THE ASSAULT ON EUROPE 

Bastogne and VARSITY 

Despite the bitter experience of MARKET-GARDEN, gliders successfully relieved troops cut off in enemy territory on more than one occasion. During late December 1944, Brig. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe command-ed soldiers surrounded at Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. McAuliffe achieved immortality for his defiant “Nuts!” in response to German demands for his surrender. Meanwhile, McAuliffe’s battered command included five hundred badly wounded men; gas, ammunition, and rations continued to dwindle as it became questionable whether General Patton’s relief forces could break through in time. While Patton’s advance remained hours away, U.S. glider pilots launched a res-cue mission through intense German ground fire and flak to deliver sup-plies and medical teams to keep the Bastogne forces in the fight. Subsequent parachute drops supplied the troops around Bastogne until relief columns finally arrived. 

One more large paratroop operation remained—Operation VARSITY, directed at Wesel, an industrial city on the Rhine at the mouth of the Lippe River. Field Marshal Montgomery’s main forces planned to cross the Rhine nearby, so the Wesel area’s bridges and transport network rep-resented a key military objective. But before Montgomery’s extensive planning and labored execution took place in the north, units of advancing U.S. forces to the south already had taken the bridge at Remagen and forced their way across the Rhine at other points. Operation VARSITY was later much criticized as an unnecessary operation. Even so, its conduct demonstrated a level of maturity in the planning and execution of air-borne warfare. 

The 17th Airborne Division, representing the U.S. contingent, now boasted greater strengths in parachute platoons as well as glider companies. Planners inserted a third battalion for the glider company regiment. There was increased firepower throughout, including glider battalions that landed with Jeeps and 105-mm howitzers, and other units equipped with new weapons like 57-mm and 75-mm recoilless rifles. The latter helped resolve a significant problem in the ability of airborne units to deal with enemy armor. Troop transports and glider pilots planned operations from a considerable reservoir of large-action experience in the western European arena. Based on accumulated operational confidence, many tow air-planes pulled two gliders in their wake. Troop Carrier Command employed a new version of the C–46 Commando, equipped with doors on each side of its fuselage, a feature that allowed paratroopers to jump simultaneously from both sides of the aircraft. The opportunity to unload parachute troops over enemy territory in one-half the usual time for each transport enhanced survival of the airplane and also enhanced the concentration of troops on landing. A number of factors influenced the decision to jump during daylight, but the bitter memories of MARKET-GARDEN clearly played a role in the final plan to launch a nighttime river crossing followed by the airborne assault not long after sunrise. 

VARSITY’s aerial action began during the morning of March 24, 1945. Covered by some eight hundred fighters, 1,696 transports and 1,348 gliders flew over the landing zone, a long line of aircraft that took two and one-half hours to complete their paratroop drops and glider deliveries. During the day, another two thousand fighters provided air cover for resupply sorties that included 240 Liberators which dropped more than 580 tons of supplies. The initial glider landings provided assault troops with 695 vehicles and 113 pieces of artillery. Despite fierce resistance from some German units and comparatively high casualty rates among the attacking Allied forces, most objectives were taken within a few hours. By nightfall, British ground troops had made contact with the airborne forces and the attack on Wesel had succeeded. 

Forty-four transports and fifteen Liberators were destroyed in VARSITY operations, attempting to resupply the airborne troops. The 17th Airborne lost 159 men with 522 wounded; the British 6 Airborne listed 347 dead and 731 wounded. By comparison, two U.S. infantry divisions that crossed the Rhine in the same operation had 44 dead and 450 wounded. Airborne assaults remained highly vulnerable to effectively directed enemy fire. At the same time, the sight of so many airplanes in the air and the effective concentration of airborne forces in a visibly successful attack against an entrenched enemy position generated great enthusiasm from Allied observers. Taking place beyond the Rhine, along with additional Allied thrusts across the river, Operation VARSITY underscored the accelerating collapse of Nazi Germany and a rising confidence in victory for the Allies in western Europe.