V.C RETURNS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 55, 3 September 1945, Page 4

V.C RETURNS

CAPTAIN C. H. UPHAM

"TRUMPS ALL THE WAY"

Known as an incorrigible attempted escapee, and for that reason sent by the Germans to an ancient castle which it was thought would effectively discourage any further efforts in this direction, Captain Charles Hazlett Upham, V.C, was among the draft of ex-prisoners of war who disembarked at Wellington yesterday. Captain Upham, a slim but wiry figure of medium height, declined to discuss his experiences. Those who were associated with him during the long period of imprisonment, however, made it plain that "Charlie's trumps—all the way." ' A remarkable series of exploits in Crete earned for Captain Upham, then a second lieutenant, the honour of being one of the first two members of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force to earn the coveted decoration. He served with the force until the battle of Ruweisat Ridge in July, 1942, when German tanks over-ran his South Island battalion and he was taken prisoner. This, however, not untli he had been wounded in a leg and an arm with machine-gun and rifle bullets. He was drafted to various camps in Italy and Germany, but he made so many escape attempts and assisted with the digging of so many tunnels that it was decided to send him to the) special prison. He w,as not successful in getting away from this ancient pile—but not for lack of trying. IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. "Upham was a great worker and a good escape leader/ said an officer who had been in the same camp. "He was always having a lick at it. I will always remember one occasion when he tried to walk out of the camp through the wire in broad daylight. If there had been an ordinary chap on guard he probably would have been shot, but there was an elderly man on duty and he just nabbed him and looked at him as if to say, 'For God's sake don't do that, or you will get me into trouble.' The commandant even managed to take a photo of him in the middle of the wire." For a long time the Germans were not aware that Captain Upham was the holder of the Empire's highest de-! coration for valour, but when they did j find out they regarded him with ungrudging respect.