuse to burn through. It was during the New Zealanders’ memorable night attack at Minquar Quaim, 25 miles south of Mersa Matruh, where his battalion, was fighting desperately to cut a gap through the German 21st Panzer Division’s defences. Upham was leading his men across the escarpment on which hundreds of trucks of German lorried infantry had been parked for the night. He threw a grenade into the back of a German truck and waited for four seconds for it to explode. When no explosion happened, Upham got in close with a tommy-gun. As he was moving forward, the grenade—one with a 7sec. fuse—exploded. A piece of- shrapnel hit Upham in the arm. When Upham left New Zealand with an advance party of the first contingent he held the rank of temporary sergeant. He was among the first batch of New Zealand trainees sent to the Middle East O.C.T.U.