HERO Thomas Whittaker never thought he would survive the War.

Down in a dank hole with a Nazi bomb to defuse the Yorkshireman could at times hear his life ticking away.

As one of the first 12 members of Britain's first ever bomb disposal squad, Sapper Whittaker always expected each day to be his last.

"We knew nothing about bombs; no one knew what a bomb was," said the 84-year-old. "I used to go out to work with two bob and my personal possessions in a parcel and tell someone if I don't come back, send this to my wife."

But having lived through the war, the grandfather of five is having problems surviving in peacetime.

Vandals and thieves are making his life hell, by systematically stripping his garden of plants and shrubs in nine months of raids.

Mr Whittaker, who has only one leg and is diabetic, was taken ill in the early hours of Tuesday, hours after thieves stole the bird table that his son-in-law had made for him.

"You can't stand that for much longer," he said referring to his attack. "On several occasions I have been out of hospital and this has happened."

Vandals recently stole the bird bath from the garden and smashed it in pieces on land behind the Redcar bungalow where he lives with his wife Olive.

"I've had quite a lot of plants stolen and shrubs. You go to bed at night and cannot sleep," he said. "You are worried about what is going to go next and just cannot settle down."

Cleveland Police is appealing for anyone with information about the thefts to ring the Force's Redcar Resource Centre on (01642) 302626.