Better late than never

From the Online Sun. I know it's sappy. Too bad.

Hero s-mitten with guilt

By JOHN COLES

A WAR hero who nicked a young girl’s mittens to keep his trigger finger warm has said sorry—64 years later.

Former sniper Charles Stacey, 84, grabbed the gloves from a Christmas tree as he hid from the Nazis in a family’s home.

The Commando used them throughout the war but has always been wracked with guilt at denying three-year-old Anne Osmundsvaag her present.

When he was invited back to Norway to commemorate the battle he decided to make amends by buying a new pair of mittens. And he was stunned to find Anne, now 67, still living at the same house.

Charles said: “It was an incredible moment. I didn’t even have to explain. When she opened the door she said, ‘I’ve been expecting you. I knew you were going to come’.

“We had a big hug and it was so nice, so warm and natural despite all those years. I gave her the gloves and she put them on. It made me so happy to return them to her. I have completed the circle.”

Charles was just 20 when he hid in Anne’s family home as his unit hammered the Nazis on the snow-swept island of Våsgøy.

During a six-hour strike his unit killed 100 of the enemy and reclaimed the occupied fishing port.

Charles, now a grandad of 11 in Clifton, Bristol, said: “It was bitterly cold with heavy snow and I had problems keeping my fingers warm.

“I spotted the mittens on the Christmas tree and slipped them into my pocket. But I always felt guilty. My conscious is now clear.”

Anne’s brother Andreas said: “We are deeply honoured that Charles has returned to us the little gift he took for all the right reasons.”

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