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Very goods points and shouldn't have been launched . No reason to make easy targets out of paratroopers.The Wehrmacht was surrendering rather than be cap. Patton/Hodges and the 291st engineers already crossed 70 miles down south 2 days earlier
It's a good thing Operation Sealion was never launched. He might be trying to describe German airborne operations near Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Well the kerigsmarine lost a lot of its surface fleet in Norway so they would have lost the rest of it and it wouldn’t be long before Captain Mainearing Sergeant Wilson and Private Pike onion the invaders to death (see Dad’s Army season 6 episode 4 ‘We know our onions’
Lord Blackadder: don’t go to Wales, you need half a pint of phlegm to pronounce the place names , don’t ask for directions in wales you’ll be washing spit out of your hair for a week .
If Japan had been invaded, Varsity would now be seen as an important preparation for the momentous project of Operation Olympic and even Coronet in 1946. In fact, units from Varsity were shifted to the Pacific soon afterward.
The only reason I knew about this operation is because it's briefly mentioned in Band of Brothers as an operation that Nixon took part in, and now I finally got a grasp of it thanks to this video, thanks Chris!
iirc it was a rather grim experience for Nixon, as only he and three others got out before the plane took a direct hit (it had a troop capacity of about 40 plus the crew)
I just looked up the C-46s fire issues and Jesus Christ, there were 31 unexplained mid air explosions in 2 years. Turns out fire was the least of their worries. Fuel would spill from small leaks in the tanks and fuel system then pool, this is already bad but to make it worse the wings were unvented during the war. This would literally make your wings a fuel air explosive that'd detonate from the slightest spark. Now imagine your flying that in an airborne assault getting sprayed by small arms, Autocannon HEF-I and HEI-T streaking across the sky, and heavy AA bursting all around peppering you with fragmentation. I'm actually surprised more of them didn't turn into fuel air explosives.
I remember reading somewhere that while jets went their tanks in order to prevent the buildup of explosive fumes, in contrast to jet fuel (kerosene) aviation gasoline, like "normal" car gasoline, is so volatile that if you'd vent it you'd soon have no fuel left. Thus gasoline powered aircraft don't vent, but instead the volatility of the fuel instead causes the vapor in the tank to be rich enough that it's above the ignition limit (well, hopefully...). Of course, shooting holes in the tanks, particularly with incendiary rounds, is something to be strongly avoided. Or do you mean the wings themselves, not the fuel tanks in the wings? Yeah, that sounds reasonable. As an aside, the switch to a very much significantly safer fuel was one of the side benefits when we entered the jet age.
The military bought two aircraft from Curtiss on spec: the SB2C Helldiver and the C-46 Commando. Both were full of design flaws that were still being fixed even as they entered combat units. Both eventually went on to provide yeoman service, however. Curtis also built some P-47s (razorbacks designated as "G" models) under license for Republic, but they were considered unfit for operational units. Ironically, I believe the only two currently flyable "razorback" P-47s are Curtiss built P-47Gs.
I hated history in high school. It was essentially a database of names, dates and places to be recited on command, found in mouldy old books presided over by desiccated old teachers. Where I grew up it seemed to be a never ending pageant about the British monarchy (and I didn't live anywhere near the UK). I escaped at the first opportunity and never again took any formal history training. Instead I learned to appreciate it myself thanks to an interest in building model aeroplanes, which led to reading aircraft books which led to a fascination with wider history, on my own terms. What my teachers somehow missed at school is that history is first and foremost about stories, many of them quite remarkable. I've heard it described as 'the stories we tell each other about the past'. It needs to be seen and to be heard in photographs and moving footage where possible. Voices reflecting different or conflicting perspectives of the same objects and events should be allowed to speak. This is especially important with a technical subject like military aviation. IMHO this channel is a good example of how the stories from the past can be told and lessons learned so we hopefully don't repeat the mistakes of our forebears. Thanks Chris.
Thanks so much! I agree, much of high school for me also involved nothing but memorising dates, names and events. Makes it convienent to grade but it doesn't teach anything in the line of analysis, Interpretation and research.
History in school stands and falls with the teacher. I had some pretty good history teachers, although the topics weren't necessarily interesting - back then. The "really interesting stuff" - military history that is - was left out. These days I try to understand politics as well, since one doesn't come without the other. Underline the word "try". 🙂 I went the same way as you did; we played a lot of Playmobil - Romans vs Carthage - as kids in the late 70s. All very improvised and self-made of course. But that brought me into classic antiquity. Later I did model aircraft and tanks as well - literally hundreds of them, all 1/72 - which brought me to WW1 and 2, Korean War and Vietnam era ... History is an evolving process. The things we learnt in the past might have been incomplete or even wrong, so you can never say "I've seen it all now". There's always a new aspect or an alternative way to watch things.
Indeed - the facts are important, but they are only a skeleton for further analysis, and I quite agree with you even as a Brit. I did do a degree that was partially history, but it was so much more interesting as it was about analysis, whether a truth could be established or overturned, whether sources were reliable and so on.I've seen how the current generation get taught now in the UK - it is so much better, being about themes and topics.
My dad was in the 17th Airborne, 513 PIR, Co. D. Saw action in the Battle of the Bulge, and the Rhine crossing. He was on the boat for Japan when they surrendered.
@@Uncle_Neil the deniers should ask Japanese children starving at the time due to 80% of their merchant fleet being sunk. Brittain feared being cut off by U-boats, but the American submarines did achieve this with Japan, who were even more dependend on oversea food imports. Without nukes, a famine would ravage the population before the first landing ship came in sight. What Japan NEEDED was an excuse, a reason strong enough to break the spell that the first six months of victory cast upon them. The firebombing of Tokyo caused more deaths then Hiroshima, destroyed more houses, but it made no impact on the war spirit. The ONLY thing that saved both the Marines and the Japanese population was the fact that this was just a single bomb, and that made it scary. It's kinda like being stabbed with a menacing halberd with all kinds of sharp extensions makes you more dead then being stabbed with a simple bayonet... But let's be glad it looked so scary, it saved your dad and many, many others
@@sjonnieplayfull5859 The Nuclear Attacks gave the Emperor an excuse to force the Japanese military to accept surrender with only one term (Emperor stays head of state). Before that the Military had hoped to do so much damage to an Allied invasion that it would have forced the Allies to accept a very conditional surrender that would have saved the necks of the Japanese military top brass who knew that the Allies would treat them as the war criminals they were. It took two bombs to do it, the first to prove that the US had built it and the second to prove that the US had more than one of them (as the Japanese knew a Nuclear weapon was possible, but doubted anybody could produce enough Fissile metal for anything more than one bomb in the time that the war lasted. Even then, there was an attempted Coup to stop the Emperor from throwing in the towel.
@@richardvernon317 I read the book "Sunk", which was written by a Japanese ww2 sub commander. Even though almost all their subs were sunk, their sub tenders were sunk and their Pacific Bases lost, he claims No One considered surrender. They were attacking ships with kamikaze mini subs, and when the order to surrender came through, they didn't believe it at first. Some sub commanders wanted to fight on. Only the realization that a single bomb had been used on each city made them accept that continuing was impossible.
I know about Varsity from playing Medal of Honour: Vanguard back in 2005 when i was 6 years old. Its the last mission in the game after Husky Neptune & Market Garden. It really is a rarely talked about battle, thnx for bringing that memory back up good times :)
Loved that game, I played it after MoH airborne (perhaps the most unrealistic portrayal of varsity in media) its "operation varsity" mission had you drop into a factory complex and then fight soldiers from a german armoured train that reinforced the germans in said factory, then destroy said train. Its previous missions (bar avalanche which the 82nd never took part in) weren't quite so bad with historical accuracy, not a hard feat tho.
One of the drivers for both Market Garden and Varsity was the existence of the Airborne Army in the allied land forces. A highly trained force that was increasingly seen as a wasting asset, numerous airborne plans having been cancelled due to the rapid advance during the summer and fall of '44. Airborne generals, American and British, wanted them to be used as parachutists and not a reserve force for their respective armies. They pressed for a significant airborne action.
One good example of the disregard or unappreciative attitude towards Airborne forces was the treatment of the British 6th Airborne which dropped into Normandy for the D-DAY invasion. While the American Airborne divisions were withdrawn in about a month, the British 6th Airborne was kept in line, serving as regular infantry, suffering numerous casualties, until the Allied breakout from Normandy at the end of August 1944. A terrible waste of specially trained soldiers, but British manpower shortages meant that there was no regular infantry division to take their place. British manpower shortages were such that they were forced to break up one infantry division at the end of August, and a second one in October, to provide replacements to keep other divisions up to strength. It's probable that part of the push for Market-Garden came from the desire by British Airborne commanders to get the 1st Airborne and 52nd Air Landing divisions into action before they got thrown into ground combat.
A man I worked with 40 years ago was in this operation as a paratrooper. It was his first combat experience. I don't know if he jumped or came in by glider. He took a camera, which was strictly not allowed! He had an album of excellent black and white photos. Mostly troops just after landing, collapsing chutes, collecting gear and moving out across the fields.
I would have loved to see those pictures. I am glad someone took pictures. It appears not many pictures/videos were taken. My dad told me many of the correspondents died on the way down.
Little fact for Band of Brothers fans: Lewis Nixon (Winter's Vat 69 loving friend) went off as an observer and jumped in Operation Varsity. His plane was hit and only he and 3 others got out. I think it maybe gets a very brief passing mention in the series.
I remember hearing about this operation in the past, but I never really knew much about it until now. Neat to not only learn about it but hear of the losses involved
I was raised with my grandfather and he received the Silver Star Medal for his actions while with the 17th . He never spoke of it and there is very little documentation of the 17th compared to the 82nd and 101st. Thank you for your work.
I walked part of the battlefield today; I’ll tell you that the Issel River, over which the airborne divisions were to seize a number of bridges, is little more than an irrigation ditch. It pales in comparison to the Main River, which Patton had to cross not long after crossing the Rhine at Nierstein.
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I can recommend the Rhineland 45 serie. Very nice work with some excellent external experts. The book on the series is also nice and helped me to put my recent visit to the region in perspective. Next time Chris can do a Video about Eastfreasean villages. Like "Stikelkamperfehn" or "Rechtsupweg", much simpler.
An informative look into an operation that is generally overlooked. Even I didn't know about before Real Time History's Rhineland 45 series. Learned a lot new, particularly about the C-46. So much I didn't know. Excellent video Chris.
Hi, the post WW2 war awareness in the 16th Parachutes Brigade the story told to us grunts was that the Rhine Crossing Operation was the most successful of all the Airborne Ops. Compare to say the drop into Larissa after the war to try and separate the Greek Royalists from the Communists where the Paras had to drop in high winds goes to show you that if the enemy doesn’t kill you nature will! I must be one of the oldest guys left who actually served with the blokes that jumped into Arnhem. No, they didn’t want to talk about it! Cheers mate. Harera
Thank you for sharing this story about operation Varsity . I have heard about this operation , but never looked in to it. It was mentioned in Band of Brothers , as Nix was part of the operation but not a lot of detail was given. Thank you again for doing a video on this not well known operation of the Airborne troops!!
