{"id":58920,"date":"2015-03-26T10:59:56","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T14:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=58920"},"modified":"2015-03-25T19:05:46","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T23:05:46","slug":"70th-anniversary-of-operation-varsity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=58920","title":{"rendered":"70th anniversary of Operation Varsity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Operation<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

Seventy years ago yesterday saw the largest single-day, single drop airborne operation of the Second World War. Divisions of the American (17th Airborne Division), British (6th Airborne Division) and Canadian paratroopers assaulted across the Rheine River to assist in the invasion of Germany. About 17,000 troops dropped during the daylight jump on top of German defenders. Almost 3,000 Allied paratroopers were casualties, 3500 Germans were captured.<\/p>\n

Operation Varsity was considered the most successful airborne operation of the war, mostly because it incorporated the lessons learned on D-Day and Operation Market Garden to secure the area behind the bridgeheads while the ground forces secured the actual bridgehead. <\/p>\n

Many of the casualties occurred among the glider infantry units (including the US 194th Glider Infantry Regiment). Three years later, the Army abandoned the glider concept for delivering troops and equipment into combat. 12 gliders were totally lost to anti-aircraft fire while 140 were damaged. West Virginian Technical Sergeant Clinton M. Hedrick of the glider regiment earned the Medal of Honor posthumously a few days later.<\/p>\n

21 of the aircraft carrying paratroopers were lost before they could deliver their load. 59 others were damaged.<\/p>\n

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