Tiger Day Spring SOLD OUT: On Saturday the Museum will be closed to non-Tiger Day ticket holders.>>New Tank Museum Guide To M4 Sherman book released - shop now>>

The Rhine Crossings: Part Two

Published: 24 March 2025 by Stuart Wheeler

OPERATION VARSITY, 24 MARCH 1945

The scale of Operation VARSITY was something to behold and would be the largest single lift of airborne troops in history.

Here over 1,500 paratrooper transport, and 1,300 glider and tug aircraft, would drop and land the airborne and air landing brigades of both 6th British Airborne Division and 17th US Airborne Division on the morning of the 24 March, once a Rhine bridgehead had been established.

They had two objectives: seize the commanding high ground, the Diersfordter Wald, from where artillery could command the whole area, and disrupt and block the arrival of any enemy reinforcements.

Enjoying overwhelming Allied air superiority, it was decided to deploy during daylight hours in order to concentrate the landings as well as negate the impact that a pause in artillery support would have during the crucial hours of the nighttime river crossing would have on the assault forces.

Black and white photo of a tank, with cylinders in the foreground.
A DD Sherman of B Squadron Staffordshire Yeomanry in the process of deflating its screen. Abandoned air bottles used to inflate other screens litter the foreground. Each cylinder would provide enough air to fully inflate each screen once.
Black and white photo of a plane and a tank.
Screens deflated, two DD Shermans drive past a landed Hamilcar glider. 48 Hamilcars were allotted for VARSITY with 16 designated to carry 17pdr anti-tank gun batteries.

Airborne Armour

As in Normandy, 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment (AARR), would be landed in Hamilcars, this time with eight M22 Locust airborne tanks, rather than Tetrarchs.

The Locust was a 6.7-ton US design, but British requirement, specifically developed for airborne use and featured a gyro stabilized 37mm gun, in a cast powered turret, maximum 12.5mm armour, and a three-man crew.

For Operation VARSITY, the Locusts were organised into two troops of three Locusts each with a separate HQ troop of two. Due to enemy action and unsuccessful landings, only four Locusts would reach the rendezvous point, and of those only to two had fully serviceable weapons. They remained on the high ground in support of the Devons (12th Battalion, Devonshire Regiment).

Black and white photograph of a tank driving out of the nose of a glider.
An M22 Locust drives out through the front of a Hamilcar glider during training. Each of the eight Locusts were loaded at Tarrant Rushton airfield, Dorset, and then ferried to Woodbridge airfield in Suffolk as it meant less distance to fly to the target.

The Outcome

The success of the initial assaults meant that the follow up forces from II Canadian Corps, XXX Corps and XII Corps could maintain the momentum and push on over the River Issel (running south-north above Nijmegen) with US XVI and XIII Corps, US Ninth Army moving into the Ruhr.

With the last major natural barrier crossed by 21st Army Group, the road into Germany was now wide open to the Allies…

Black and white photo of a tank on a floating ferry/pontoon approaching the riverbank.
A 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards Sherman Firefly and dozer are ferried across the River Rhine. More than 500 metres wide in places the Rhine was fast flowing and a major obstacle.
Find out more about the Hamilcar Glider
Skip to content