C-46s had been in service for like 2 years already as transport planes (the British used the prototypes to supply Malta even before). Most of the "Hump" missions across the Himalaya were flown with C-46s. However, Varsity was their debut as a paratrooper aircraft
I am a history teacher in Missouri, Missouri was settled in part (pre-Revolutionary War) by French settlers, so there are A LOT of French (and Spanish lol) town names, my biggest pet peeve was over the Missouri town of Versailles (locally pronounced as Ver-SALE-Z) and then having my students use the same pronunciation for the French Palace and the WWI Treaty lol., we cant even decide as a state if our state name should be with an EE or and UH on the end lol, so I feel your pain.
@@rogersmith7396 - I appreciate the quality of those pencils, but have no interest in visiting the factory. Also, how the residence of Cairo, IL, pronounce their town.
With the wisdom of hindsight it may appear to have been unnecessary but it was clearly seen as vital at the time and that is the only thing that matters here really.
Only reason I know about Operation Varsity is Medal of Honor made 2 games with it. I'm sure I've been exposed to it many more time as I played a lot of WW2 games, watched TV shows/movies/Docs, get bored and spend hours on Wikipedia, etc. But it really is a forgotten moment in WW2. You never really think of big airborne jumps into Germany, it's just Market Garden, hold the Ardennes, then... Only other time I really remember hearing about it was in Band of Brothers, when Nixon's character returns to Easy after being assigned as an observer to the 17th. He's ranting about how pointless it was and that he has to write all the families saying they died heros when they didn't even make it off the plane. They took a direct hit and only him and 3 others made it out. But even then it happened off screen.
Without the benefit of hindsight, it was probably necessary. The Rhine looked like a major obstacle, and the allies would be entering the economic heartland of Germany, so no surprise that there could be a tendency towards overkill. As for the problems and losses, it still seems like Operation Varsity was the best planned and executed airborne operation of WWII.
@@MusMasi Yes, much better. Helped establish a bridgehead right in the heart of western Germany, on the path to the Ruhr, with relatively less casualties. Germans had a pyrrhic victory at what was a sideshow from their perspective (with Barbarossa being the paramount priority). For killed and missing, the Germans lost 3,094 paratroopers and 580 mountain troops, according to Anthony Beevor. Aircrew for the German invasion came to 312. Wounded was another 2,594. Roughly that adds up to 29.85% casualties of the 22,040 involved in the operation. Again, for a sideshow in the view of the Germans. Not big on Wikipedia, but total casualties for the Allies appear to have been around the range of 2,378-2,700... That seems to come to about 16% casualties of a force of 16,870, on a strategic front, and axis of advance.
Without the benefit of hindsight? Patton tossed the 5th Infantry Division across the Rhine several days before the beginning of Varsity. Varsity was typical Montgomery, overdone and without a real idea of the actuality of the situation (Trying to make a major drive down one single road as in Market-Garden).
@@davidbriggs7365 Yes. And I don't see that at variance from Eisenhower's view of moving on a broad front, of Patton's advance taking away from the work of Montgomery, with Operation Varsity / Operation Plunder taking place north of the Ruhr, the much touted German industrial heartland (still a key industrial region). Don't think anything could be done "overdone" in that kind of intensive international conflict, that took on the tone of total war in many places. It was not unreasonable to be concerned with confronting much shortened supply lines, a major river barrier, and potentially large numbers of fanatical troops ...
The drops during the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria were probably the best. The Soviets managed to capture an area the size of Western Europe in all of 11 days, and that speed was maintained in part because of Soviet Para's capturing airfields which allowed supplies (critically fuel) to be airlifted in right to the tip of the spear, and the Para's capturing some key cities allowing the motorized/mechanized/armored forces to move through rapidly. The Soviet invasion of Manchurian often gets overlooked, but at the time it scared the crap out of both the Japanese and the Western Allies for how shockingly effective the Red Army had performed.
I visited here in 2006 and walked the ground guided by a Horsa glider pilot. They landed on open ground around 50m from an 88 gun pit and were immediately fired upon. The glider troops formed up quickly and charged the position. The Co-pilot was shot in the face and his false teeth flew out ( the pilot was making jokes about this). As they got to the last 10m the Germans in the gun pit threw their hands up to surrender. In the words of the pilot it was too late for that and they were killed. He was implicit that they were killed in hot blood and not cold blood. He mentioned all the different types of troops they encountered as at this time in the war Germany was pulling in troops from all branches. He said most were willing to surrender after brief resistance as they knew the war was ending but there was a few Hitler youth who would fight bitterly to the end. The glider pilot was one of the few to have landed at Sicily, Normandy, Market Garden and Varsity.
To be perfectly frank, I don't think any massed airborne assault went particularly well, either Allied or German after the first few months of WWII and the drops in the Low Countries. The huge casualties suffered during the attack on Crete meant the Fallschirmjäger were withdrawn from any future airborne assaults and fought strictly as elite ground troops thereafter. The Allied Airborne assaults also suffered a high casualty rate in most of their missions as well, although this was largely due to large numbers of very effective and well practiced AA batteries, following the Allied bombing campaign, destroying the transports and gliders in the air, before the troops inside got chance to deploy.
Such operations are inherently risky. I think Varsity does show how part of the risk was reduced (as much as could be done based on the area, objectives and previous experience allowed) but that, yet again, even the best plans do not survive contact with the enemy.
The reason why Crete nearly became a disaster was chiefly that the allies knew the exact plan of operation "Mercury". Easy to place your reserves and AA guns in the right place if you KNOW the right place 😆
I think large scale airborne assaults are inherently going to result in high casualties. But there can be huge value in that sacrifice. Crete is a perfect example as, despite all the issues, the island was taken by the air assault. The British had already ordered a withdrawal before the Italians landed by sea and a major reason they managed to land after the Germans failed twice was that the Royal Navy was redeployed to evacuate the island so it couldn't intercept the Italian transports. And the Germans were extremely lucky that their landing forces weren't slaughtered at sea. The Royal Navy intercepted both attempts. The first was saved by a single Italian torpedo boat going toe to toe with seven British warships buying time for the Germans to escape. And the second were saved by mass Luftwaffe attacks (and arguably a bad decision by the British to pull back rather than diving in among the transports and using the Germany infantry as human shields). In all likelihood a naval only assault on Crete would have been a complete disaster. Maybe the Luftwaffe bombing eventually forces them out, but it would leave a nice threatening position to the British for some time.
@@88porpoise "But there can be huge value in that sacrifice." No, just plain no. Consider what the qualifications were demanded of airborne troopers (enlisted and commissioned) and the brain drain on the the Army as a whole should have made these operations forbidden. The OSS proved that jumping in small numbers of agents could occupy large numbers of Axis forces. Supporting guerilla organizations, via air dropped supplies, is astounding. Well led guerillas could and did demand the Axis field six to eight soldiers for every guerilla; The USMC learned that in the Banana Wars between the world wars.
@@danielburgess7785 your argument about qualifications and "brain drain" makes no sense. The airborne operations at Crete, Sicily, Normandy, the Netherlands, and the Rhine were not merely to occupy the German forces but to secure key objectives ahead of ground forces. This remains a key role in offensive operations, particularly in the modern day. Bridges, airfields, and other key infrastructure that are vital to offensive operations can be and are intended to be secured by airborne forces, allowing armored and mechanized forces to advance into the enemy depth.
It is a real mystery why Eisenhower approved this operation! The Operation Market Garden was a total disaster for the British airborne community where the British 1st Airborne Division was virtually wiped out at Arnhem. Montgomery had certainly over promised and under delivered. I am sure this was fresh in the mind of Matt Ridgeway when he expressed reservations about Varsity. My understanding is that Montgomery again wanted to use both the 82nd and the 101st American Airborne divisions as part of Varsity but had to make due with the 17th which had minimum combat time except for the 507th which jumped into Normandy with the 82nd. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to hear what Maxwell Taylor and James Gavin’s reactions were when Ridgeway approached them to discuss as you know he most certainly would have!
Something that would be interesting to see would be a comparison of all airborne operations in WW2 (German, Soviet, Allied) to see how effective they were as a whole and the lessons various armies learned!
The Russians also had an Airborne operations that was such a failure that supposedly for years they pretty much disappeared it from their military history. Airborne operations really only began in 1940, and large scale ones ended in 1945. I think most Allied Generals, who's military careers stretched back into WW1, never really understood or fully appreciated Airborne warfare. To them, Airborne units were either a gimmick, or a waste of resources without a comparable return. They were like an expensive specialized tool that sat uselessly on a shelf, that could only be used under very special circumstances. I've read somewhere the suggestion that the Allied Airborne Army was like a new, shiny coin in the pocket of Allied commanders, eager to spend it. Having created their Airborne units, they were anxious to use them, which may explain the push for both Market-Garden and Varsity.
It wasn't unlike Montgomery to throw airborne into impossible situations. He had done it before and left the XXX corps in place even though he neglected to force his commanders to move at the speed laid out in the planning of Market Garden. Patton would have fired a subordinate and probably tried to court marshell them for their inadequacy as a commander.
Bismarck, given your extensive knowledge on various airborne assaults in history what do you think the results of a modern air drop would be like against a peer or near-peer force? A complete bloodbath, successful disaster, or acceptable success?
That's like comparing the taste of apples and apple trees, its been 70 years he is not an expert in modern airborne tactics, why expect him to be? Also the answer is complete bloodbath, due to the prevalence of SAM missles and batteries, these would need to be neutralized first, which as Russia's attempts in Ukraine have shown us is far easier said than done. The last major airborne operation that I know of, which is well documented was the 173rd's jump into Iraq in gulf war 2, it went swimmingly due to massive technological advantages and support from local kurdish rebel groups
@@isbee56 the VDV landing at Hostomel showed us the troops can get in, the issue was it was so remote from the land forces, they got defeated in detail
@@korona3103 although that shows us that it is occasionally possible but not at all ideal especially unsupported, I would argue considering the massive size of the VDV the small amount and fairly small scale of combat jumps in Ukraine shows an unwillingness to conduct operations, likely due to a fear of the type of weapons I mentioned.
Due to the comparatively small sizes of armed forces (compared to WWII), it is possible to select objective that are attainable and worthwhile. For instance, if there were conflict between Russia and the USA, the USA could deploy an Airborne Brigade to cut the Trans-Siberian Railroad where there are (virtually) no defenses (ground or SAM) cutting off the Logistics and reinforcements for the key port city of Vladivostok. The USA could choose a location difficult for Russian mechanized forces to operate; not to mention they would have to de-train dozens, possibly hundreds of kilometers from the USA Airhead. This is what was envisioned by Benjamin Franklin, who (as I recall) said, "What Prince could defend against a force of 10,000 men, as if they descended from the sky?" Russia's failed paratrooper assault on the outskirts of Kiev failed because it was too similar to the Russian attack upon Kabul, Afghanistan in 1979 that succeeded in "decapitating" the Afghan govt. Unfortunately for the Russians, the Ukrainians are well aware of that Russian operational gambit. A Russian airborne operation into Germany would have a better chance of success IF they were to select an objective unanticipated by NATO, with a limited objective of unhinging the NATO line of defense. Or, back during the Cold War, if they attacked one or more POMCUS sites, choosing to sacrifice a Paratrooper or "Dessant" Brigade to severely disrupt the deployment of one or more "Heavy" Divisions of the US Army. Communist China might be able to significantly disrupt the Taiwanese armed forces if they employed their paratroopers as the US Airborne divisions were inadvertently deployed in Normandy on June 6th 1944. Many to the US paratroopers were scattered so badly the Germans couldn't understand what the Allied Objectives were, and thus the Germans were "paralyzed" or sent their forces off against "Will-o-Wisps" it was Not the US Army's Plan, however, US Paratroopers were inculcated to use their initiative and if they couldn't attack their assigned objectives, go off and Attack some objective! (Some US paratroopers attacked objectives well outside of their objectives near the Allied beachheads. The problem is China has never employed paratroopers, and their Doctrine (and military mentality) compels their soldiers, including officers to adhere to Orders. Ironically Chinese Communist Guerillas displayed initiative, but since the 1960's the Communist Party is more concerned about the Chines PLA ("People's Liberation Army") displaying initiative rather than Strict Adherence to the Party! Because some units of the PLA refused to use Deadly Force upon the peaceful protesters at Tiananmen Square some 40 years ago, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is even more obsessed with Obedience over efficiency of the PLA!
