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10725, Sergeant |
Sergeant
Hulme was born at Dunedin, New Zealand, on 24 January 1911, and was 30
years old when the action for which he was awarded The Victoria Cross took
place.
He stalked and killed 33 German snipers. Sergeant Hulme once disguised himself as a German paratrooper and killed a number of the enemy on the outskirts of Galatos.
The citation from the London Gazette dated 14 October 1941 reads:
"On ground overlooking Malene Aerodrome on May 20 and 21, 1941, he personally led parties of his men from the area held by the forward position and destroyed enemy organised parties who had established themselves out in front of our position, from which they brought heavy rifle, machine-gun and mortar fire to bear on our defensive posts.
Numerous snipers in the area were dealt with by Sergeant Hulme personally, and 130 dead were counted here. On May 22, 23 and 24, Sergeant Hulme was continuously going out alone or with one or two men and destroying enemy snipers.
On May 25, when Sergeant Hulme had rejoined his battalion, this unit counter-attacked Galatas Village. The attack was partially held up by a large party of the enemy holding the school, from which they were inflicting heavy casualties on our troops.
Sergeant Hulme went forward alone, threw grenades into the school, and so disorganised the defence that the counter-attack was able to proceed successfully.
On Tuesday, May 27, when our troops were holding a defensive line in Suda Bay during the final retirement, five enemy snipers had worked into position on the hillside overlooking the flank of the battalion line. Sergeant Hulme volunteered to deal with the situation and stalked and killed the snipers in turn. He continued similar work successfully through the day.
On May 28, at Stylos, when an enemy heavy mortar was severely bombing a very important ridge held by the battalion rearguard troops and inflicting severe casualties, Sergeant Hulme, on his own initiative, penetrated the enemy lines, killed the mortar crew of four, put the mortar out of action, and thus materially assisted the withdrawal of the main body through Stylos.
From the enemy mortar position he then worked to the left flank and killed three snipers who were causing concern to the rearguard. This made his score of enemy snipers 33 he stalked and shot.
Shortly afterwards Sergeant Hulme was severely wounded in the shoulder while stalking another sniper. When ordered to the rear, in spite of his wound, he directed traffic under fire and organised stragglers of various units into section groups."
Sergeant Hulme died at Te Puke on 2 September, 1982, and is buried at the Dudley Cemetery, Te Puke, New Zealand.
His Victoria Cross is held at the Queen Elizabeth II Army Memorial Museum, Waiouru, New Zealand.
The medals awarded to Sergeant Hulme are:
Clive Hulme's Medals
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