Название: Operation Varsity: The British and Canadian Airborne Assault (Battleground Europe)
Автор: Tim Saunders
Издательство: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 184415601X
Год: 2008
Формат: PDF
Страниц: 192
Размер: 21,5 МБ
Язык: Английский
In Spring 1945 the outcome of the war was ritually certain but the mighty River Rhine still stood in the way of the Allies. Eisenhower’s strategy was to guarantee a crossing in the Ruhr area by allocating the main effort to Montgomery’s 21st Army Group. Monty’s task was to envelope and take out the last German war production and open the way onto the North German Plain.
On the morning of 24 March 1945 the Normandy veterans of 6th British Airborne Division were to land just three to six miles in front of XII Corps, within supporting distance of their artillery, with the aim of linking up with the ground forces on day one. First in were the two parachute brigades, who benefited from the numbing effect of the Allied bombardment but by the time 6th Airlanding Brigade came in aboard their gliders, the German anti-aircraft gunners were recovering and, on the DZs, resisting and even counter-attacking the British and Canadian paratroopers.