During Desert Sheild/Desert Storm the Iraqi armed forces had to take into account that the US Marines could land anywhere within 200 km of the coast by "Vertical Envelopment" (Helicopters) and the US Army (and Allied) Paratroopers could penetrate even deeper, seizing oil refineries, air bases, logistics sites, etc. The MSR (Main Supply Route) for the Iraqi Army was the highway from Basra to Kuwait City, very close to the coast. The USA did consider amphibious and/or airborne landings, however, the mere threat of such operations tied down more than a dozen to twenty Iraqi Divisions (~200,000 troops). (Admittedly some were lower quality troops, but several divisions were quite competent, Saddam had to be able count on several of them to be able to conduct effective counter-attacks; based upon experiences in the Iran-Iraq War 1979-1988.) The USA used the 101st (Airborne) (Air Assault) {Helicopters} to secure their open left flank. They used vertical insertions to establish re-arming-refueling points for Attack Helicopters that could be set up almost anywhere. The Iraqis couldn't defend everywhere, and each node could be defended by determined "crack" infantry, supported by artillery lifted in, as well as attack helicopters and other aircraft. The paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne used HMMWVs and other light trucks to drive in and reinforce the 101st Divisions outposts! Airborne (and Amphibious) forces compel an enemy to "try to defend everything" allowing Armored/Mechanized forces to concentrate against a weak point(s) in the enemy defenses. As well as an option to seize undefended or lightly defended objectives are among the advantages of having a credible force of Paratroopers, Marines, and Helicopter inserted forces.
I noticed in one of the still photos, that the C-47 "Skytrain/Dakota" glider tow aircraft had some kind of under-fuselage apparatus. At first I thought, bomb load, but rejected that idea immediately. Thinking about it a little longer, I came to the conclusion that these were the actual tow cable attachment points, probably with a winch to reel in the cables after the gliders were released, so that no other aircraft might collide with said cables and to reduce drag from the cables. I might be wrong, (it happens once or twice), but it seems logical. I'm just having problems finding good photos of this mechanism, if that's what it is. By the way, your, (and Bernhard's), book, "Stuka" is fascinating. I was wondering if there were any plans to write a companion book about American, (or British), dive bombing doctrines? Such a book on the Douglas SBD Dauntless, the North American A-36 Apache, etc. would be great to compare the German reasonings with Allied reasonings. Thanks so much for your channel and your expertise, but mostly, your exceptional research and your ability to break down what different documents actually meant AT THE TIME THEY WERE WRITTEN, as opposed to looking at them today with all the changing doctrines that got in the way in the years between, which might cause a completely different viewpoint depending on who, (and when) they are being read by. Great job. Also, your analysis of current events like, "Will Germany buy the F-35", and your looks at the Ukraine conflict. I also like your programs where you speak with the "experts" to share the actual meanings behind some of the headlines, or clearing up long-held myths about certain historical events, such as the "Midway Campaign", and what the Hornet actually did or didn't do.
If you're talking about the containers just aft of the trailing edge of the wing, but on the belly of the fuselage of the plane. Those are droppable cargo containers.
12:56 I know that it is common in Germanyto talk about the liberation of Germany in 1945. However, France, Belgium and the Netherlands were liberated, but Germany was invaded.
I still remember the last mission of Middle of honour vanguard its was a complete headache clearing German factories with mp 44 and taking out snipers the Germans in that mission were more clever than than the Italians in Sicily missions and throwing grenades like rain old but gold
German is my fourth language, but honestly, I have more trouble pronouncing "Nurnberg" properly than I have pronouncing "Hamminkeln."😉 Great video, very well researched, well prepared and presented. Keep up the great work!😁
@@timgodderis1918 So you'd be Vlaamse, then? I've heard that Dutch and Vlaamse are almost the same language, which is not that surprising given your close proximity. I visited The Netherlands back in 1995 and, being Canadian, I had a truly wonderful time there! The only "problems" I had (if you can call it that) were paying for my food and drinks. Everytime I tried to reach into my pocket to pay for something, I was told, "Keep your money, it's already paid for!"♥️ Sadly, I never really got around to visiting Belgium during my time there. If I ever make it back to Europe again, I'm definitely going to spend some time in Belgium so I can check out all the great cheese, chocolate and beer...especially the beer!😉
@@That70sGuitarist Indeed I am. The language is almost the same , common language that is. Most dialects in Flanders are completely gibberish for the people in the Netherlands though, and the other way around.
@@kiwigrunt330 Don't be silly, English wasn't "invented," it *evolved,* just like every other language on the planet...except for Esperanto, of course, which actually was literally "invented." English evolved from an ancient common Germanic tongue, and as a West Germanic language, it developed alongside and shared many of its roots with Dutch and Flemish. Toss in some leftover Latin from the Roman Britain era, some Norse, Norman and French influences, and "hey presto, voila," you've got the English language as we know it today.🤣
While there is a large variety and number of books that focus on just about every aspect of Market-Garden, Varsity is much less known, and the volume of books on it is quite limited. One of the few I've found is "Crossing the Rhine" by Lloyd Clark, and it only gets around to Varsity in the last two chapters.
Well done again, as usual. I think Monty, having been burned at Market-Garden, would rather err on the side of overkill this time. I think dropping paras so close behind German lines would guarantee heavy losses, as flak density would be higher the closer to the front and lower (generally) the further away from the front a DZ was.
Perhaps "ln" is a difficult consonant blend for you to pronounce? "Hamm-in-k-eln. Tip of tongue touching the palate and a low engine roar for the "l" sound , and then move all of the tongue up to close off the palate and resonate through the nose for "n". Everyone has consonant blends that are harder for them to produce. We are just glad that you didn't let this one interfere with your enjoyment of reading, and that you are able to show such courage in orally sharing your cool old and new aviation stories with us. I had known about the problems with the C-46 wings in relation to their participation in flying over the Himalayas to supply China, but did not know that these problems also showed their ugly head during Operation Varsity. I look forward to your posting on this aircraft. A bigger question for me is, what happened to Curtis Aircraft in the '40's? Seems like everything they designed after the P-40 either tanked or had horrible development problems.
I knew the C46 was used to carry supplies across the Himalaya mountains, but didnt know they were this bad at carry airborne troopers. Cant wait for the full video on it!
The lack of self dealing fuel tanks and the ability of leaking fuel to pool in the wing roots sounds like really poor engineering and design work. The reason the C-46s were used on the Hump is because they were pressurized aircraft capable of high altitude operations. Of all the aircraft to enter US service most of the bad ones were Curtiss's
I think anyone discussing whether Operation Varsity was a necessary airborne operation or not has to honestly consider the two German infantry divisions they encountered and fought on the ground. They must also include the German flak crews. The ground assault without benefit of the airborne forces would have faced an additional two divisions on top of what they encountered that day with all the defenders focused and fighting in a single direction instead of being split between what was in front of and behind them. Additionally, with less airborne targets, some flak crews and guns could have been levied in the defense against the ground assault. Thus, in my opinion the airborne assault was justified and essential to level of success of the Rhine crossings just as the airborne assault had been essential to the success of the Normandy landings by tying up defenses that could have otherwise been used to significant effect.
Dear Bismarck, I assume you tested the video with A/B titles. When I saw it in my subscription box almost a week ago it had a different title at least. Evidently I did click on it, but I do want to mention that I prefer the other title. The video was good in any case. Cheers!
My great grandfather served in the 6th airlanding brigade as part of the glider pilot regiment in operation varsity, he was a massive glider nut his whole life and I've still got one of his oil paintings of a Stirling towing a horsa
The Adult Warrant Officer in my ATC Squadron in the early 1980's also flew a Horsa on Varsity, however he was RAF. After Market Garden, the GPR was so short of pilots that 1500 RAF pilots were seconded to the GPR. Les Hudson was one of them. He wore Pilots Wings on his ATC Uniform in the 1980's which saw him get saluted a lot while on the camps on RAF stations as most of the erks thought he was a commissioned officer. Unfortunately he died in 1984, so I never got around to ask him what aircraft serial he flew. One story he did tell us about the operation was after landing he basically hid in a ditch. while doing so, he saw a group of US troops try to move across the middle of a field while under machine gun fire. None of them made it to the other side.
The C-46 proved entirely unsuitable for opposed airborne operations because they lacked the self-sealing fuel tank that the C-47 had. Ridgeway was said to have told his superiors that the 101st would never again jump from C-46s.
Great video as always. The term allied liberation of Germany sounds a bit strange. We had to cherish the soviet liberators of ours for 45years. Was not rather occupation or conquest?
As a Dutchie my instinct in pronouncing Hamminkeln (which isn't far from the Dutch border) is to place an e between the l and the n at the end, just as the Dutch wikipedia says the Dutch name is. Then emphasize the second syllable and make the forth syllable with the inserted e as short as possible. But that is just me.
Ham Inn Kelln Thanks. Now I know a bit more than I did before. Yeah ... I couldn't imagine Monty crossing the Rhine without an airborne operation. Here he was returning to form and making sure he couldn't lose. I can certainly see why the Allies expected a stronger reaction from the Germans - they just didn't have one left in them. .
And no mention whatsoever of the fact that the American Army had ALREADY crossed the Rhine twice BEFORE Operation Varsity began, once by the First Army, which captured the Bridge at Remagen, and the Third Army which put the 5th Infantry Division over at least a day before the beginning of Operation Varsity. Operation Varsity might have been necessary four months earlier, but the Ardennes Offensive had cut the heart out of German reinforcements. Put those same troops used in the Ardennes Offensive behind the Rhine and Varsity might have been necessary, but not in March 1945.
Exactly IKE kept propping up the fraud Monty. Unfortunately this he had to do as to give the Russians a bold look so they would not attempt to go any further. privately he knew Britain had much better commanders
@@bigwoody4704 I disagree that Monty was a fraud, he wasn't, but he was a product of the British military of World War Two and its lack of depth in the upper echelons of command. Monty was out of his depth as an Army or Army Group Commander, but use him as a Corps Commander and he'd do great. However, because of both various casualties (dead, and captured) and Churchillian interference in leadership (he kept firing Generals who refused to listen to him) the British were close to scrapping the bottom of the barrel with regard to the upper echelons of command (both the British Army and Royal Navy suffered from this; the Royal Navy kept using select Admirals simply because there were not replacements up to the job), and so it finally fell on Monty's shoulders.
