Operation Varsity

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Operation Varsity (24 March 1945) was a successful airborne forces operation launched by Allied forces toward the end of World War II. Involving more than 16,000 paratroopers and several thousand aircraft, it is the largest airborne operation ever conducted on a single day and in one location. 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...

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