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Operation Varsity: Allied Airborne Assault Over the Rhine RiverWorld War II | Single Page | 6 comments | Print This Post | Email This Post
When Coutts' plane was hit and caught fire, a trooper who had been badly wounded during the flight was hooked up and pushed out in the hope that he would survive the jump. Then Coutts and the other troopers bailed out. Later, Coutts learned that the pilot and crew had also managed to parachute to safety before the plane exploded. Subscribe Today
Shortly after landing, Company E of the 513th Parachute Infantry launched an attack along a railway toward a building later determined to have been a German command post. Private First Class Stuart S. Stryker's platoon made a frontal assault but was pinned down after advancing only 50 yards. Stryker, armed with only a carbine and shouting to his fellow troopers to follow him, charged the German position. Inspired by his bravery, Stryker's comrades joined him. They charged head-on into a hail of bullets and took the position. Only some 25 yards from the objective, Stryker was killed, but his initiative saved his platoon. For his bravery, Stryker was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Private George J. Peters of G Company, 507th Parachute Infantry, was the only other man to receive the Medal of Honor for actions that day. Peters single-handedly charged and wiped out a German machine-gun nest that threatened his squad. Private Robert 'Lendy' McDonald, a trooper in A Company, 513th Parachute Infantry, had a close call while still airborne. As he was next to last in his stick, his assigned seat was near the crew compartment. Once the plane took off, he sat in the vacant navigator's seat of the new C-46. The plastic observation bubble afforded him an excellent view of the vast air armada all around him.
As soon as the troopers had responded to the command, 'Stand up and hook up!' the sharp crack of German anti-aircraft fire filled the air. A loud ripping noise filled the plane, and McDonald and the troopers around him were covered in a shower of plastic. Looking back into the navigator's compartment, McDonald saw a jagged hole in the metal seat where he had been sitting, and the observation bubble was gone except for a few jagged pieces. Evidently, a German round had come straight up through the plane, failed to explode, and exited through the bubble.
McDonald did not have time to reflect on his good fortune, however, because the plane was on fire. Peering through the doors, he could see nothing but flames. But on the command to jump, the troopers began to pour out the doors, plunging through the fire. McDonald sucked in a deep breath, closed his eyes and followed them out. In a fiery split second, he was free of the doomed plane.
The 513th jumped into the British 6th Airborne's drop zone instead of its own. The troopers quickly assembled, cleared the British area of Germans and proceeded to their own objectives. By 2 p.m., only two hours after they had landed, Coutts was able to report to General Miley that the regiment's objectives were secured.
As they approached their landing zones, the glider tug planes had no choice but to fly a straight course. The glider pilots were already struggling to maintain control of their flimsy craft; if the tug pilots took evasive action to avoid the deadly groundfire, their two glider tows might crash into each other. If they increased their speed, the gliders could break up or become uncontrollable. This was the first time the double tows had been used in a combat operation.
To make matters worse, the last glider group was forced to climb to around 2,500 feet due to a stackup of traffic over its landing zone. The gliders released at that altitude established a new height record for combat release. But the glider pilots knew that it would take longer for them to reach the ground, giving the Germans longer to shoot at the fat, slow targets.
The smoke screen, several miles long by the time the airborne troops arrived, had been meant to cover only the river crossing, but it had also drifted over the drop zones and landing zones. The paratroopers had to jump through the white haze, not knowing what obstacles awaited them below. The glider pilots also dived into the void, knowing they could crash into other gliders, trees or obstacles that would smash their light craft to pieces. Some paratroopers did land in the trees, and some gliders did collide with obstacles, but most of the airborne troops came out of the smoke at 200 to 300 feet and managed to land safely. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to
            Tags: 20th - 21st Century, Airborne Operations, Historical Conflicts, World War II
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6 Comments to “Operation Varsity: Allied Airborne Assault Over the Rhine River”
My friend Homer Bates Chase was a member of Company B. 513 th Reg 17th Div. I wonder if anyone as any information about Homer. I would appreciate it.
Thanks
Don Forbes
By Donald Forbes on Jan 29, 2009 at 12:10 pm
My father, Harold K Snyder was part of the 681 st Glider Field Artillery Battalion, 17th Air Borne, 194th Division.
We're proud of our dad, He is trying to help me put something very special together for all of our family on his World War II involvements. In fact, he is doing a great job for trying to provide me the information, and he will be 86 come January 9th.
He was drafted in his 12 th grade, and recieved an honary diploma about 5 years ago.
Any information that we can obtain will be used to make a special documented type reference for our family to cherish forever, would be greatly appreciated and useful.