He lied incessantly not only about his plans but about his accomplishments and those of others. Churchill should have left both O'Connor and Auchinleck alone in the desert it was his interferring that made problems both men won long before monty arrived
Excellent reporting. Liked, subscribed, joined. Nice to see you have now sponsorship from the _Naval Institute Press_ . Good outfit (and I'm saying that as a retired Marine Officer/Naval Aviator).
I am from the area and there are some absolutely crazy urban legends about Churchill who at the time was there on the left-hand side of the Rhine to observe the operation. The ruins of the old railway bridge in Wesel are still there today.
Im living in Hamminkeln and my Father said that morale and fighting power of the german troops were also low at this point of the war. This Operation were not necessary and absolutely oversized. Greetings from LZ O
Hi. I’ve been to Hamminkeln many times, my grandfather dropped in on DZ B. All of the veterans I’ve spoken to over the years all told me it was necessary. I think the main point being that getting over the Rhine North of the Ruhr had to be achieved, also the Issel is a tank stopper, so infact the Issel crossings being captured were the most important aspect. If the ground troops had got over the Rhine and advanced over the fields towards Hamminkeln without those crossings in Allied hands the bridges would’ve been blown and Artillery could’ve been bright down on the static vehicles.
Excellent mini-documentary Buffalo Airways of Ice Pilots fame still flies the Curtiss C-46 Commando as a freighter up in Yellowknife, Canada. I would like to hear what the Indian, Kenyans etc. were doing at the time. India contributed 2 million soldiers but almost never gets mentioned.
One thing I missed in this vid: WHAT exactly did they achieve? They captured ground, ok, but what targets did they capture? Any bridges that would have been blown? Any supply depots that would be usefull? Any reinforcements that saw their path blocked? Bold statement: Allied intelligence failed as hard here as with Market Garden! There they underestimated the Germans, here they overestimated them, by about as much. The only good thing is that in this case they could no longer be stopped, but they still wasted a lot of lives, material and resources. Thinking the enemy has way more tanks then they actually have can be as bad to your troops as thinking they have less...
I think the greatest issue is a practical one: what do you do with four or so airborne divisions ready for their next operation? Operation Varsity was a waste when considered in a vacuum, but if you don't do Varsity where else can you employ the same forces with a similar calculus of risk/reward? There just aren't a lot of options when the ring is closing on Germany but it retains anti-aircraft defenses capable of disrupting a big, slow airlift.
The Americans eventually had four Airborne divisions (13th, 17th, 82nd, 101st) in Europe, and the British two(1st, 6th). The one thing they never had was sufficient transport assets to deliver them to a battle. Even by the time of Varsity in 1945, they still only had the planes and transports to move only two divisions at once. Varsity was originally supposed to include a second American division, but there weren't enough planes. The Normandy air landings were staggered throughout D-Day. The air landings for Market-Garden were spread out over THREE days. If the Allies had possessed the capability to land all the Market-Garden Airborne units at full strength on day one, the operation might have succeeded. In contrast to their build up of Airborne units, the Allies failed to build and create the necessary air assets. It was, to some degree, an inability to see into the future. To have more planes available for Airborne operations in 1944-45, the Allies needed to be building extra transport planes and training air crews in 1942-43. Military production bureaucrats had to decide priorities. Do they put more resources into fighter planes and bombers, which they know will be useful, or build more transport planes which might be useful for some unknown future Airborne operations?
I could be getting the source wrong, but I think in 82nd Airborne General James M. Gavin's book, "On to Berlin," he criticized this operation. He thought it took too long to organize and lacked the element of surprise. Gavin didn't hold a very high opinion of Montgomery partly because of this operation. Plus, in preparing for Market Garden he saw the landing plan for the 1st British Airborne and knew it was deeply flawed, but he had his own part of Market Garden to worry about at the time. So, his attitude toward Montgomery may have been formed then.
when I saw title, I thought about korean war airborn operations after incheon landing. only rescued a few pow less than 10 and had no contact with fleeing Northkoreans.
I attended the US Army Airborne School in Sept 1994 (class #43-94). The small cinderblock building that we signed into was decorated with with several large painted airborne division patches. I immediately recognized the 101st, 82nd & 11th AB Div patches but did not recognize the 13th & 17th divisions, nor the 187th ARCT (I eventually found my way into the 187th). Seeing those patches (and being a newly-minted airborne infantryman), I wanted to learn everything I could about my new profession & the guys that came before me. Operation Varsity was indeed a useless & stupid waste of paratroopers & materials. AIRBORNE! ALL THE WAY!
Thanks for your service Brian. I'm an old turd now, but I work in the defense industry and I can tell you we are utterly dedicated to making the best weapons for our troops. Make no mistake, this is a great country and deserves our protection. Your sacrifice is much respected.
I joined the US Army in 1983, and went to, and graduated Airborne immediately after Basic and AIT (actually OSUT One Station Unit Training, at Fort Knox, for Cavalry) I was in the 45th Company (Airborne) while at Airborne School (designation(s) of the training units has changed over the years). Airborne! All the Way! And Then Some!
"" Operation Varsity was indeed a useless & stupid waste of paratroopers & materials."" Why is it stupid to use paratroopers in the role they are highly trained for? Rather use them for paratroop operations than waste them like regular ground infantry such as the Ardennes. Elite troops SHOULD be carrying out elite worthy missions no?
G'day, Great stuff Chris ! I had an awareness that Varsity was an expensive Airborne SNAFU..., the final and definitive Allied turnoff from dropping Umbrella SoulDiers and Sailplane SoulDiers into stupid situations - while trying to copy the 1940 Luftwaffe success with the method in Belgium....(!). And I had heard that the C-46 was only tried in Combat the once, before being relegated to "Humping" across the Himalayas while supplying the B-29 Bases in "Chynaa", from India...; but I had NO Idea that Curtiss and the USAAC were sufficiently delusional as to have tried to field anything in Combat in 1944 or '45 which lacked Self-Sealing Fueltanks..., let alone compounding that foolishness by the Wing Skins being set up to conserve otherwise uncontained Fuel, pooling inside the Structure under any Leaking FoolTank... Yikes ! What a Yank Me Doodle ; Grandly...(!) style of a "Plan"... Oh, and, "Hammelkiln"... As a Kangaroo-Feeder, I struggle to underconstumble why you - a native Germanspeaker, could possibly have trouble saying, "Ham - El - Kiln..." My wild guess is that it might indicate, something like..., "Ham In Oven" which might perhaps possibly point at a place which was once either established to, or famous for, the production of Smoked Ham...(!) ? Just(ifiably ?) guessing wildly. Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !
@@phillipsiebold8351 G'day, Cool, thanks. I'm a Kangaroo-feeder, and thus was raised to be a Monoglot ; I squeak, and thunk, in a mixture of Olde Colonial Vernacular, and 'Strine(!)... So you are more likely to be right than my guess .. Have a good one, Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !
As far as large scale WW2 airborne Ops go……I'd argue that Varsity was one of the most successful. At the very least there weren't whole units being massacred (Crete), men and gliders drowning and planes blown out of the sky by friendly AA (Husky), mass scattering of paratroopers (Normandy), or outright clusterfucks (Market Garden). These ops are always gonna be high risk, massive casualty, FUBAR affairs (there's a reason such troops received higher pay than regular boots on thr ground) and it's unlikely that the best planning in the universe could mitigate even half the risks involved. Varsity at least achieved did what it was supposed to and not just '90% successful (lookin at you, Monty..) and most likely took away a portion of the difficulties the ground troops might've faced.
Great video. You ever listen to Wild West Extravaganza podcast? You'll find him to be a fine historian and philosophical humorist. I enjoy your straight forward description of eve
Don't worry, I have it from a good source that Hamminkeln is being twinned with Bielefefeld.... Then it will of course no lomger exist, & you never have to talk about it again!
Chris, RE: Hamminkeln. Sounds to me like you pronounce Hamminkeln as 'Hamminköln'. PS I should like to see Military Aviation History do a series on every airborne drop in history. Each drop gets an episode. What say you?
*The Stukabook is now publicly available! Get it here* stukabook.com
Big thank you to all the crowdfunders who made it possible, y'all be absolute legends
did you say the allied "liberation" of germany...?
did you say, the allied "liberation" of germany...?
You should watch Real Time History's "Forgotten Battle of the Rhine". At 5:13 Jesse Alexander perfectly pronounces Hamminkeln.
Well Mr native speaker smarty pantz, imagine being stuck with the family name of "Schwarzholz"...
Very goods points and shouldn't have been launched . No reason to make easy targets out of paratroopers.The Wehrmacht was surrendering rather than be cap. Patton/Hodges and the 291st engineers already crossed 70 miles down south 2 days earlier
It's a good thing Operation Sealion was never launched. He might be trying to describe German airborne operations near Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
This. This right here.
How about Cairo, IL, which isn't pronounced as Cairo, Egypt is. It's very important that you pronounce it Cairo, not Cairo.
Well the kerigsmarine lost a lot of its surface fleet in Norway so they would have lost the rest of it and it wouldn’t be long before Captain Mainearing Sergeant Wilson and Private Pike onion the invaders to death (see Dad’s Army season 6 episode 4 ‘We know our onions’
Lord Blackadder: don’t go to Wales, you need half a pint of phlegm to pronounce the place names , don’t ask for directions in wales you’ll be washing spit out of your hair for a week .
@@nicholaswalsh4462 Kay-row not Ki-row
If Japan had been invaded, Varsity would now be seen as an important preparation for the momentous project of Operation Olympic and even Coronet in 1946. In fact, units from Varsity were shifted to the Pacific soon afterward.
And it would’ve ended in disaster despite the learnings
@@TheZachary86 Maybe, but you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
@@aloadofbollocks988 Or killing hundreds of 18 year old boys.
@@aloadofbollocks988 That's a lot of broken eggs
@@aloadofbollocks988 yes but you can break to many eggs
The only reason I knew about this operation is because it's briefly mentioned in Band of Brothers as an operation that Nixon took part in, and now I finally got a grasp of it thanks to this video, thanks Chris!
Cheers, Petros!
The first I heard of it was in medal of honor Airborne
Yes! He got his third (?) combat drop ribbon for this. That’s what I thought.
This was true for me also. I thought the last Allied airborne operation in Europe was Market Garden.
iirc it was a rather grim experience for Nixon, as only he and three others got out before the plane took a direct hit (it had a troop capacity of about 40 plus the crew)
I just looked up the C-46s fire issues and Jesus Christ, there were 31 unexplained mid air explosions in 2 years. Turns out fire was the least of their worries.
Fuel would spill from small leaks in the tanks and fuel system then pool, this is already bad but to make it worse the wings were unvented during the war. This would literally make your wings a fuel air explosive that'd detonate from the slightest spark. Now imagine your flying that in an airborne assault getting sprayed by small arms, Autocannon HEF-I and HEI-T streaking across the sky, and heavy AA bursting all around peppering you with fragmentation.
I'm actually surprised more of them didn't turn into fuel air explosives.
I remember reading somewhere that while jets went their tanks in order to prevent the buildup of explosive fumes, in contrast to jet fuel (kerosene) aviation gasoline, like "normal" car gasoline, is so volatile that if you'd vent it you'd soon have no fuel left. Thus gasoline powered aircraft don't vent, but instead the volatility of the fuel instead causes the vapor in the tank to be rich enough that it's above the ignition limit (well, hopefully...). Of course, shooting holes in the tanks, particularly with incendiary rounds, is something to be strongly avoided.
