Grandma had spent her life telling herself her father escaped...until she saw his headstone in the cemetery

CALLUM Reid places the medals won by his great-grandfather on the D-Day hero's headstone, fulfilling a family promise.

- Giles Sheldrick

Sgt James Dargie, 33, was killed on July 16, 1944, and now rests alongside 1,627 other bravehearts at Saint-Manvieu War Cemetery, near Caen, northern France.

The Royal Artillery soldier was hit by direct mortar fire in the battle for Hill 112, a strategic stronghold, as part of Operation Jupiter in the bloody slog to free Nazi-occupied France during the Second World War.

Sgt Dargie was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, the France and Germany Star, the 1939-1945 Commemorative War Medal (France), the Defence Medal, and the Territorial Army Medal.

But until his great-grandson paid an emotional visit to the military graveyard yesterday, the awards had never returned to the killing fields where they were won.

Keeping a pledge to one day reunite the hero with his medals, chartered accountant Callum, 28, from Glasgow, said: "Saint Manvieu holds particular significance because my great-grandfather left behind a wife and four young children, my grandma being the second oldest at eight.