A WAR hero's statue has been stolen from his family's VE Day tribute display outside their home in Lockeridge.

The statue is from the Operation Market Garden museum in Arnhem, and holds huge sentimental value to his family.

"I would obviously like the statue back," said grandson Jon Davidson.

"It means a lot to my family and and probably means nothing to the person or people that took it. They obviously know where I live if they read this and decide to return it."

He said the 18 inch high statue was from the last trip his grandfather Corporal John Davidson made to Arnhem before he died in 2013. He would revisit Arnhem every year after VE Day.

"I heard a car pull up outside, and felt something was wrong. Other cars had slowed to have a look, but I heard voices, and they sounded wrong. I went out to look and saw the statue had been taken.

"I got in my car and tried to follow them," he said. "But they had gone and I couldn't find them. We are obviously upset, but I didn't want my son Josh to worry or be angry.

"I said to him that we should feel sorry for people who do this kind of thing. There is something wrong with them and we should feel sorry for them."

Corporal John Davidson was captured after fighting in Arnhem on the same day his son was born. His wife didn’t know he had been captured and spent months not knowing he was alive until word was passed on via radio that he had been captured and was a prisoner of war. They were treated very badly and he spent a year rehabilitating after VE Day.

"My son Joshua and I put the display outside celebrate and commemorate VE Day," said John.

"His school, Kennet Valley Primary School, encouraged people to send in pictures of what they had done.

"I did think twice about putting things that are so personally valuable outside but I thought with the current lockdown situation and spirit everyone is showing and the fact it was the 75th anniversary, we should do something special to remember his great grandad and the sacrifices his generation made.

"It's something my family are very committed to with both grandads serving throughout World War II.

"John was captured after nine days of fighting in Arnhem when the contingent that was left in Oosterbeek were ordered to retreat over the river and the Germans over-ran his position.

"I was hoping to pass the statue on to my children when they grow older."

Operation Market Garden (September 17–25, 1944) was an Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in World War II and Corporal Davidson played a heroic role in it

It was the largest airborne operation of all time.

Its objective was to capture three key bridges that would enable Allied armour to strike on to the Zuider Zee, thus cutting off the enemy in Western Holland and allowing troops to face east for the advance into Germany.

If the operation was successful, the war could be over by Christmas, substantially shortening World War II and saving thousands of lives.

As the operation began, soldiers who were engaged in the battles along the line of the Meuse-Escaut Canal gazing upwards into the sky on Sunday 17th September, saw hundreds of aircraft and gliders, part of the airborne fleet which had flown over from England to attack objectives at Eindhoven, Grave, Nijmegen and Arnhem.

In one of those Horsa gliders was Corporal John Davidson, serving with the 7th KOSB Parachute Regiment, part of the 1st Airborne Division tasked with securing the final bridge at Arnhem.

The 7th KOSB, the only Scottish regiment in 1st Airborne Division, was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel R Payton Reid. It was the battalion’s first, and last action in the war.

The Borderers set out in gliders from airfields at Down Ampney and Blakehill Farm, near the county boundary line of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, at 10am on 17th. There was ground mist, and some of the gliders released their tow ropes to avoid accidents.

Corporal Davidson flew from Blakehill Farm in the first lift to Arnhem, one of 12 Horsa gliders leading for LZ S which took Battalion HQ, part of HQ Company, A Company, and part of Support Company.

Prior to taking off he sent a letter to his wife who was expecting her first child letting her know that they were departing in a major operation, and although they couldn’t say where it was, she would know all about it by the time she received the letter.

The other gliders of the battalion made a good flight across the North Sea and soon sighted the Dutch islands which were partly under the sea. These floods had been caused by Allied bombs which had blown holes in the sea dykes.

Against only the lightest of small arms fire, the Borderers’ gliders reached the landing zone at 1:30pm. Eight of the gliders were missing. Some of the gliders made bad landings and the vehicles they were carrying could not be disentangled from the wreckage. One of these included an anti tank team commanded by Sergeant George Barton who, with Henry McClusky, attached themselves to Corporal Davidson's gun after their Horsa glider crashed on Ginkel Common.

George Barton commanded a gun crew in the 7th KOSB's Anti-Tank Group, and he flew in a Horsa glider (No.221) from Down Ampney on Sunday 17th, carrying a Jeep, a 6pounder anti-tank gun, and its ammunition. His glider reached the Landing Zone at about 13:40, but entered a steep dive as it cast off. George recalled that the glider climbed for a moment, and then there was a loud bang and the glider came to a dead stop. With one pilot dead and the other badly injured, Barton and McClusky administered morphine to the injured pilot and then attached themselves to Corporal Davidson's gun.

The Borderers crouching in their shattered Dutch houses with plaster and bricks falling around them, heard the news in the afternoon of the 25th September. “We are pulling out tonight.”

Corporal Davidson, posted upstairs in one of the houses, was unaware the retreat had been ordered. When he checked downstairs, he found the wounded soldiers who had been left behind and decided to move them into the cellar with the Dutch family, hoping they would remain undetected as the Germans over ran the now undefended positions. He was forced to surrender when the Germans discovered the cellar some time later.

The journey to the prisoner-of-war camps was an ordeal, with little or no food and the most primitive transport.

Only 2,163 members of the 1st Airborne Division came back from Arnhem. Their casualties in killed, wounded and missing totalled 7,000. When the men of 7th KOSB held a roll call in Nijmegen their parade state showed four officers and 72 other ranks, from a total strength of 740 that entered Arnhem.