Or do you mean the wings themselves, not the fuel tanks in the wings? Yeah, that sounds reasonable.
As an aside, the switch to a very much significantly safer fuel was one of the side benefits when we entered the jet age.
flying airbombs not transports
Them bullets fixed the problem with unvented wings
Japanese WWII aviators: **sideeyes**
The military bought two aircraft from Curtiss on spec: the SB2C Helldiver and the C-46 Commando. Both were full of design flaws that were still being fixed even as they entered combat units. Both eventually went on to provide yeoman service, however. Curtis also built some P-47s (razorbacks designated as "G" models) under license for Republic, but they were considered unfit for operational units. Ironically, I believe the only two currently flyable "razorback" P-47s are Curtiss built P-47Gs.
I hated history in high school.
It was essentially a database of names, dates and places to be recited on command, found in mouldy old books presided over by desiccated old teachers. Where I grew up it seemed to be a never ending pageant about the British monarchy (and I didn't live anywhere near the UK). I escaped at the first opportunity and never again took any formal history training. Instead I learned to appreciate it myself thanks to an interest in building model aeroplanes, which led to reading aircraft books which led to a fascination with wider history, on my own terms.
What my teachers somehow missed at school is that history is first and foremost about stories, many of them quite remarkable. I've heard it described as 'the stories we tell each other about the past'. It needs to be seen and to be heard in photographs and moving footage where possible. Voices reflecting different or conflicting perspectives of the same objects and events should be allowed to speak. This is especially important with a technical subject like military aviation.
IMHO this channel is a good example of how the stories from the past can be told and lessons learned so we hopefully don't repeat the mistakes of our forebears.
Thanks Chris.
Thanks so much! I agree, much of high school for me also involved nothing but memorising dates, names and events. Makes it convienent to grade but it doesn't teach anything in the line of analysis, Interpretation and research.
Memorizing facts that your government believes is important, no country can resist propagandizing their children... Its sad.
History in school stands and falls with the teacher. I had some pretty good history teachers, although the topics weren't necessarily interesting - back then. The "really interesting stuff" - military history that is - was left out. These days I try to understand politics as well, since one doesn't come without the other. Underline the word "try". 🙂
I went the same way as you did; we played a lot of Playmobil - Romans vs Carthage - as kids in the late 70s. All very improvised and self-made of course. But that brought me into classic antiquity.
Later I did model aircraft and tanks as well - literally hundreds of them, all 1/72 - which brought me to WW1 and 2, Korean War and Vietnam era ...
History is an evolving process. The things we learnt in the past might have been incomplete or even wrong, so you can never say "I've seen it all now". There's always a new aspect or an alternative way to watch things.
@@baronvonslambert
You were fortunate indeed to have teachers who really strived to bring history to life.
Indeed - the facts are important, but they are only a skeleton for further analysis, and I quite agree with you even as a Brit. I did do a degree that was partially history, but it was so much more interesting as it was about analysis, whether a truth could be established or overturned, whether sources were reliable and so on.I've seen how the current generation get taught now in the UK - it is so much better, being about themes and topics.
My dad was in the 17th Airborne, 513 PIR, Co. D. Saw action in the Battle of the Bulge, and the Rhine crossing. He was on the boat for Japan when they surrendered.
So was my father...was Hiroshima necessary? Ask a Marine.
@@Uncle_Neil the deniers should ask Japanese children starving at the time due to 80% of their merchant fleet being sunk. Brittain feared being cut off by U-boats, but the American submarines did achieve this with Japan, who were even more dependend on oversea food imports. Without nukes, a famine would ravage the population before the first landing ship came in sight.
What Japan NEEDED was an excuse, a reason strong enough to break the spell that the first six months of victory cast upon them. The firebombing of Tokyo caused more deaths then Hiroshima, destroyed more houses, but it made no impact on the war spirit. The ONLY thing that saved both the Marines and the Japanese population was the fact that this was just a single bomb, and that made it scary. It's kinda like being stabbed with a menacing halberd with all kinds of sharp extensions makes you more dead then being stabbed with a simple bayonet...
But let's be glad it looked so scary, it saved your dad and many, many others
@@sjonnieplayfull5859 The Nuclear Attacks gave the Emperor an excuse to force the Japanese military to accept surrender with only one term (Emperor stays head of state). Before that the Military had hoped to do so much damage to an Allied invasion that it would have forced the Allies to accept a very conditional surrender that would have saved the necks of the Japanese military top brass who knew that the Allies would treat them as the war criminals they were. It took two bombs to do it, the first to prove that the US had built it and the second to prove that the US had more than one of them (as the Japanese knew a Nuclear weapon was possible, but doubted anybody could produce enough Fissile metal for anything more than one bomb in the time that the war lasted. Even then, there was an attempted Coup to stop the Emperor from throwing in the towel.
@@richardvernon317
I read the book "Sunk", which was written by a Japanese ww2 sub commander. Even though almost all their subs were sunk, their sub tenders were sunk and their Pacific Bases lost, he claims No One considered surrender. They were attacking ships with kamikaze mini subs, and when the order to surrender came through, they didn't believe it at first. Some sub commanders wanted to fight on. Only the realization that a single bomb had been used on each city made them accept that continuing was impossible.
sjohnny playfull
Also add in those civilians who were dying each day in areas of Japanese occupation from China down to Java.
I know about Varsity from playing Medal of Honour: Vanguard back in 2005 when i was 6 years old. Its the last mission in the game after Husky Neptune & Market Garden. It really is a rarely talked about battle, thnx for bringing that memory back up good times :)
Loved that game, I played it after MoH airborne (perhaps the most unrealistic portrayal of varsity in media) its "operation varsity" mission had you drop into a factory complex and then fight soldiers from a german armoured train that reinforced the germans in said factory, then destroy said train. Its previous missions (bar avalanche which the 82nd never took part in) weren't quite so bad with historical accuracy, not a hard feat tho.
One of the drivers for both Market Garden and Varsity was the existence of the Airborne Army in the allied land forces. A highly trained force that was increasingly seen as a wasting asset, numerous airborne plans having been cancelled due to the rapid advance during the summer and fall of '44. Airborne generals, American and British, wanted them to be used as parachutists and not a reserve force for their respective armies. They pressed for a significant airborne action.
One good example of the disregard or unappreciative attitude towards Airborne forces was the treatment of the British 6th Airborne which dropped into Normandy for the D-DAY invasion. While the American Airborne divisions were withdrawn in about a month, the British 6th Airborne was kept in line, serving as regular infantry, suffering numerous casualties, until the Allied breakout from Normandy at the end of August 1944. A terrible waste of specially trained soldiers, but British manpower shortages meant that there was no regular infantry division to take their place. British manpower shortages were such that they were forced to break up one infantry division at the end of August, and a second one in October, to provide replacements to keep other divisions up to strength.
It's probable that part of the push for Market-Garden came from the desire by British Airborne commanders to get the 1st Airborne and 52nd Air Landing divisions into action before they got thrown into ground combat.
Monty did the same to the 101st in the netherlands.They stayed for 70 days. I'm not sure how long the 82nd stayed there
I'm not sure the casualty rate was too high (2700/17,000=16%). They secured the desired bridges, so I'd say it did better than market garden.
MG is a low bar to clear.
A man I worked with 40 years ago was in this operation as a paratrooper. It was his first combat experience. I don't know if he jumped or came in by glider. He took a camera, which was strictly not allowed! He had an album of excellent black and white photos. Mostly troops just after landing, collapsing chutes, collecting gear and moving out across the fields.
Hi. Where are these photos now?!
@@alex1975uk Regrettably, I don't know. I long ago lost touch with "Scotty." I'm sure he is gone now.
I would have loved to see those pictures. I am glad someone took pictures. It appears not many pictures/videos were taken. My dad told me many of the correspondents died on the way down.
Little fact for Band of Brothers fans: Lewis Nixon (Winter's Vat 69 loving friend) went off as an observer and jumped in Operation Varsity.
His plane was hit and only he and 3 others got out. I think it maybe gets a very brief passing mention in the series.
Wasn’t Nixon’s plane.
I never watched the Band of Brothers. I will definetly watch it now.
Your delivery and pacing are perfect. Great video as usual!
Cheers, Lewis. Thanks for the feedback!
@@MilitaryAviationHistory This is a real gem, well done!
I remember hearing about this operation in the past, but I never really knew much about it until now. Neat to not only learn about it but hear of the losses involved
I was raised with my grandfather and he received the Silver Star Medal for his actions while with the 17th . He never spoke of it and there is very little documentation of the 17th compared to the 82nd and 101st. Thank you for your work.
I walked part of the battlefield today; I’ll tell you that the Issel River, over which the airborne divisions were to seize a number of bridges, is little more than an irrigation ditch. It pales in comparison to the Main River, which Patton had to cross not long after crossing the Rhine at Nierstein.
I can recommend the Rhineland 45 serie. Very nice work with some excellent external experts.
The book on the series is also nice and helped me to put my recent visit to the region in perspective.
Next time Chris can do a Video about Eastfreasean villages. Like "Stikelkamperfehn" or "Rechtsupweg", much simpler.
Note to self, when discussing German radar along the coast, do not even bother looking up village names...
@@MilitaryAviationHistory well there is also california and Texas. Those should be fine 😉
An informative look into an operation that is generally overlooked. Even I didn't know about before Real Time History's Rhineland 45 series.
Learned a lot new, particularly about the C-46. So much I didn't know. Excellent video Chris.
Hi, the post WW2 war awareness in the 16th Parachutes Brigade the story told to us grunts was that the Rhine Crossing Operation was the most successful of all the Airborne Ops. Compare to say the drop into Larissa after the war to try and separate the Greek Royalists from the Communists where the Paras had to drop in high winds goes to show you that if the enemy doesn’t kill you nature will! I must be one of the oldest guys left who actually served with the blokes that jumped into Arnhem. No, they didn’t want to talk about it! Cheers mate. Harera
Thank you for sharing this story about operation Varsity . I have heard about this operation , but never looked in to it. It was mentioned in Band of Brothers , as Nix was part of the operation but not a lot of detail was given. Thank you again for doing a video on this not well known operation of the Airborne troops!!
C-46s had been in service for like 2 years already as transport planes (the British used the prototypes to supply Malta even before). Most of the "Hump" missions across the Himalaya were flown with C-46s. However, Varsity was their debut as a paratrooper aircraft
I am a history teacher in Missouri, Missouri was settled in part (pre-Revolutionary War) by French settlers, so there are A LOT of French (and Spanish lol) town names, my biggest pet peeve was over the Missouri town of Versailles (locally pronounced as Ver-SALE-Z) and then having my students use the same pronunciation for the French Palace and the WWI Treaty lol., we cant even decide as a state if our state name should be with an EE or and UH on the end lol, so I feel your pain.
It didnt help that no matter how I pronounced it, Hamminkeln just sounds wrong
@@rogersmith7396 - I appreciate the quality of those pencils, but have no interest in visiting the factory. Also, how the residence of Cairo, IL, pronounce their town.
Wait, how is the name of the palace supposed to be pronounced like?
@@Vengir VUR-SIGH
Howdy from Peculiar Robert.
With the wisdom of hindsight it may appear to have been unnecessary but it was clearly seen as vital at the time and that is the only thing that matters here really.