We know he drove a jeep, jumped the Rhine, bailed out of a small triangler window with the col. leaping out of a door to hit the ground in Wesel France; part of the 194th from Wesel, Dursten, Dulmen, Munster, Lippstadt, Ruthen, ect …. areas of this war; He was quick with tying & securing knots to hold the jeep in place in the gliders and more; infact, he even peeled potatoes & still can peel them fast. He stated, "he didn't mind it, it had to be done"
We really want to acquire any information and pictures that can help us to preserve this part of our father's life achievements and more.
Another person of interest that we would appreciate is about his brother, Charles who lost his live in North Africa.
By Sue Volz (Snyder) on Sep 9, 2009 at 2:35 pm
My half brother, Jack Porter, Jr., was KIA in Operation Varsity. Anyone with info on 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, under the command of COL Edson Raff, lead for the 17th Airborne, will you please post that info? He was in Company A.
By Jack on Dec 14, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Jack,
My father Robert Elton was with the 507th PRCHT INF – CO I.
I, too, am looking for any information, pictures, etc. His story was a lot like Robert Vannatter of the 513th. He was hung up in a tree, shot 13 times and left for dead. A friend, whose name I don't know, cut him down. He earned a Purple Heart, and several other medals. In trying to get them replaced, I was informed the records had been destroyed in the fire and they needed more documentation. I sent his separation papers, which list everything they should need to verify, but haven't had any luck. Looking for any information at all. PLease share if you find anything?
By Ernie Elton on Feb 3, 2010 at 1:15 am
Historians say that Napoleon built a bridge, and crossed the Rhine at a spot approximately 12 miles South of Remagen in 1805.
The very first infantry troops to cross the Rhine at Remagen were elements of the 78th Division, 310th Regiment, which was attached to the 9th Armored Division. I was a member of "B" Company of the 311th Regiment. We arrived at the bridge at about 4 am on the 8th of March, but had to wait until the engineers removed a tank destroyer that was stuck in a hole on the bridge that was made when the Krauts tried to blow it up. Germans were bombing and strafing the bridge as we RAN across, plus small arms bullets were zinging off the girders. We crossed at 11:15 am, turned left (down river), fought our way into Erpel, then Unkel, then Heister, where we then thought that we'd bed for the night. This wasn't to be. It was PITCH BLACK, and we were to keep going. We were told that we MUST NOT MAKE ANY KIND OF NOISE, and to physically hold onto the man in front of us so as not to lose contact. THE ENTIRE BATTALION WAS TO INFILTRATE TWO MILES BEHIND THE GERMAN LINES, AND WERE TO ATTACK HONNEF ON THE MORNING OF THE 9TH. Proceeding out of Heister, between the railroad tracks and the Rhine, we ran into severe flack from 20 mm German guns,so we entered the Rhine River bank, not a foot from the water, where we would be protected. The other units of our division were acting as billygoats, going from steep hill to steep hill. On the morning of the 9th we attacked Honnef, which is five miles North of the bridge. House to house fighting took place.. About that time we were advised that the 9th Division, which had fought to three miles east of the bridge by that time, was fighting infantry, and armored counter attacks, and that if the 9th couldn't hold, we would have to withdraw. But the 9th held. By the 17th of March, the day that the bridge fell into the Rhine, we had fought into Buel, just across the river from Bonn. We were relieved by a cavalry unit, then took up positions along the Sieg River, getting ready to close in on the Ruhr valley.
During all this fighting the Allied media blacked out the news. But a Nazi communique stated, "America shock troops crossed the river in assault boats, and that intense fighting was going on from house to house in Honnef." Of course, the telling of how we got there was NOT TRUE. the fighting was INTENSE. Hoiwever, the press in the U.S stated that German reinforcements were seen rushing towards Remagen, and that the convoys had their headlights on.
Aside from the Officer Advance Infantry Training Course that waspresented at Ft. Benning, Georgia, I know of no article, or book, or movie, or documentary that covered the EXPANSION of the REMAGEN BRIDGEHEAD. by those "BILLYGOATS"..
So, they awaited along the Sieg until about a week later, when the two egomaniacs tried to outdo each other in who would bask in the glory of being the the first to cross the Rhine by boat, or air. But they could NEVER match the heroism and toughness of those guys from the 78th, 9th, and 99th Divisions who climbed up and down very STEEP hills to overcome the enemy. It was Winston Churchill who stated that the Remagen operation shortened the way by 6 months, And Eisenhower stated that the bridge was worth it's weight in gold. If that be the case, let's just divey up that gold and give it to the guys who became BILLYGOATS BY NECESSITY. They more than earned it.
By Ed Malouf (Dallas, Texas on Feb 24, 2010 at 5:58 pm