The Star: August 20, 2020

Deans Ave Ave
Rolleston Ave
Thursday August 20 2020 The Star
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
9
Charles Upham short-changed?
During his research, he went on
a pilgrimage to Upham’s old battlegrounds
in Crete and Egypt, as
well as the POW camps at Colditz
and Weinsberg in Germany, and
Modena in Italy.
Scott visited the British Museum
and learned about other VC
winners, all the time thinking,
rather ashamedly, “Charlie did
this before morning tea”.
He also retraced Upham’s
childhood and discovered his
uncle and namesake, Dr Charles
Upham, who took his nephew on
house calls to the Quail Island
leper colony.
The seeds of Upham’s powerful
moral compass and his lifelong
abhorrence of bigotry, pretence
and prejudice were sewn in those
times, Scott believes.
Shy and reluctant to take any
credit, Upham deflected all
praise onto his soldiers and was
“distraught” to discover he’d won
the VC.
“Charlie was locked into a defiant,
bewildered, almost pathological
modesty,” Scott said.
“He didn’t downplay his
achievements so much as wish
vehemently that they would go
away.”
Scott examines the science
behind bravery and even takes a
test on Upham’s behalf to rubbish
claims he was a psychopath.
HERO: Double VC winner
Charles Upham is hailed as
one of the greatest soldiers
of World War 2.
“If you distilled everything that
was good in a New Zealand male
at that time, Charlie would’ve been
the champagne or brandy you
would’ve produced,” Scott said.
“He just seemed to sum up that
Kiwi doggedness, resolve and
self-effacement.”
Extract from Searching
for Charlie by Tom Scott:
From Chapter 11 – Perfect
pandemonium
Galatas is nothing like the
picture I had of it in my mind’s
eye. I ignored clues to the
contrary in every book I read
on Crete and imprinted in
my memory it was a cluster of
houses on a flat rural road.
I could never figure out why
Charlie’s platoon participated in
a bayonet charge to recapture it.
This changed when I saw a road
sign for Galatas and swung my
rental off the national highway
and headed inland to a hilltop
village. A one-way road coiled
like a snake charmer’s python
to the summit where a Greek
Orthodox church overlooked
a small square. To the east
farmhouses and hilltop mansions
stretched all the way to Chania.
To the south lay the White
Mountains, Cemetery Hill, Prison
Valley and Lake Agia reflecting
HISTORIC: Scott’s
research took him
to Africa and across
Europe, including
Colditz prisoner of
war camp in Leipzig,
Germany.
PHOTO: GETTY
late-afternoon sunlight like a
chrome bumper. To the west,
rolling slopes laced with vineyards
and dotted with olive trees spread
all the way to Maleme airfield, an
air force base and the German
War Cemetery.
After four days of battle, the
Germans owned this coast,
lock, stock and smoking barrel.
To continue their advance into
Chania, the Germans had to first
get past Galatas. That’s why it
mattered. • Turn to page 10
Heading to
Christchurch
Hospital?
DEANS
AVE
CAR PARK
HOSPITAL
SHUTTLE
Deans Ave
CAR PARK
Plan your trip
From August 24 2020, Canterbury
DHB’s free Hospital Shuttle will run
from the new Deans Ave Car RICCARTON Park.
With 200 dedicated patient parks, a sealed surface and
covered stop, the new car park on Deans Ave is available
for patients and visitors seven days a week.
Shuttles run from 7.15am – 8.30pm Monday to Friday,
11am – 8pm weekends. They leave the car park every 15
minutes and stop at both the main hospital reception and
at Outpatients before returning to the Deans Ave Car Park.
Journey time is around 15 minutes and is free of charge.
Riccarton Rd
Shuttle route to
Christchuch Hospital
and Christchurch
Outpatients
Hagley Oval
Christchurch
Botanic Gardens
Ōtākaro/Avon River
Riccarton Ave
Learn more at cdhb.health.nz/parking for full details or call 0800 555 300.
DEANS AVE
CAR PARK
B le nheim Rd
South Hagley Park
Moorhouse Ave
Selwyn St
Hagley Ave
Railway
ln Rd Hagley Ave
St Asaph St
Metro
Sports
Facility
Antigua Street