Only reason I know about Operation Varsity is Medal of Honor made 2 games with it. I'm sure I've been exposed to it many more time as I played a lot of WW2 games, watched TV shows/movies/Docs, get bored and spend hours on Wikipedia, etc.
But it really is a forgotten moment in WW2. You never really think of big airborne jumps into Germany, it's just Market Garden, hold the Ardennes, then...
Only other time I really remember hearing about it was in Band of Brothers, when Nixon's character returns to Easy after being assigned as an observer to the 17th. He's ranting about how pointless it was and that he has to write all the families saying they died heros when they didn't even make it off the plane. They took a direct hit and only him and 3 others made it out. But even then it happened off screen.
German names "upronounceable".... laughs uproariously in Welsh! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Kudos for mentioning my brothers in arms - the Canadians! 🇨🇦
Without the benefit of hindsight, it was probably necessary. The Rhine looked like a major obstacle, and the allies would be entering the economic heartland of Germany, so no surprise that there could be a tendency towards overkill.
As for the problems and losses, it still seems like Operation Varsity was the best planned and executed airborne operation of WWII.
Better than Crete?
@@MusMasi Yes, much better. Helped establish a bridgehead right in the heart of western Germany, on the path to the Ruhr, with relatively less casualties. Germans had a pyrrhic victory at what was a sideshow from their perspective (with Barbarossa being the paramount priority). For killed and missing, the Germans lost 3,094 paratroopers and 580 mountain troops, according to Anthony Beevor. Aircrew for the German invasion came to 312. Wounded was another 2,594. Roughly that adds up to 29.85% casualties of the 22,040 involved in the operation. Again, for a sideshow in the view of the Germans.
Not big on Wikipedia, but total casualties for the Allies appear to have been around the range of 2,378-2,700... That seems to come to about 16% casualties of a force of 16,870, on a strategic front, and axis of advance.
Without the benefit of hindsight? Patton tossed the 5th Infantry Division across the Rhine several days before the beginning of Varsity. Varsity was typical Montgomery, overdone and without a real idea of the actuality of the situation (Trying to make a major drive down one single road as in Market-Garden).
@@davidbriggs7365 Yes. And I don't see that at variance from Eisenhower's view of moving on a broad front, of Patton's advance taking away from the work of Montgomery, with Operation Varsity / Operation Plunder taking place north of the Ruhr, the much touted German industrial heartland (still a key industrial region). Don't think anything could be done "overdone" in that kind of intensive international conflict, that took on the tone of total war in many places. It was not unreasonable to be concerned with confronting much shortened supply lines, a major river barrier, and potentially large numbers of fanatical troops ...
The drops during the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria were probably the best. The Soviets managed to capture an area the size of Western Europe in all of 11 days, and that speed was maintained in part because of Soviet Para's capturing airfields which allowed supplies (critically fuel) to be airlifted in right to the tip of the spear, and the Para's capturing some key cities allowing the motorized/mechanized/armored forces to move through rapidly.
The Soviet invasion of Manchurian often gets overlooked, but at the time it scared the crap out of both the Japanese and the Western Allies for how shockingly effective the Red Army had performed.
I visited here in 2006 and walked the ground guided by a Horsa glider pilot. They landed on open ground around 50m from an 88 gun pit and were immediately fired upon. The glider troops formed up quickly and charged the position. The Co-pilot was shot in the face and his false teeth flew out ( the pilot was making jokes about this). As they got to the last 10m the Germans in the gun pit threw their hands up to surrender. In the words of the pilot it was too late for that and they were killed. He was implicit that they were killed in hot blood and not cold blood.
He mentioned all the different types of troops they encountered as at this time in the war Germany was pulling in troops from all branches. He said most were willing to surrender after brief resistance as they knew the war was ending but there was a few Hitler youth who would fight bitterly to the end.
The glider pilot was one of the few to have landed at Sicily, Normandy, Market Garden and Varsity.
To be perfectly frank, I don't think any massed airborne assault went particularly well, either Allied or German after the first few months of WWII and the drops in the Low Countries. The huge casualties suffered during the attack on Crete meant the Fallschirmjäger were withdrawn from any future airborne assaults and fought strictly as elite ground troops thereafter. The Allied Airborne assaults also suffered a high casualty rate in most of their missions as well, although this was largely due to large numbers of very effective and well practiced AA batteries, following the Allied bombing campaign, destroying the transports and gliders in the air, before the troops inside got chance to deploy.
Such operations are inherently risky. I think Varsity does show how part of the risk was reduced (as much as could be done based on the area, objectives and previous experience allowed) but that, yet again, even the best plans do not survive contact with the enemy.
The reason why Crete nearly became a disaster was chiefly that the allies knew the exact plan of operation "Mercury". Easy to place your reserves and AA guns in the right place if you KNOW the right place 😆
I think large scale airborne assaults are inherently going to result in high casualties.
But there can be huge value in that sacrifice.
Crete is a perfect example as, despite all the issues, the island was taken by the air assault. The British had already ordered a withdrawal before the Italians landed by sea and a major reason they managed to land after the Germans failed twice was that the Royal Navy was redeployed to evacuate the island so it couldn't intercept the Italian transports.
And the Germans were extremely lucky that their landing forces weren't slaughtered at sea. The Royal Navy intercepted both attempts. The first was saved by a single Italian torpedo boat going toe to toe with seven British warships buying time for the Germans to escape. And the second were saved by mass Luftwaffe attacks (and arguably a bad decision by the British to pull back rather than diving in among the transports and using the Germany infantry as human shields).
In all likelihood a naval only assault on Crete would have been a complete disaster. Maybe the Luftwaffe bombing eventually forces them out, but it would leave a nice threatening position to the British for some time.
@@88porpoise "But there can be huge value in that sacrifice." No, just plain no. Consider what the qualifications were demanded of airborne troopers (enlisted and commissioned) and the brain drain on the the Army as a whole should have made these operations forbidden. The OSS proved that jumping in small numbers of agents could occupy large numbers of Axis forces. Supporting guerilla organizations, via air dropped supplies, is astounding. Well led guerillas could and did demand the Axis field six to eight soldiers for every guerilla; The USMC learned that in the Banana Wars between the world wars.
@@danielburgess7785 your argument about qualifications and "brain drain" makes no sense. The airborne operations at Crete, Sicily, Normandy, the Netherlands, and the Rhine were not merely to occupy the German forces but to secure key objectives ahead of ground forces. This remains a key role in offensive operations, particularly in the modern day. Bridges, airfields, and other key infrastructure that are vital to offensive operations can be and are intended to be secured by airborne forces, allowing armored and mechanized forces to advance into the enemy depth.
Operation Market Garden results in loss of an entire British airborne division.
Russian VDV: First time?
It is a real mystery why Eisenhower approved this operation! The Operation Market Garden was a total disaster for the British airborne community where the British 1st Airborne Division was virtually wiped out at Arnhem. Montgomery had certainly over promised and under delivered. I am sure this was fresh in the mind of Matt Ridgeway when he expressed reservations about Varsity. My understanding is that Montgomery again wanted to use both the 82nd and the 101st American Airborne divisions as part of Varsity but had to make due with the 17th which had minimum combat time except for the 507th which jumped into Normandy with the 82nd. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to hear what Maxwell Taylor and James Gavin’s reactions were when Ridgeway approached them to discuss as you know he most certainly would have!
Something that would be interesting to see would be a comparison of all airborne operations in WW2 (German, Soviet, Allied) to see how effective they were as a whole and the lessons various armies learned!
The Russians also had an Airborne operations that was such a failure that supposedly for years they pretty much disappeared it from their military history.
Airborne operations really only began in 1940, and large scale ones ended in 1945. I think most Allied Generals, who's military careers stretched back into WW1, never really understood or fully appreciated Airborne warfare. To them, Airborne units were either a gimmick, or a waste of resources without a comparable return. They were like an expensive specialized tool that sat uselessly on a shelf, that could only be used under very special circumstances.
I've read somewhere the suggestion that the Allied Airborne Army was like a new, shiny coin in the pocket of Allied commanders, eager to spend it. Having created their Airborne units, they were anxious to use them, which may explain the push for both Market-Garden and Varsity.
"Hammin-keln".... no problem! Love it Chris!
It wasn't unlike Montgomery to throw airborne into impossible situations. He had done it before and left the XXX corps in place even though he neglected to force his commanders to move at the speed laid out in the planning of Market Garden. Patton would have fired a subordinate and probably tried to court marshell them for their inadequacy as a commander.
Bismarck, given your extensive knowledge on various airborne assaults in history what do you think the results of a modern air drop would be like against a peer or near-peer force? A complete bloodbath, successful disaster, or acceptable success?
That's like comparing the taste of apples and apple trees, its been 70 years he is not an expert in modern airborne tactics, why expect him to be? Also the answer is complete bloodbath, due to the prevalence of SAM missles and batteries, these would need to be neutralized first, which as Russia's attempts in Ukraine have shown us is far easier said than done. The last major airborne operation that I know of, which is well documented was the 173rd's jump into Iraq in gulf war 2, it went swimmingly due to massive technological advantages and support from local kurdish rebel groups
@@isbee56 the VDV landing at Hostomel showed us the troops can get in, the issue was it was so remote from the land forces, they got defeated in detail
@@korona3103 although that shows us that it is occasionally possible but not at all ideal especially unsupported, I would argue considering the massive size of the VDV the small amount and fairly small scale of combat jumps in Ukraine shows an unwillingness to conduct operations, likely due to a fear of the type of weapons I mentioned.
Due to the comparatively small sizes of armed forces (compared to WWII), it is possible to select objective that are attainable and worthwhile. For instance, if there were conflict between Russia and the USA, the USA could deploy an Airborne Brigade to cut the Trans-Siberian Railroad where there are (virtually) no defenses (ground or SAM) cutting off the Logistics and reinforcements for the key port city of Vladivostok. The USA could choose a location difficult for Russian mechanized forces to operate; not to mention they would have to de-train dozens, possibly hundreds of kilometers from the USA Airhead.
This is what was envisioned by Benjamin Franklin, who (as I recall) said, "What Prince could defend against a force of 10,000 men, as if they descended from the sky?"
Russia's failed paratrooper assault on the outskirts of Kiev failed because it was too similar to the Russian attack upon Kabul, Afghanistan in 1979 that succeeded in "decapitating" the Afghan govt. Unfortunately for the Russians, the Ukrainians are well aware of that Russian operational gambit.
A Russian airborne operation into Germany would have a better chance of success IF they were to select an objective unanticipated by NATO, with a limited objective of unhinging the NATO line of defense. Or, back during the Cold War, if they attacked one or more POMCUS sites, choosing to sacrifice a Paratrooper or "Dessant" Brigade to severely disrupt the deployment of one or more "Heavy" Divisions of the US Army.
Communist China might be able to significantly disrupt the Taiwanese armed forces if they employed their paratroopers as the US Airborne divisions were inadvertently deployed in Normandy on June 6th 1944. Many to the US paratroopers were scattered so badly the Germans couldn't understand what the Allied Objectives were, and thus the Germans were "paralyzed" or sent their forces off against "Will-o-Wisps" it was Not the US Army's Plan, however, US Paratroopers were inculcated to use their initiative and if they couldn't attack their assigned objectives, go off and Attack some objective! (Some US paratroopers attacked objectives well outside of their objectives near the Allied beachheads. The problem is China has never employed paratroopers, and their Doctrine (and military mentality) compels their soldiers, including officers to adhere to Orders. Ironically Chinese Communist Guerillas displayed initiative, but since the 1960's the Communist Party is more concerned about the Chines PLA ("People's Liberation Army") displaying initiative rather than Strict Adherence to the Party!
