Hat Trick
80 years ago this week. At the tail end of Operation Varsity near Wesel, Germany, the British 2nd Army and American 9th Army links up with Allied paras and glider troops that had been airmailed to the area three days prior.
Official wartime caption: “Airborne force leap the Rhine. The link-up is complete. 26 March 1945. An Achilles tank destroyer [a U.S. M10 with a QF 17-pounder] on the east bank of the Rhine moves up to link with airborne forces whose abandoned gliders can be seen in the background.”
The glider appears to be a British Hadrian model while the barbed wire could be for an EPOW bullpen, which makes sense as the British 6th Airborne bagged something like 1,500 “Jerries” during the operation. Photo by Christie (Sergeant), No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit, IWM BU 2396
Early in the morning of 24 March 1945, 1,500 American aircraft and gliders carrying two Airborne divisions, one American (9,650 men of the 17th Airborne) and one British (7,220 men of the 6th Airborne including the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion), flew over the Rhine River, completing the hattrick started by the Market Garden and Overlord/Tonga drops in 1944.
17th Airborne Glider Troops wait to board their glider on 24 March 1945 for Operation VARSITY, note the M1919, M1 Garand, and Carbine
Operation Varsity glider troops, note bandage on helmet
Operation Varsity 1945 M1A1 paratrooper folding stocked carbine. Note the bayonet on his leg
As the Normandy and Market Garden drops had been spaced out across several geographic locations, while the Varsity drop was more tightly focused at Hamminkeln-Wesel, it is considered the largest airborne operation ever conducted on a single day and in one location.
It was no walkover, with 49 C-46/47 transports, many packed with men of the 17th, lost to German flak and other casualties across a three-day fight which left 1,346 casualties among the American Sky soldiers while the Brits and Canadians logged at least 1,078.
Sadly, except for a one-minute mention in Band of Brothers, the jump is largely forgotten.