Operation Varsity Case Study

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 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

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.

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.

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 Germans had deployed the 352nd infantry division in a defensive doctrine on Omaha beach , Normandy. In hopes of

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 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.

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).

at German lines which scattered the very land that the allies needed to storm with

On 17 December, 1944, five German divisions were able to push through the VIII Corps’ defensive line 100 miles east of Bastogne nullifying

IV.The other group of men were tasked with scaling the cliffs of Point Du Hoc to destroy 155 mm guns.

German Blitzkrieg War This essay will argue and talk about The Blitzkrieg War and how to it was successful and unsuccessful and how it was used, what it was, what it relied on, advantages, disadvantages and drawbacks to the German army Blitzkrieg means “Lightning war” (History.com) It is an innovative military tactic first used and designed by the germans during World War II and it was a tactic based on agility speed and jolt. It relied on light tank units to supported by planes and infantry (soldiers on feet). It was a tactic based on Alfred von Schlieffen's ‘Schlieffen's Plan, (History.com) this was to quickly take victory.

Introduction Operation Market Garden took place in Arnhem, Netherlands on 17 September 1944, lasted nine days, and involved three airborne divisions, an armored division, two infantry divisions, an armored brigade, and over an estimated 80,000 German infantry and armor . This operation would go on to be known as the largest airborne operation in history and for its failure to achieve its goals and the tremendous cost in lives and equipment. The failures during several key points of the undertaking both before and during execution would undermine the operation and doom it to failure. When discussing this event it considers what these failings were and how going forward into tomorrow’s battlefields, one can avoid the pitfalls and

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