OPERATION VARSITY
Mar 19, 2020
3 minutes
The morning of 24 March was bright and sunny. Operation Varsity, the subsidiary assault of the historic Rhine crossing, was poised to bring in reinforcements for the Allied troops on the eastern bank. Standing on a hilltop behind Xanten with Field Marshal Alan Brooke, Prime Minister Churchill shouted excitedly, “They’re here!” With a great roar overhead appeared 4,000 transport planes, tugs, and gliders of Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway’s XVIII Airborne Corps. In the next ten minutes, more than 8,000 paratroopers of the British 6th and US 17th Airborne Divisions were dropped.
The paratroopers were dropped in
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