THE BIBLE sits, nestling in pink tissue paper and cocooned in a wooden box. Occasionally Linda Wolfe will lovingly touch it.

For on the book's leather cover is inscribed the name of her American father, Boyd Klingerman.

And this is the first time, since she was orphaned at the age of 11, that Linda, 55, the daughter of a Southampton land girl, has held anything that belonged to her parents.

War hero Corporal Klingerman lost the Bible while fighting with the 116th infantry regiment in Saint-Lo in Normandy in the days that followed the D-Day landings in June 1944.

Last weekend it was given back to his daughter Linda from Idaho, USA, by Frenchman Henri Levaufre at an informal ceremony in Periers, Calvados. M Levaufre had patiently tracked Linda down in a search that took several years.

"It was wonderful but it was very emotional," she said.

"When Henri presented me with the bible we were both crying. It shows that, even though war is not a good thing, it has some beautiful parts and there's some good in the world."

Cpl Klingerman received a purple heart and two silver stars for gallantry in action during his service in Europe at the end of the Second World War. He led his unit to safety on the Normandy beaches after their platoon sergeant was killed, and he later captured six Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge. The year before, while posted in Britain, he met and married Southampton land girl Doris Bartlett. When he was invalided back to the America, Doris went with him and the couple had two children, Linda and Sandy. Sadly the D-Day hero never recovered from the traumas of war and he died in September 1960 aged just 37.

Broken-hearted Doris died a year later of cancer when just 36.

Linda and Sandy were brought up in orphanages and by foster parents in America who cut the girls' links with their Southampton family. Linda was only reunited with them in 1981 after her aunt Betty Hatch, who lives in Thornhill, saw a letter in the Southern Daily Echo.

"When mum and dad died the people taking care of us got rid of everything from them," recalled Linda.

"I feel so much pain for my parents because they had to suffer. I know my dad was a wonderful and very brave man.

"After all these years I've got something that's near and dear to my heart and I'm sure was dear to his."