A hero betrayed

Eric Vaughan served as a Commando in Normandy, the largest seaborne invasion the world has seen. He had lost comrades in Italy and lost more in this campaign. After the war he went home to Wales and a job in a factory. Now, aged 94, he revisited Normandy for the first time, sharing his memories with his wife Beryl. Then a phone call told them their little house had been ransacked in their absence. They hurried back. This is a tale of our times. Burglary is always nasty, but this seemed like treachery – to hit at a man who’d offered all for his country. Dante kept a deep part of hell for traitors. “I’m glad I took my medals with me and they weren’t taken,” Mr Vaughan said. “Some of the younger ones, who have probably never worked, just see life differently from us,” Mrs Vaughan said. This crime shows how bad that is.