Operation Varsity Plunder

 

“The situation in the West has entered an extraordinarily critical, ostensibly almost deadly, phase”.

Joseph Goebbels, March 24th, 1945

March 23rd, 2025. Eighty years ago today, on March 23rd, 1945, not far from where I write these words, Operation Varsity Plunder got underway.  Operation Varsity, the airborne component, involved 16,000 British, American and Canadian airborne forces and some 2000 aircraft, the largest single airborne operation ever conducted and twice the size of the D-Day ‘drop’, as well as significantly bigger than Operation Market Garden

The main ground and riverine effort was led by the British 21st Army Group, supported by American and Canadian forces and commanded by much maligned Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery.  The mission was to cross the Rhine in strength and then break into Northern Germany and encircle the Ruhr industrial area.

Operation Varsity involved two divisions of the US XVIII Airborne Corps tasked with disrupting German defences.  The British 6th Airborne Division, including the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion, had the critical task of opening the way for the riverine and ground assault by capturing vital villages and bridges over the River Ijssel. Despite significant losses all the objectives were seized, not least because many lessons had been learnt from the failed Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

On March 23rd, Montgomery had some 30 divisions under his command facing 10 German divisions the strength of which were depleted due to losses suffered elsewhere. German defences were centred around the still powerful 1st Parachute Army.  British Intelligence also estimated that on the eve of battle Wehrmacht forces fielded 114 heavy and 712 light anti-aircraft guns. To counter this threat RAF Bomber Command, RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force, and the US Army Air Force undertook a week of attacks prior to the crossing, structured so as not to reveal the exact location of the planned crossing of the Rhine.  

Operation Plunder began at 2100 hours on March 23rd, and by 0300 on the morning of March 24th British and American forces had established several bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Rhine.  The three spearhead Allied formations were British XII Corps, British XXX Corps and US XVI Corps, whilst the famed British 79th Armoured Division deployed specially adapted amphibious tanks (Hobart’s Funnies) to reinforce the crossings.

XXX Corps led the assault landing between Rees and Wesel with the 51st (Highland) Infantry Division, the Black Watch, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and 1st Commando Brigade, Royal Marines, together with the 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division.  In many ways, Plunder was a Scottish feat of arms because several English divisions (43rd Wessex Division, Guards Armoured Division, 50th Northumbrian Division, the East Yorks, Green Howards etc, and the Polish Division) had defeated Bittrich’s 2nd Panzer Division during the hard-fought Battle of the Nijmegen Salient and Operation Pheasant in the wake of Operation Market Garden.

By March 27th, Allied forces had secured all the main objectives and Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz took the decision to retreat beyond the Dortmund-Ems Canal to the Teutoberg Forest.  On March 25th, Winston Churchill accompanied by Montgomery, Field Marshal Alan Brooke and US General William H. Simpson, strode onto the eastern bank of the Rhine from a landing craft.  For the British this was the high point of the campaign in North-West Europe with the way to Hamburg, Kiel and the Ruhrgebeit effectively open. The next day Supreme Allied Commander, Dwight D, Eisenhower, held a lunch for Churchill. It was Eisenhower who had given Montgomery the task of crossing the Rhine in strength, against the wishes of many senior American officers, most notably Patton.

The victory did not come without cost. Operation Varsity cost the Allies 2700 killed with 72 aircraft lost, whilst the number of Germans killed during Varsity Plunder are unknown but included many civilians.  Some 3500 German troops were captured during Varsity.   Operation Plunder saw some 4000 British and Canadians killed, and some 2800 Americans killed but by D plus 7 30,000 German troops had been captured.

This afternoon I will drive to the old railway bridge over the Rhine at Wesel which was blown up by the Wehrmacht in March 1945 to pay my respects. As the wheel of European history turns again, I will reflect on those who fought and died for freedom and those now again charged with defending it – Britons, Canadians, Germans, Poles and Americans alike.

Operation Varsity Plunder. Lest we forget, Leaders!

Julian Lindley-French