EXPERIENCES OF V.G. WINNER

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24545, 19 April 1945, Page 6

EXPERIENCES OF V.G. WINNER

SERGEANT HINTON IN ENGLAND

FOUR YEARS PRISONER OF WAR (Special Correspondent N.Z.PA.) LONDON, April 17. After spending four years as a prisoner of war and 18 months under the care of British doctors, who treated his wounds, which he suffered when he won the Victoria Cross at Kaiamata, Sergeant J. D, Hinton, of Colac Bay, near Invercargill, managed to get some of his own back on the Germans before he was flown to England. Liberated when the Americans captured Muhlhausen, he “borrowed” an American uniform and went forward with the 44th Infantry, taking part in brief actions while they captured three more villages. Then an American colonel discovered that Sergeant Hinton was a New Zealapder and sent a message saying that he was to go back. Sergeant Hinton went back—helping the Americans to march *OO German prisoners for 60 kilometres. Then he caught a train to Namur, in Belgium, and tr elled with 2000 Germans. Eventually he reached Brussels and was flown to England. Sergeant Hinton is now staying at Norfolk Hotel, Cliftonville. He is thin, but is in good health, and like most liberated men, he is just happy to sit in the sun and rest and realise that it is really true that he is no longer a prisoner. Like air returned men, he cannot say enough of the treatment he received on his return.

This is his story. It includes one attempted escane. which so nearly succeeded.

Fighting in Greece In April, 1941, when the Germans had possession of Kalamata, in Greece, they were defending the waterfront with field guns, anti-tank guns, and heavy mschine-guns. They nad to be cleaned up before the New Zealanders could evacuate by sea. About 4 p.m. a group of New Zealanders began to move through the streets to attack the guns, and Sergeant Hinton went forward with 12 men. They were armed with rifles and bayonets and a Bren gun. First they put a field gun out of action and then an anti-tank gun. Fighting went on all evening, and past midnight. Sergeant Hinton did not know much of the other men with him, but there wrs one, Private Jones, of Invercargill, whom he will never forget. “He was one of the bravest lads I have ever seen. I would like to know whet became of him,” he said. It was about 2 a.m. that Sergeant Hinton was wounded. A machine-gun bullet hit him in the abdomen and went right through his buttock. The amazing thing was that it did not put him out of action for about 10 minutes. “I was a bit worked up, end I thought that it was the finish for me,” he said. “I went a bit mad for about 10 minutes,. I really don’t remember much of what happened.” Then he blacked out. When he came round again he was.on the waterfront. His “cobbers” bandaged him up, and he remembers being put on a stretcher and taken to a Greek cottage, in which there were New Zealand and German wounded. It was there that he was taken prisoner later hat morning. A few hours later Sergeant Hinton was taken to hospital and attended by British doctors, and three weeks later he was moved by an ambulance to Athens, where he was cared for by the Greek Red Cross and Greek nuns.

Shortage of Food “Food was very short —the Germans allowed us to live,” said Sergeant Hinton But had it not been for the Greeks he and others might not have survived. It was while there that Sergeant Hinton learned that he had won the Victoria Cross. The letter wss brought by a Greek woman and read to him by an Australian major. “I thought somebody had made a mistake,” said Sergeant Hinton. “I thought all of us had been in it together, and that we had don? a job of work that we were entitled to do. However, there seemed no doubt about it.” He remained in hospital for six weeks, and was then transferred to a so-called convalescent camp, only to be returned to hospital 10 days later. There he remained until the end of October, when he was transferred to Salonika in an Italian prison ship. Now safe in England. Sergeant Hinton Is in the best of but Is “feeling a bit strange.” “Cllftonville Is a lovely place,’’ he said. “Everyone has been kind and has given us a wonderful reception."' . • ~ If he lacks one thing, it is the small medallion which has not been affixed to his Victoria Cross ribbon, of which he is proud and rather shy.