World War II calendar
What happened on March 24 during World War II? This date brings together 6 events from 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.
Heavy bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force attacked Berlin from bases in Italy while major Allied operations were also under way from Britain. The mission demonstrated the two-direction pressure envisioned for Pointblank, although weather and operational demands often prevented close coordination between the Eighth and Fifteenth.
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The US Ninth Army crossed south of the Lippe under Simpson, with two divisions leading, and found the far bank so lightly held that the assault battalions were across for very few casualties. Simpson asked for permission to drive straight on for Berlin and was refused. Ninth Army was under Montgomery's command and its role in the plan was to protect the southern flank of the northern thrust.
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Third Army crossed again at Boppard and St Goar in the Rhine gorge, where the far bank rises steeply and the current runs hard, and Seventh Army crossed at Worms on 26 March. US Navy landing craft, brought overland from the Channel by lorry, ferried troops and vehicles at several of these sites. The Rhine was crossed by boats that had been built for the sea.
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Two airborne divisions, 16,870 men, landed in a single lift in broad daylight on ground about five miles beyond the river, after the ground assault rather than before it and inside the range of their own artillery. It is the largest airborne operation ever mounted on one day in one place. Every one of those decisions is a correction of Market Garden six months earlier: no dispersed lifts over three days, no drop zones eight miles from the objective, no landing ahead of the ground force with nothing to link…
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The price of landing in daylight close to the front was that the anti-aircraft guns were awake and had the range. Around 72 aircraft were lost and many gliders came down burning. Casualties were roughly 2,378 to 2,700 in a few hours. The objectives were taken by early afternoon and the link-up with the ground troops happened the same day, which is exactly what had not happened at Arnhem. Whether Varsity was necessary at all, given how weakly the far bank was held, is argued and is a fair question.
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Glider troops landed almost on top of the bridges over the river Issel, the next obstacle behind the Rhine, and held them against counterattack until relieved. Corporal Frederick Topham of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion went out repeatedly under fire to bring in wounded and was awarded the Victoria Cross. The point of Varsity was to take the ground behind the crossing before the defenders could organise on it. On that measure it worked completely.
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