Operation Varsity
Background
Varsity Facts
Varsity Maps
Books
| Our Other Military Sites |
| World War II |
| Operation Barbarossa 1941 German Invasion of Russia |
| Operation Citadel 1943 The Battle of Kursk |
| Operation Dragoon 1944 Invasion of southern France |
| Operation Varsity 1945 Crossing the Rhine |
| Invasions That Never Were |
| Operation Sealion 1940 German invasion of England |
| Operation Olympic 1945 US invasion of southern Japan |
| Operation Coronet 1946 US invasion of northern Japan |
| Special Forces |
| Operation Entebbe 1976 Entebbe Airport Rescue |
| Operation Nimrod 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege |
| British Cold War Operations |
| Operation Musketeer 1956 Suez Crisis |
| Operation Corporate 1982 Falklands War |
| Operation Black Buck 1982 Vulcan raids on Port Stanley |
| Operation Granby 1990-91 Persian Gulf |
| British Post Cold War |
| Operation Herrick 2002- Afghanistan |
| Operation Varsity > Background |
Background to Operation Varsity
By March 1945, the war in Europe seemed to be within sight of its ends. Western Allied forces were within Western Germany, and Soviet forces were attacking towards Berlin from the East.
However, there still remained the question of how to bring the war to a successful conclusion, within the minimum of Allied casualties. This issue was especially acute, because even at this late stage of the war the Germans had demonstrated that they could offer determined (sometimes fanatical) resistance in battles such as Operation Market Garden, and could even counterattack dangerously at times (the Battle of the Bulge). Moreover, in the West, a formidable obstacle blocked the advance into Northern Germany: the River Rhine.
The solution ultimately adopted to cross the Rhine by the Allies was to make use of their powerful airborne forces: In Operation Varsity, two entire airborne divisions landed behind enemy lines, while ground forces of the British 21st Army Group advanced towards them.
Previous large-scale airborne operations by both the Germans (Crete) and Allies (D-Day, Operation Market Garden) has frequently resulted in excessive casualties, and difficulties in seizing objectives, so lessons learned from these battles were implemented in Operation Varsity:
- The airborne forces were given relatively limited objectives.
- The distance that airborne forces were dropped from ground forces was kept
to a minimum.
- Parachute drops took place in daylight. While it was judged (correctly) that this would increase casualties, this approach was taken as night drops had led to very widely scattered paratroopers who had trouble reaching their objectives.