Because some units of the PLA refused to use Deadly Force upon the peaceful protesters at Tiananmen Square some 40 years ago, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is even more obsessed with Obedience over efficiency of the PLA!
During Desert Sheild/Desert Storm the Iraqi armed forces had to take into account that the US Marines could land anywhere within 200 km of the coast by "Vertical Envelopment" (Helicopters) and the US Army (and Allied) Paratroopers could penetrate even deeper, seizing oil refineries, air bases, logistics sites, etc. The MSR (Main Supply Route) for the Iraqi Army was the highway from Basra to Kuwait City, very close to the coast. The USA did consider amphibious and/or airborne landings, however, the mere threat of such operations tied down more than a dozen to twenty Iraqi Divisions (~200,000 troops). (Admittedly some were lower quality troops, but several divisions were quite competent, Saddam had to be able count on several of them to be able to conduct effective counter-attacks; based upon experiences in the Iran-Iraq War 1979-1988.)
The USA used the 101st (Airborne) (Air Assault) {Helicopters} to secure their open left flank. They used vertical insertions to establish re-arming-refueling points for Attack Helicopters that could be set up almost anywhere. The Iraqis couldn't defend everywhere, and each node could be defended by determined "crack" infantry, supported by artillery lifted in, as well as attack helicopters and other aircraft. The paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne used HMMWVs and other light trucks to drive in and reinforce the 101st Divisions outposts!
Airborne (and Amphibious) forces compel an enemy to "try to defend everything" allowing Armored/Mechanized forces to concentrate against a weak point(s) in the enemy defenses. As well as an option to seize undefended or lightly defended objectives are among the advantages of having a credible force of Paratroopers, Marines, and Helicopter inserted forces.
I noticed in one of the still photos, that the C-47 "Skytrain/Dakota" glider tow aircraft had some kind of under-fuselage apparatus. At first I thought, bomb load, but rejected that idea immediately. Thinking about it a little longer, I came to the conclusion that these were the actual tow cable attachment points, probably with a winch to reel in the cables after the gliders were released, so that no other aircraft might collide with said cables and to reduce drag from the cables. I might be wrong, (it happens once or twice), but it seems logical. I'm just having problems finding good photos of this mechanism, if that's what it is.
By the way, your, (and Bernhard's), book, "Stuka" is fascinating. I was wondering if there were any plans to write a companion book about American, (or British), dive bombing doctrines? Such a book on the Douglas SBD Dauntless, the North American A-36 Apache, etc. would be great to compare the German reasonings with Allied reasonings.
Thanks so much for your channel and your expertise, but mostly, your exceptional research and your ability to break down what different documents actually meant AT THE TIME THEY WERE WRITTEN, as opposed to looking at them today with all the changing doctrines that got in the way in the years between, which might cause a completely different viewpoint depending on who, (and when) they are being read by. Great job. Also, your analysis of current events like, "Will Germany buy the F-35", and your looks at the Ukraine conflict. I also like your programs where you speak with the "experts" to share the actual meanings behind some of the headlines, or clearing up long-held myths about certain historical events, such as the "Midway Campaign", and what the Hornet actually did or didn't do.
If you're talking about the containers just aft of the trailing edge of the wing, but on the belly of the fuselage of the plane. Those are droppable cargo containers.
Geez, as usual, incredibly well put together and informative.
I believe that is where my uncle Ken got shot as he was descending on his parachute, luckily he survived it.
@9:30 "the village that cannot be pronounced" LOL!
12:56 I know that it is common in Germanyto talk about the liberation of Germany in 1945. However, France, Belgium and the Netherlands were liberated, but Germany was invaded.
I still remember the last mission of Middle of honour vanguard its was a complete headache clearing German factories with mp 44 and taking out snipers the Germans in that mission were more clever than than the Italians in Sicily missions and throwing grenades like rain old but gold
Great vid. And I too have trouble with "bi-weekly" or "semi-weekly" and usually say "every two weeks."
I would hope that your video will be part of our reunion of the Scions of the 17th Airborne.
Legend says he's still out there, still trying to pronounce 'Hamminkeln'...
German is my fourth language, but honestly, I have more trouble pronouncing "Nurnberg" properly than I have pronouncing "Hamminkeln."😉
Great video, very well researched, well prepared and presented. Keep up the great work!😁
Same here, as a Duch native speaker (from Flanders, not Netherlands) I find it no issue at all to pronounce Hamminkeln (or Nurnberg)
@@timgodderis1918 So you'd be Vlaamse, then? I've heard that Dutch and Vlaamse are almost the same language, which is not that surprising given your close proximity. I visited The Netherlands back in 1995 and, being Canadian, I had a truly wonderful time there! The only "problems" I had (if you can call it that) were paying for my food and drinks. Everytime I tried to reach into my pocket to pay for something, I was told, "Keep your money, it's already paid for!"♥️
Sadly, I never really got around to visiting Belgium during my time there. If I ever make it back to Europe again, I'm definitely going to spend some time in Belgium so I can check out all the great cheese, chocolate and beer...especially the beer!😉
@@That70sGuitarist Indeed I am. The language is almost the same , common language that is. Most dialects in Flanders are completely gibberish for the people in the Netherlands though, and the other way around.
That is why English was invented.
I speak English very well,
Nog not zo snel,
Maar dat komt nog wel...
@@kiwigrunt330 Don't be silly, English wasn't "invented," it *evolved,* just like every other language on the planet...except for Esperanto, of course, which actually was literally "invented."
English evolved from an ancient common Germanic tongue, and as a West Germanic language, it developed alongside and shared many of its roots with Dutch and Flemish. Toss in some leftover Latin from the Roman Britain era, some Norse, Norman and French influences, and "hey presto, voila," you've got the English language as we know it today.🤣
While there is a large variety and number of books that focus on just about every aspect of Market-Garden, Varsity is much less known, and the volume of books on it is quite limited. One of the few I've found is "Crossing the Rhine" by Lloyd Clark, and it only gets around to Varsity in the last two chapters.
James Fenelon has written an excellent account of the US 17th Airborne Division's role in the operation: _Four Hours of Fury_ .
@@crogeny Thanks for the information. I will have to look that up.
Well done again, as usual. I think Monty, having been burned at Market-Garden, would rather err on the side of overkill this time. I think dropping paras so close behind German lines would guarantee heavy losses, as flak density would be higher the closer to the front and lower (generally) the further away from the front a DZ was.
What we're still puzzled about is why they dropped during the day with excellent visibility for enemy flak.
Accuracy. The intention was to drop on top of the objectives. Rather than drop, form up and move onto objectives.
Perhaps "ln" is a difficult consonant blend for you to pronounce? "Hamm-in-k-eln. Tip of tongue touching the palate and a low engine roar for the "l" sound , and then move all of the tongue up to close off the palate and resonate through the nose for "n". Everyone has consonant blends that are harder for them to produce. We are just glad that you didn't let this one interfere with your enjoyment of reading, and that you are able to show such courage in orally sharing your cool old and new aviation stories with us.
I had known about the problems with the C-46 wings in relation to their participation in flying over the Himalayas to supply China, but did not know that these problems also showed their ugly head during Operation Varsity. I look forward to your posting on this aircraft. A bigger question for me is, what happened to Curtis Aircraft in the '40's? Seems like everything they designed after the P-40 either tanked or had horrible development problems.
Bro, last night i finished this campaing in Close Combat last stand Arnhem and i made it with five days before the dead line. Awesome video
Very interesting! It happened not very far actually from where the Rhine meets Arnhem! Thank you.
I knew the C46 was used to carry supplies across the Himalaya mountains, but didnt know they were this bad at carry airborne troopers. Cant wait for the full video on it!
The lack of self dealing fuel tanks and the ability of leaking fuel to pool in the wing roots sounds like really poor engineering and design work. The reason the C-46s were used on the Hump is because they were pressurized aircraft capable of high altitude operations. Of all the aircraft to enter US service most of the bad ones were Curtiss's
I think anyone discussing whether Operation Varsity was a necessary airborne operation or not has to honestly consider the two German infantry divisions they encountered and fought on the ground. They must also include the German flak crews. The ground assault without benefit of the airborne forces would have faced an additional two divisions on top of what they encountered that day with all the defenders focused and fighting in a single direction instead of being split between what was in front of and behind them. Additionally, with less airborne targets, some flak crews and guns could have been levied in the defense against the ground assault. Thus, in my opinion the airborne assault was justified and essential to level of success of the Rhine crossings just as the airborne assault had been essential to the success of the Normandy landings by tying up defenses that could have otherwise been used to significant effect.
My grandfather took part in operation varsity. He was part of the recon platoon 17th AIRBORNE
Dear Bismarck,
I assume you tested the video with A/B titles. When I saw it in my subscription box almost a week ago it had a different title at least. Evidently I did click on it, but I do want to mention that I prefer the other title. The video was good in any case.
Cheers!
My great grandfather served in the 6th airlanding brigade as part of the glider pilot regiment in operation varsity, he was a massive glider nut his whole life and I've still got one of his oil paintings of a Stirling towing a horsa
The Adult Warrant Officer in my ATC Squadron in the early 1980's also flew a Horsa on Varsity, however he was RAF. After Market Garden, the GPR was so short of pilots that 1500 RAF pilots were seconded to the GPR. Les Hudson was one of them. He wore Pilots Wings on his ATC Uniform in the 1980's which saw him get saluted a lot while on the camps on RAF stations as most of the erks thought he was a commissioned officer. Unfortunately he died in 1984, so I never got around to ask him what aircraft serial he flew. One story he did tell us about the operation was after landing he basically hid in a ditch. while doing so, he saw a group of US troops try to move across the middle of a field while under machine gun fire. None of them made it to the other side.
Thanks Chris !
The C-46 proved entirely unsuitable for opposed airborne operations because they lacked the self-sealing fuel tank that the C-47 had. Ridgeway was said to have told his superiors that the 101st would never again jump from C-46s.
Great video as always. The term allied liberation of Germany sounds a bit strange. We had to cherish the soviet liberators of ours for 45years. Was not rather occupation or conquest?
As a Dutchie my instinct in pronouncing Hamminkeln (which isn't far from the Dutch border) is to place an e between the l and the n at the end, just as the Dutch wikipedia says the Dutch name is. Then emphasize the second syllable and make the forth syllable with the inserted e as short as possible. But that is just me.
Great post, thanks for sharing.
Thanks mate, great VLOG, keep them coming.
Ham Inn Kelln
Thanks. Now I know a bit more than I did before.
Yeah ... I couldn't imagine Monty crossing the Rhine without an airborne operation. Here he was returning to form and making sure he couldn't lose.
I can certainly see why the Allies expected a stronger reaction from the Germans - they just didn't have one left in them.
.
Excellent knew very little about Operation Varsity. Good Job!
