Towards the end of World War II Operation Varsity took place at Wessel, Germany which involved more than 16,000 paratroopers and several thousands of aircraft. The goal of this operation was to help secure multiple locations along the Northern portion of the Rhine River to allow the Allied forces to secure a foothold in Western Germany and then peruse Northern Germany. Operation Varsity was designed to assist the surface river assault troops cross the river with minimal impact on ground troops. The design of Operation Varsity was to air drop three divisions of U.S. XVIII Airborne Corps, the 13 Airborne Division, the British 6th, and the 17 Airborne Division, to secure essential locations and disrupt German forces. In doing this they would …show more content…
By 1345 the Division reported up that it had secured all of its objectives including to secure Schnappenberg. The 5th Parachute Battalion, 6th Airborne Division landed on drop Zone B but not as easily as the 8th Parachute Battalion due low visibility. They were also engage with shell fire and mortaring by German soldiers stationed nearby and located in nearby farms and homes. The 7th Parachute Battalion soon landed after that and cleared the drop zone of the opposition. The 12th and 13th Parachute Battalion landed and completed the rest of the objectives. They then moved east to secure a location close to Schnappenberg and engaged German forces. At 1530 they also had reported that they had secured their objectives. The 6th Air landing Brigade was tasked with landing in company sized groups and completing multiple objectives to include the town of Hamminkeln. They landed in in Landing Zones P, O, U and R and were engaged with heavy anti-aircraft fire in addition to heavy haze and smoke in the area. Due to this many of the planes either landed in the wrong areas or crashed however they still accomplished their mission of securing three bridges over the Issel …show more content…
All objectives of this operation had been met and were met within a 48 hour period. All together the Allied forces had 2700 casualties during the fight but claimed to have taken over 2000 prisoners of war. Because of Operation Varsity “by 27 March, twelve bridges suitable for heavy armor had been installed over the Rhine and the Allies had 14 divisions on the east bank of the river, penetrating up to 10 miles.” In hindsight the airborne operation would have had less causality if the operation had been conducted at night rather than in daylight. The other consideration that was taken into account is that the operation had been performed with on two thirds of the original troops which put them at a disadvantage due to a lack of
They were part of the raid on an enemy airfield and factories in Romily sue Seine. The 91st had planned a massive scale attack to take out some of Germany’s best fighter battalions. During that mission, the bombs that were dropped destroyed over 100 enemy fighter planes, multiple hangars, and it was reported that it blew up the officer’s mess hall during lunchtime. This was a huge victory for the allies but it came at a cost for the 91st bombing group, as German fighters reportedly shot six of the B-17’s down. The mission was over 6 hours and the crews were over enemy territory for over two and a half hours. The crew’s journal and flight log cited that they were followed by groups of Luftwaffe fighters and relentlessly attacked for over an
This was to be a joint operation between British, French and American forces. Though it was not the actual boundaries, the Meuse River and the Argonne Forrest restricted much of the U.S. 1st Army’s maneuverability between them. This area was comprised of a very dense and thick vegetation with few roads for heavy equipment and supplies to flow forth once the offensive began; therefore this was to be used to the Allied Powers advantage. The Germans would be attacked all along the front from British, French, and American forces simultaneously.
The specific contributions combat engineers made during this operation primarily came from within the 82nd Airborne Division. Under the leadership of Brigadier General (BG) James Gavin, his paratroopers were tasked with dropping in northeast Netherlands to secure bridges at the towns of Grave and Nijmegan. The 82nd Airborne Division’s primary target was securing the bridges at Nijmegan to facilitate the Allied Forces XXX Corps, who would be arriving through Nijmegan to a town called Arnhem. Arnhem was a town that laid on the German / Dutch border. Allied Intelligence determined that two SS Panzer Divisions of German forces occupied that town.
The initial airborne drops caught the Germans totally by surprise, and there was little resistance. MG Urquhart, later wrote that “ever since the first landing, General Bittrich commander of the II SS Panzer Corps and his staff had expected the British second lift.'' He also wrote that the Germans had provided early
The Germans had deployed the 352nd infantry division in a defensive doctrine on Omaha beach , Normandy. In hopes of
This involved getting British tanks across the Rhine River and into Germany so that the Allies could continue their push against the Germans (Ambrose 179). After only ten days in Holland, the operation had ultimately failed. The failure was attributed with the Allies being outmanned, fighting elite German troops, and bad coordination between American infantry and British tanks (Ambrose 213). The rest of their time in Holland was spent on the front line. Eventually, they got to return to France to rest, and after awhile, were sent into Bastogne, Belgium to help with a counterattack against the Germans, who had surrounded the Allies as a part of the Battle of the Bulge.
