OPERATION VARSITY

'Operation Varsity' was an airborne operation towards the end of World War II, intended to gain a foothold across the River Rhine in western Germany as a part of Operation Plunder. It involved two divisions and 1,700 transport aircraft. This was the single largest airborne drop in history, and is used at West Point as "the" example of how an airborne operation should be executed.

Contents

Overview

Order of battle

Units

Aircraft

Outcome

Objectives

Casualties

Appearances in Popular Culture

External links

Overview

The operation took place on 24 March, 1945, led by the British 6th Airborne Division (including Canadian troops) with Lt. R.M. Nelson, KIA leading a small company across the River Maas, and the US 17th Airborne Division, in concert with a ground offensive. The US 82nd Airborne Division had originally been scheduled to participate in the jump as well until a shortage of transport aircraft forced the use of just two divisions. For the first time C-46 Commando transport aircraft (one group) operated with the reliable C-47 Skytrain used in previous airborne operations. In all 4,978 British and 9,387 American troops were either dropped or flown in.
Called "perhaps the most successful Allied airborne operation in Europe" it demonstrated primarily that extremely weak opposition is the only real guarantee in war. The German estimations of their own forces before the battle, were merely "twenty-six infantrymen, one to two artillery pieces, and less than one antitank gun" per kilometer of front. Their northern army group possessed less than 200 armored vehicles. German Army Group G in the South was still worse off. German air forces were almost absent.
Even so, losses in aircraft were not insignificant: of the 72 C-46s of the 313th Troop Carrier Group assigned to drop on Drop Zone B, 20 were shot down or otherwise lost to anti-aircraft fire, a loss ratio of 28%, although all but one completed their paratroop drop. Although the C-46, which equipped only one of the 14 groups of IX Troop Carrier Command, was exceptionally vulnerable due to its high inflammability, the overall loss rate for the troop carriers in Varsity was 5%, totalling 46 troop carrier planes.
Even so, gathering resistance to the crossing over the next three days caused nearly three thousand allied casualties.

Order of battle

Units

★ US XVIII Airborne Corps

★
★ British 6th Airborne Division

★
★
★ 6 Parachute Battalions, 5 British, 1 Canadian

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★
★ Air Landing Brigade

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★ US 17th Airborne Division

★
★
★ 6 parachute battalions

Aircraft

★ C-47 Skytrain ("Dakota"): 540

★ C-46 Commando: 72

★ Gliders: 1,300

★
★ Airspeed Horsa :392

★
★ General Aircraft Hamilcar: 14

★
★ Waco/Hadrian

Outcome

Objectives

All objectives for the brigade had been achieved in 24 hours; the bridges over the river were secured and the village of Hamminkeln, near Wesel. The division was joined by ground forces of the 21st Army Group.

Casualties

★ After the first day 1,078 men of the 6th Airborne Division had been either killed or wounded.

★ 50 aircraft and 11 gliders shot down.

★ 60% of British glider pilots killed were from the RAF

Appearances in Popular Culture

★ Captain Lewis Nixon of the 506th PIR 101st Airborne (of TV miniseries ''Band of Brothers'' fame) was involved in the operation. The plane he was in was shot down and only he and 3 others made it out, while the rest died. Nixon was the jump-master. He was sent along as an observer. This made Nixon one of only two men in the 101st to have three stars on their jump wings, the other two being D-Day and Operation Market-Garden.

★ The Operation's opening drop and initial stages make up the final two levels in the game ''. The first level begins with character Frank Keegan jumping from his C-47 with the rest of the 17th Airborne Division. On landing he is attacked by Germans and has to survive until he conquers the last stage of the level, the bunkers and trenches. The second level starts with Frank Keegan escaping the bunkers and attacking the German-occupied factory where he destroys tanks, infantry, and a massive counterattack.

★ Operation Varsity one of the missions in '' as well.

External links

★ Operation Varsity

★ US Army in World War II, Forrest C. Pogue

★ Operation Varsity: Allied Airborne Assault Over the Rhine River article by Bart Hagerman