From the Sun Online:
Squaddie must get VC
By JOHN KAY
Chief Reporter
THE leading expert on the Victoria Cross last night backed calls for an Iraq hero to get the top gallantry gong.
Military historian Max Arthur has studied all 1,354 VCs ever awarded — and insists that Private Johnston Beharry richly deserves one.
Mr Arthur said of Beharry’s stunning courage in an ambush: “What more does he have to do to win a VC — cut his legs off?
“This was not a war situation but Private Beharry was in a fire-fight and being shot at by an enemy, so it amounts to the same thing. His heroism deserves to be recognised.”
The Sun revealed exclusively how Londoner Beharry, 22, saved 30 comrades by leading a convoy of Warrior personnel carriers through barricades in Al Amarah, after his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
He then pulled his injured commanding officer from the turret while under fire.
Two weeks later Beharry received head wounds while performing a similar feat. His comrades and officers in the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment are convinced he earned a VC.
Mr Arthur agreed: “The criteria for the VC talks of a conspicuous act of bravery. I can’t think of a better case.”
Modest Beharry, recovering in hospital, told a senior officer: “I don’t know what all the fuss is about.”
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