UNIQUE RECORD

Camp News, Volume 2, Issue 96, 31 October 1941, Page 7

UNIQUE RECORD

Decorations Won By N.Z.E.F. Company GREAT CELEBRATION (Official War Correspondent, N.Z.E.F.) WESTERN DESERT, Oct. 18. Two Victoria Crosses, one Dis tinguished Conduct Medal, and one Greek Military Cross have all gone to members of a single New Zealant: rifle company as rewards for valoui in a single campaign. And there are still further recommendations yet to be decided. In the words of the battalion com mander, Lieut.-Colonel Kippenberger, who himself won the Distinguished Ser t vice Order, this company, which is, the ' West Coast, Blenheim and Ma-rlbor wugh 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 celebra tions from which they are not expected to emerge for three days. Unique Distinction. It is believed that the distinction won by this single company is without edent. The South Island, of course, lias further cause tor pride in the fact that the third Victoria Cross was gain ed by Hulme. Moreover, the citations, particularly of 2nd Lieutenant Upham and Sergeant Huhne are regarded, as extraordinary in that they set out a series of incidents everv one of which is worthy of some decoration. . The most-staggering thing'of all was that from the time his battalion was in Servin Pass in Northern Greece to the end of the Crete battle, Lieutenant Upham suffered from severe dysentery. By al! the rules he should have been classed as mili‘ 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 whenevei they were able to obtain it. "lie came out of. Crete like a walking skeleton.” said his commander. “The only thing that kept him going was his indomitable will.” V.C.’s Creed. / Lieutenant Upham’s creed seems to be thrtt a soldier’s job is never done till he dies. -'He- saw so little unusual in his own exploits .that the. account form lug the citation had to be pieced gradu-

ally and painstakingly together. He was genuinely distressed at being singled out for distinction and I know lie 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 fortu nate 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 speak, 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 h-is final “I would like' the Government to know it is impossible to send too much tobacco to our troops here.” Act of Defiance. Little was known here of the glorious act of defiance which won Ser geant 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 de feat 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 Lieu tenant Upham, Sergeant Huhne and the rest, he is what we have been able, to describe only as ‘‘a fair dinkum New Zealander.” Sergeapt Kirk, who received the D.C.M., in the recent list of -immedi ate 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. Com mantling 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.