6:18am Thursday 17th July 2008
Vandals have attacked a memorial to war heroes from a Hampshire village.
The millennium project was built by Bishopstoke Parish Council to salute those who sacrificed their lives in the two world wars.
But it has been knocked off its support and left lying face down on the ground.
The village authority's insurance company is assessing the damage and it is hoped that it can be repaired.
The attack on the memorial at Riverside has angered community and Royal British Legion leaders.
Shocked' Council chairman Anne Winstanley: "I am shocked that someone should vandalise the memorial which was in memory of the village dead. It has never been touched before.
"There are a few cracks on the stone but we hope it can be repaired."
Norman Brown, chairman of Eastleigh, Chandler's Ford and District Branch of The Royal British Legion, said: "It's disgusting that youngsters have got no respect for the ones who gave their lives so they could have their liberty."
He said that if the offenders were caught they should do two or three years in the armed services.
The memorial stone is close to a roll of honour inscribed with about 60 names from both world wars.
They include the late Vernon Cook who died when HMS Hood, the pride of the Royal Navy's Second World War fleet, was sunk by the German battleship Bismark in 1941, with the loss of all but three of her crew of 1,419.
A police spokesman said the vandalism was being investigated.
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