In the spring of 1918 the German army began an offensive to break through allied lines and ultimately end the war. The spring offensive was meant “to push the [British Expeditionary Force] off the continent and then deal with France separately before significant numbers of Americans could arrive in Europe and tip the manpower balance decisively in the Allies favor.” (Zebecki 43) In order to successfully accomplish this task Germany decided that it needed a diversion in the south in order to draw French reserves out of Flanders and weaken the Allies in the north. The original plan of the Germans was that of a limited attack of only 13 miles. The Germans “[were] certain that the French would panic and pull their reserves out of Flanders.” (Zebecki 43) When the Germans advanced 13 miles on May 27th, Pétain ordered 16 division to block
“The battle [is also] known by different names. The Germans [called it] ‘Operation Watch on the Rhine’, while the French [called] it ‘Battle of the Ardennes’. [American and Britain] called it the Ardennes Counteroffensive.” The main goal for the Germans for this offensive was to split the British and American forces in half and capture the port city of Antwerp. This would “cause an encirclement of four allied armies and [force] a peace negotiation” (Cirillo). The Germans almost had complete surprise when the offensive was launched on “December 16th, 1944, at 05:30” and the offensive start with “an artillery barrage of over 1,600 artillery pieces.” The assault took place across an “80 mile front [that] the 6th Panzer Army had to cover” (Quarrie 1). “The attack was led by one of the best equipped German divisions on the western front, the 1st SS Panzer Division.” This was the lead unit for the 6th Panzer Army and was the lead division for the assault. The 26th Infantry was covering the part of the front where the push started. They were caught completely by surprise. “Equipped with only 32 M4 tanks, 57 anti-tank guns and thousands of battle-weary men” (MacDonald 1). The initial assault went well for the Germans and they break through the thinly defended American lines. Just “20 hours in [from the start of the assault] German forces are just 55 miles out from their objective”. By this time the casualty rate is below from what the
The plan for Juno Beach was to be completed in five phases. Preceding the main invasion, the Canadians three airborne divisions were given the assignment to land first. The 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and the 2nd Armoured Brigade would work under the British Army. They were to land in brigades consisting of combat engineers, units who worked with specialized vehicles. Major General Keller commanded over 20,000 men and overseen the operation of 200 tanks and other military vehicles. Carpiquet Airport was the main objective for the Canadian 3rd Division of Canadian infantry. Canadian Parachute Battalion and 6th British Airborne Division worked together to secure the areas around Orne and Dives Rivers.
On 17 December, 1944, five German divisions were able to push through the VIII Corps’ defensive line 100 miles east of Bastogne nullifying
Hitler’s Watch on the Rheine offensive depended on his three armies, the Fifth Panzer Army in the north, the Sixth Panzer Army in the center and the 7th Army in the south. The German War Machine included 400,000 troops, 1,400 tanks, 2,600 artillery pieces and 1,000 aircraft in comparison to the thin American line consisting of four American Infantry Divisions and one Armored Division totally 83,000 men and 400 tanks (Farrell 37). Despite an overwhelming Wehrmacht (German Army) and their extensive knowledge of terrain and an elaborate plan to infiltrate Allied lines through the use of espionage,
The first troops deployed into battle were paratroopers. Over thirteen thousand U.S. paratroopers were dropped by an armada of C-47s behind German lines before dawn. Their mission was to seize bridges, disrupt communications, and prevent German soldiers from reinforcing the Normandy beaches as the Allied assault hit the coastline (Alberecht). Heavy cloud coverage made for difficult navigation and forced many of the paratroopers to jump “blind”. This resulted in them being scattered over a 100-square mile radius. Thirty-five percent of these soldiers landed at their designated drop point, while many others died when they landed in fields flooded by the Germans. Despite all of this, the remaining troops were able to secure their intended positions (Dry).
IV.The other group of men were tasked with scaling the cliffs of Point Du Hoc to destroy 155 mm guns.
It took place in the Second phase of the battle. The main objective of this attack was to capture the Gheluvelt Plateau. This would bring the Allies closer to the final objective of Passchendaele village. The attack was launched at 5:40 am on the 20th of September and good progress was made. There was some trouble with snipers and machine guns early on in the advance but progress continued at a steady rate. As a result of this progress the Allies had achieved their final objective of the capture of the Wilhelm Line by around noon of that day. The result of this successful attack was that all of the high ground around the Menin Road which had been fought over for months, had all been captured by the Allies. In the attack and repeated counter attacks by the Germans heavy losses were sustained by both sides. The final figure was 25,000 German casualties compared to 20,255 Allied casualties this proved to be a very costly loss for the
12000 aircraft supported the land invasion force, the plan was to divide the German forces, to ease the landing on the beaches. The paratroops were suppose to be dropped off in a small aria between the city, which was occupied by Germans, and the swamp aria, which was purposely flooded by the Germans, and flank them. The movie did an amazing job in reproducing this event. Due to the bad weather the man got scattered all over the place, people fell into wells, landed in trees, fell through the roofs, and many had drowned in the swamp. One part of the movie shows an English solder landing in a courtyard full of German solders. He was immediately apprehended and taken to German