V.C. WAR PRISONER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 31, 16 November 1943, Page 5

V.C. WAR PRISONER

SERGEANT HINTON IN GREECE. REPATRIATED OFFICER’S STORY. (N.Z.E.F. Official News Serviced CAIRO, November 8.

One of the most interesting factual accounts of prison life under the Germans in this war is that of Major G. H. Thomson, of New Plymouth, a medical officer who was captured near Kalamata, in Greece, late in April, 1941. Major Thomson, who recommended Sergeant J. D. Hinton for the Victoria Cross from a German prison camp, witnessed many phases of German treatment of prisoners. Of the New Zealanders remaining in prison camps, Major Thomson said that their conditions are 90 per cent quite good; in fact, almost normal, thanks entirely to Red Cross parcels, and he had no doubt about their future health.

Major Thomson remained with the wounded near Kalamata as the New Zealand Division fought its rearguard actions, and he surrendered to an enemy advance party. “The officer commanding this vanguard was rather decent,” said Major Thomson. “I surrendered to him and he sent me in one of his trucks, so I travelled 10 miles to Kalamata with the enemy.” Courageous Stand. Describing Sergeant Hinton’s courageous stand against all odds as the small Allied party was trapped, Major Thomson said: “I could see some of our soldiers not far away from the truck I was travelling in. There was quite a lot of noise and movement. Firing broke out as the German party drew- near and I heard a British officer’s voice shouting: “Take cover, men, take cover,’, I heard another voice yelling: ‘To hell with all this take cover! Who’s coming with me?’ “Sergeant Hinton appeared with a rifle and bayonet and hand grenades. With a small party, perhaps a dozen men, he came at the Germans, who fired a two-pounder gun at him at point blank range, but missed. “The Huns ran into several houses. Sergeant Hinton burst in the door of the first house, throwing hand grenades, and then led his men inside with their bayonets. A shambles must have followed his entry because when he came out his bayonet was literally dripping blood. Sergeant Wounded. "With his men behind him. he raced across to the. next house. Some men fell; but Sergeant Hinton and the remainder cleaned up the second house, and it was when he was still pursuing the Germans running down the road : that he was shot in the abdomen.” Major Thomson jumped from the truck and started across to Sergeant Hinton, but was. fired on by the British party, who later explained that they thought Major Thomson was a German in British uniform.

Major Thomson and Sgt. Hinton were lifted on the truck and taken to hospital. He says he saw Sergeant Hinton no more than a fortnight ago, immediately before leaving Germany. Sergeant Hinton, who is in camp at Mulhausen, refuses, to be boarded on the .grounds that he is likely to be graded, and this would make him a non-combatant, and he is anxious “to get cracking again.” He looks well.

While -in the vicinity of Kalamata, Major Thomson organised a hospital for Allied wounded, and had German assistance in its operation. He said that every man killed or who died at Kalamata was buried correctly with honours in a small plot of land at the back of the town which forms the last war memorial. All the graves are properly recorded, while the Greeks promised to look after them until the Allies are there again. Major Thomson was later at Piraeus with a composite and other hospital staffs, and it was there that the British, New Zealand, and Australian wounded were evacuated from Crete. Early in June, 1941, Major Thomson, at the enemy’s request, opened a hospital near the Polytechnic, in Athens. He had several New Zealand medical officers with him, in -addition to British and Australians, and also a New Zealand and Australian staff.

Dismissed from Hospital. The Rev. R. J. Griffiths, of the 2nd N.Z.E.F., also was there. The courage, cheerfulness and great spiritual comfort given by all New Zealand padres now prisoners in Germany -were lauded by all the repatriated men, particularly the Rev. R. J. Hiddlestone, of Auckland, who is stated to have volunteered to stay with “his boys.” Tributes also were paid to the work of Mr John Ledgerw-ood, Y.M.C.A., of Hamilton, formerly of Ney Plymouth, who is in camp Stalag XXVIII A, at Wolfsburg, .near Gratz. Major Thomson was. dismissed from the hospital in Athens by the Germans. Disagreement between them arose from the enemy’s confiscation of milk and eggs, which the medical officers paid for out of their own pockets in order that seriously wounded patients might have a light diet. This was not to be the last time Major Thomson refused to bow to the will of his conquerors. ' From Athens, he was transferred to Hymettus, and later with many men was sent to Salonika, being compelled to travel in filthy cattle trucks, each containing 55 men, and each completely closed. During this journey they were allowed half a pint of water and a small tin of rations daily, and all the men suffered from dysentery and other ailments. The last lap o this particular journey lay over the Lamia Pass, and the prisoners were compelled to march 25 miles with full kit—and it was midsummer. Fully illustrative of the Germans

attitude toward their prisoners at that time was the fact that hundreds of empty trucks travelling in the same direction passed the Allied soldiers while on this march. But the men finished the march singing, while all the guards had to be picked up by trucks —the prisoners cheering them. Major Thomson said the Allied troops’ spirits were always high, and this phenomenon always puzzled the enemy.

Conditions at the camp at Salonika were dreadful. The barracks were lousy and with little sanitation. After one week, Major Thomson volunteered to travel as medical officer with 3000 Allied troops (mainly New Zealanders and Australians), who were being transferred to Marburg, which is the former Yugoslav town of Maribor.

“At Marburg were 6000 mixed British troops and 6000 Yugoslavs. I was> the only British officer, but as a doctor I received invaluable aid from one Yugoslav doctor and one Cypriot, who was a member of the R.A.M.C. We formed a lazarette of 150 beds, but they were beds only in name, comprising wooden planks, no bedding, and only one blanket. We endured this for three months. There was no water, no hygiene arrangements, and no sanitation.

“The boys made concrete cricket and basketball pitches, and we held a sports meeting. The camp functioned under what was known as the stalag organisation, which meant that prisoners! were detailed various duties under German control.

Tribute to Maoris,

“The Maoris were in the cookhouse, and they were responsible for a wonderful job. Incidentally, German officers and men who met the Maoris on the battlefield rated them as the most dangerous of all troops. “The New Zealanders as a whole were well behaved and, together with other indefinable factors, this made them popular with the enemy guards. They preferred working outside, and as they were most popular all over tliq countryside, some did better than they might have done. In addition, they had the benefit df the open air. “In Marburg, there was a civil hospital under the control of the Sisters of the St. Vincent de Paul Society and I had the- right to fill 100 beds with serious cases. These sisters were absolutely marvellous, and I frankly think they saved 20 per cent, of the lives.”

Here again, as the sole British officer in a camp of 12,000 prisoners of all ranks, Major Thomson had to act as padre for some time. Whenever a burial was necessary (and this was, regrettably, too many times), the burial party would parade and, by borrowing here and there for clothing, would turn out like guardsmen.

After the burials, Major Thomson, who was guard commander for the occasion in addition to being doctor and padre, commanding officer, and the Germans’ chief headache, would march his party through Marburg’s main street.

“I always believe in singing after a funeral,” he said, “and I used to get the boys to sing. Usually, they sang lustily for the benefit of the Yugoslav population such tunes as ‘There Will Always be an England,’ “Carry Me Back to Blighty,’ and ‘Roll Out the Barrel,’ and the people would rush smiling from their shops and houses to watch the boys go by. I thought it would be a tonic for all.”