Varsity was part of Operation Plunder, the Anglo-American-Canadian effort, led by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, to cross the northern Rhine River and from there enter Northern Germany. To help British ground forces secure a foothold across the Issel and Rhine rivers in western Germany, Varsity landed two airborne divisions on the Rhine's eastern bank near the village of Hamminkeln and the town of Wesel.
Varsity called for dropping a British and an American paratroop division, both of U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, under Major General Matthew B. Ridgway, behind enemy lines in order to capture key territory and generally disrupt German defenses to aid an advance of Allied ground forces. The British 6th Airborne Division was to capture the villages of Schnappenberg and Hamminkeln, clear part of the Diersfordter Wald (Diersfordt Forest) of German forces, and secure three bridges over the River Issel. The U.S. 17th Airborne Division was to capture the village of Diersfordt and clear the rest of the Diersfordter Wald of German forces. The paratroop divisions were to hold the territory they captured until relieved by advancing units of 21st Army Group, and then join in a subsequent general advance into northern Germany.
The operation suffered from several mistakes. Due to pilot error, paratroopers of the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, a regiment of the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, missed their drop zone and landed on a British drop zone instead.
Still, the operation was a success: the paratroopers captured Rhine bridges and secured towns that could have been used by German forces to delay the advance of British ground forces. The two paratroop divisions incurred more than 2,000 casualties, but captured about 3,500 German soldiers and imposed an unknown number of casualties on opposing forces. The operation was the last large-scale Allied airborne operation of World War II and was one of the last European operations of WWII, as the war in Europe ended in early May, just six weeks later.
Background
thumb|The [[Allies of World War II|Allied disposition in western Europe by March 1945]]
By March 1945, the Allied armies had advanced into Germany and had reached the River Rhine. The Rhine was a formidable natural obstacle to the Allied advance, but if breached would allow the Allies to access the North German Plain and ultimately advance on Berlin and other major cities in Northern Germany. Following the Broad Front approach laid out by General Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, it was decided to attempt to breach the Rhine in several areas. Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, commanding the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, devised Operation Plunder, subsequently authorized by Eisenhower, for a Rhine crossing by the forces under his command. Plunder envisioned the British Second Army, under Lieutenant-General Miles C. Dempsey, and the U.S. Ninth Army, under Lieutenant General William Simpson, crossing the Rhine at Rees, Wesel, and an area south of the Lippe Canal.
To ensure that the operation was a success, Montgomery insisted that an airborne component be inserted into the plans for the operation, to support the amphibious assaults that would take place; this was code-named Operation Varsity. Three airborne divisions were initially chosen to participate in the operation, these being the British 6th Airborne Division, the U.S. 13th Airborne Division and the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, all of which were assigned to U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, commanded by Major General Matthew B. Ridgway. One of these airborne formations, the British 6th Airborne Division, commanded by Major-General Eric Bols, was a veteran division; it had taken part in Operation Overlord, the assault on Normandy in June the previous year. However, the U.S. 17th Airborne Division, under Major General William Miley, had been activated only in April 1943 and had arrived in Britain in August 1944, after Operation Overlord had taken place. The division did not participate in Operation Market Garden. It did, however, participate in the Ardennes campaign but had yet to take part in a combat drop.
Prelude
Allied preparation
Operation Varsity was planned with these three airborne divisions in mind, with all three to be dropped behind German lines in support of the 21st Army Group as it conducted its amphibious assaults to breach the Rhine. During the earliest planning stages, it became apparent that the 13th Airborne Division would be unable to participate in the operation, as there were only enough combat transport aircraft in the area to transport two divisions effectively. The operation was then altered to accommodate the two remaining airborne divisions, the British 6th and U.S. 17th Airborne Divisions. The two airborne divisions would be dropped behind German lines, with their objective to land around Wesel and disrupt enemy defences in order to aid the advance of the British Second Army towards Wesel.
However, landing paratroopers, and especially gliders, without the cover of darkness left them exceedingly vulnerable to anti-aircraft fire. The official history of the British Airborne Divisions highlights the cost of this trade-off, stating that of the 416 gliders that landed, only 88 remained undamaged by enemy fire, and that between 20–30 percent of the glider pilots were casualties. Another historian argues that the gliders landing in daylight was a calamity, with the 194th Glider Infantry Regiment having two-thirds of their gliders hit by ground fire and suffering heavy casualties as they landed. the much larger C-46 Commando aircraft employed in the drop received no such modification. This was exacerbated by the C-46's unvented wings, which allowed leaked gasoline to pool at the wing root where it could be ignited by flak or a stray spark. 19 of 72 C-46 aircraft were destroyed during Operation Varsity, and losses of other aircraft types from AA fire were also significant, including 13 gliders shot down, 14 crashed, and 126 damaged; 15 Consolidated B-24 bombers shot down, and 104 damaged; and 30 C-47s shot down and 339 damaged.
Lieutenant-Colonel Otway, who wrote an official history of the British airborne forces during World War II, stated that Operation Varsity highlighted the vulnerability of glider-borne units. While they arrived in complete sub-units and were able to move off more quickly than airborne troops dropped by parachute, the gliders were easy targets for anti-aircraft fire, and short-range small-arms fire once landed; Otway concluded that in any future operations, troops dropped by parachute should secure landing zones prior to the arrival of glider-borne units. By having the landings conducted during daylight to ensure greater accuracy, the Allied planners incurred a far greater casualty rate, particularly amongst the glider-borne elements. The operation also suffered from poor piloting; although better than in the Sicilian and Normandy operations, there were significant failures on the part of the pilots although the drop was conducted in daylight, without the difficulties of darkness. A significant error occurred when the pilots of the transports carrying 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment dropped much of the regiment several miles from their designated drop zones, with the mis-dropped units actually landing in the British landing zones.