Much awaited much appreciated excellent as always. Thanks
Very interesting and overlooked due to the emphasis being on the Eastern front and the attack on Berlin
And no mention whatsoever of the fact that the American Army had ALREADY crossed the Rhine twice BEFORE Operation Varsity began, once by the First Army, which captured the Bridge at Remagen, and the Third Army which put the 5th Infantry Division over at least a day before the beginning of Operation Varsity.
Operation Varsity might have been necessary four months earlier, but the Ardennes Offensive had cut the heart out of German reinforcements. Put those same troops used in the Ardennes Offensive behind the Rhine and Varsity might have been necessary, but not in March 1945.
Exactly IKE kept propping up the fraud Monty. Unfortunately this he had to do as to give the Russians a bold look so they would not attempt to go any further. privately he knew Britain had much better commanders
@@bigwoody4704 I disagree that Monty was a fraud, he wasn't, but he was a product of the British military of World War Two and its lack of depth in the upper echelons of command. Monty was out of his depth as an Army or Army Group Commander, but use him as a Corps Commander and he'd do great. However, because of both various casualties (dead, and captured) and Churchillian interference in leadership (he kept firing Generals who refused to listen to him) the British were close to scrapping the bottom of the barrel with regard to the upper echelons of command (both the British Army and Royal Navy suffered from this; the Royal Navy kept using select Admirals simply because there were not replacements up to the job), and so it finally fell on Monty's shoulders.
He lied incessantly not only about his plans but about his accomplishments and those of others. Churchill should have left both O'Connor and Auchinleck alone in the desert it was his interferring that made problems both men won long before monty arrived
Congratulations on your perfect Korean pronunciation of Hamminkeln
The C47/DC3 is venerable now - relatively speaking, it was positively fresh faced and rosy cheeked in 1945.😁
I think Airborne Operations will always be messy!
Thanks Chris!
Excellent reporting. Liked, subscribed, joined. Nice to see you have now sponsorship from the _Naval Institute Press_ . Good outfit (and I'm saying that as a retired Marine Officer/Naval Aviator).
Welcome aboard! Very appreciated
The more I watch that footage of the C-46 crashing around 12:15 the more it looks like a paratrooper tried to get out at the last second
Well done!!! Great content as usual.
I am from the area and there are some absolutely crazy urban legends about Churchill who at the time was there on the left-hand side of the Rhine to observe the operation.
The ruins of the old railway bridge in Wesel are still there today.
Delighted to hear I'm not the only one with difficulties pronouncing German.
Another terrific video Chris!
Eben Emael. This operation was absolutely stunning and was deeply enticing for any military planner.
As someone who lives in Hamminkeln, it hurts me how you pronounce it xD
You pronounce it something like Ha minkiln btw
It was successful in its mission. So, I would say not the same has Market Garden. Crossing the Rine was going to be costly anyway they did it.
Great video, Bismarck.
Everyone has heard of varsity. It was a textbook operation and achieved everything it needed to do, namely gain a deep bridgehead across the Rhine.
Im living in Hamminkeln and my Father said that morale and fighting power of the german troops were also low at this point of the war. This Operation were not necessary and absolutely oversized. Greetings from LZ O
Hi.
I’ve been to Hamminkeln many times, my grandfather dropped in on DZ B. All of the veterans I’ve spoken to over the years all told me it was necessary. I think the main point being that getting over the Rhine North of the Ruhr had to be achieved, also the Issel is a tank stopper, so infact the Issel crossings being captured were the most important aspect. If the ground troops had got over the Rhine and advanced over the fields towards Hamminkeln without those crossings in Allied hands the bridges would’ve been blown and Artillery could’ve been bright down on the static vehicles.
My uncle flew C-46s and C-47s over the Hump in Asia. When asked, he said he preferred flying the C-46.
I only know of it because of MoH Airborne. Fun and difficult mission when I was a kid
Will you also use footage from the 16 days in Berlin documentary in the future?
Excellent mini-documentary Buffalo Airways of Ice Pilots fame still flies the Curtiss C-46 Commando as a freighter up in Yellowknife, Canada. I would like to hear what the Indian, Kenyans etc. were doing at the time. India contributed 2 million soldiers but almost never gets mentioned.
One thing I missed in this vid: WHAT exactly did they achieve? They captured ground, ok, but what targets did they capture? Any bridges that would have been blown? Any supply depots that would be usefull? Any reinforcements that saw their path blocked?
Bold statement: Allied intelligence failed as hard here as with Market Garden! There they underestimated the Germans, here they overestimated them, by about as much. The only good thing is that in this case they could no longer be stopped, but they still wasted a lot of lives, material and resources. Thinking the enemy has way more tanks then they actually have can be as bad to your troops as thinking they have less...
I think the greatest issue is a practical one: what do you do with four or so airborne divisions ready for their next operation? Operation Varsity was a waste when considered in a vacuum, but if you don't do Varsity where else can you employ the same forces with a similar calculus of risk/reward? There just aren't a lot of options when the ring is closing on Germany but it retains anti-aircraft defenses capable of disrupting a big, slow airlift.
The Americans eventually had four Airborne divisions (13th, 17th, 82nd, 101st) in Europe, and the British two(1st, 6th). The one thing they never had was sufficient transport assets to deliver them to a battle. Even by the time of Varsity in 1945, they still only had the planes and transports to move only two divisions at once. Varsity was originally supposed to include a second American division, but there weren't enough planes.
The Normandy air landings were staggered throughout D-Day. The air landings for Market-Garden were spread out over THREE days. If the Allies had possessed the capability to land all the Market-Garden Airborne units at full strength on day one, the operation might have succeeded. In contrast to their build up of Airborne units, the Allies failed to build and create the necessary air assets.
It was, to some degree, an inability to see into the future. To have more planes available for Airborne operations in 1944-45, the Allies needed to be building extra transport planes and training air crews in 1942-43. Military production bureaucrats had to decide priorities. Do they put more resources into fighter planes and bombers, which they know will be useful, or build more transport planes which might be useful for some unknown future Airborne operations?
I could be getting the source wrong, but I think in 82nd Airborne General James M. Gavin's book, "On to Berlin," he criticized this operation. He thought it took too long to organize and lacked the element of surprise. Gavin didn't hold a very high opinion of Montgomery partly because of this operation. Plus, in preparing for Market Garden he saw the landing plan for the 1st British Airborne and knew it was deeply flawed, but he had his own part of Market Garden to worry about at the time. So, his attitude toward Montgomery may have been formed then.
Yeah, and Gavin royally F’d up his part in Market Garden.
when I saw title, I thought about korean war airborn operations after incheon landing.
only rescued a few pow less than 10 and had no contact with fleeing Northkoreans.
I guess it better than operations in this vid. at least there was no casualties.
Montgomery was too cautious yet took silly risks, mounting dangerous operations..... I wish people would make up their minds.
I attended the US Army Airborne School in Sept 1994 (class #43-94). The small cinderblock building that we signed into was decorated with with several large painted airborne division patches.
I immediately recognized the 101st, 82nd & 11th AB Div patches but did not recognize the 13th & 17th divisions, nor the 187th ARCT (I eventually found my way into the 187th).
Seeing those patches (and being a newly-minted airborne infantryman), I wanted to learn everything I could about my new profession & the guys that came before me.
Operation Varsity was indeed a useless & stupid waste of paratroopers & materials.
AIRBORNE!
ALL THE WAY!
Thanks for your service Brian. I'm an old turd now, but I work in the defense industry and I can tell you we are utterly dedicated to making the best weapons for our troops. Make no mistake, this is a great country and deserves our protection. Your sacrifice is much respected.
I joined the US Army in 1983, and went to, and graduated Airborne immediately after Basic and AIT (actually OSUT One Station Unit Training, at Fort Knox, for Cavalry)
I was in the 45th Company (Airborne) while at Airborne School (designation(s) of the training units has changed over the years).
Airborne! All the Way!
And Then Some!
"" Operation Varsity was indeed a useless & stupid waste of paratroopers & materials.""
Why is it stupid to use paratroopers in the role they are highly trained for? Rather use them for paratroop operations than waste them like regular ground infantry such as the Ardennes. Elite troops SHOULD be carrying out elite worthy missions no?
My father was there with the RE he described the glider tugs flying into the German AA as a real turkey shoot
Which RE unit was he?
G'day,
Great stuff Chris !
I had an awareness that Varsity was an expensive Airborne SNAFU..., the final and definitive Allied turnoff from dropping Umbrella SoulDiers and Sailplane SoulDiers into stupid situations - while trying to copy the 1940 Luftwaffe success with the method in Belgium....(!).
And I had heard that the C-46 was only tried in Combat the once, before being relegated to "Humping" across the Himalayas while supplying the B-29 Bases in "Chynaa", from India...; but I had NO Idea that Curtiss and the USAAC were sufficiently delusional as to have tried to field anything in Combat in 1944 or '45 which lacked Self-Sealing Fueltanks..., let alone compounding that foolishness by the Wing Skins being set up to conserve otherwise uncontained Fuel, pooling inside the Structure under any Leaking FoolTank...
Yikes !
What a Yank Me Doodle ; Grandly...(!) style of a "Plan"...
Oh, and, "Hammelkiln"...
As a Kangaroo-Feeder, I struggle to underconstumble why you - a native Germanspeaker, could possibly have trouble saying,
"Ham - El - Kiln..."
My wild guess is that it might indicate, something like...,
"Ham In Oven"
which might perhaps possibly point at a place which was once either established to, or famous for, the production of Smoked Ham...(!) ?
Just(ifiably ?) guessing wildly.
Such is life,
Have a good one...
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
My guess for Hamminkeln (Hammin-klln (the l is pronounced as a vowel): the meander. Hamm-winklen (Anglo-Saxon equivalent)
@@phillipsiebold8351
G'day,
Cool, thanks.
I'm a Kangaroo-feeder, and thus was raised to be a Monoglot ; I squeak, and thunk, in a mixture of Olde Colonial Vernacular, and 'Strine(!)...
So you are more likely to be right than my guess ..
Have a good one,
Stay safe.
;-p
Ciao !
Always interesting, thank you.
As far as large scale WW2 airborne Ops go……I'd argue that Varsity was one of the most successful. At the very least there weren't whole units being massacred (Crete), men and gliders drowning and planes blown out of the sky by friendly AA (Husky), mass scattering of paratroopers (Normandy), or outright clusterfucks (Market Garden). These ops are always gonna be high risk, massive casualty, FUBAR affairs (there's a reason such troops received higher pay than regular boots on thr ground) and it's unlikely that the best planning in the universe could mitigate even half the risks involved. Varsity at least achieved did what it was supposed to and not just '90% successful (lookin at you, Monty..) and most likely took away a portion of the difficulties the ground troops might've faced.
It may have been so, but, does that justify the losses of men and materiel considering the Wehrmacht was completely hollow in March 1945?
In Lovecraftian fashion that village that couldn't be named soon became the One that mustn't be named.
Great video. You ever listen to Wild West Extravaganza podcast? You'll find him to be a fine historian and philosophical humorist. I enjoy your straight forward description of eve
"...hamink..." "easy for you to say" 🤣
Don't worry, I have it from a good source that Hamminkeln is being twinned with Bielefefeld....
Then it will of course no lomger exist, & you never have to talk about it again!
Chris, RE: Hamminkeln.
Sounds to me like you pronounce Hamminkeln as 'Hamminköln'.
PS I should like to see Military Aviation History do a series on every airborne drop in history. Each drop gets an episode. What say you?