Supply drop for "Varsity" 1945

Discussion in 'NW Europe' started by alberk, Oct 11, 2020.

  1. Alex1975uk

    Alex1975uk Well-Known Member

    The strong points photo, where do you think that is? The L shaped hedge line looks like the one on Am Wall, but can’t be sure. Flight line / angle doesn’t fit if it is Am Wall but the film could be back to front
     
  2. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Ok - sometimes I get confused what I discussed with whom... The plan apparently was to turn right. For some (unforeseen?) reasons it proved to be the better plan - the area over which they made their way back was in Allied hands by then: The area held by the Allied airborne divs, plus Wesel and also the area south of Wesel, which was already occupied by US 30th Infantry Div - they had crossed the Rhine south of Wesel the night before. The area north of the LZs and DZs was still in German hands - the defenders were still engaging 15th Scottish Division close to the Rhine at Mehr and 51st Highland Division further north at Rees. The attackers had not made the gains inland that they had hoped for - and the Germans were giving them a hard time on the 24th and 25th, at Rees even longer.
     
  3. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Alex1975uk - re. strong points picture:
    Again one of those hard questions... I cannot find anything distinctive on this picture other than a straight road with telephone (or electricity) poles and a burning farm. Could this be Hülhorster Rott (Dingden map grid reference 1849), the burning building would then be Iwingshof (grid reference 187497) on Mehrhooger Straße (see Nitrowksi p. 132)
     
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  4. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Here's an interesting picture - more in the area where US troops were supplied from the air:
    Soldiers waving_grid 438215.jpg
    Amazing to see soldiers standing on the ground (on the right for example) - it shows how incredibly low the B24s were flying. The siding of the railroad track suggest that the location could be grid reference 217438 - just a bit to the northwest of the American DZ "W".
     
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  5. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    We have quite a number of photos covering Varsity and the supply drop. No wonder - please take a look at point VII and VIII...
    Order_2.jpg

    On of the aircraft supposed to take photos was this B17 which came down east of the Rhine:
    B 17 crashed.jpg
    Some of the crew seem to be fleeing - or others come to their rescue. Difficult to tell...
    B 17 wreck.jpg
    Some time later...
     
  6. Alex1975uk

    Alex1975uk Well-Known Member

    That was flown by Quandt (?) I think was his name. It took the photo of the jump over DZ A which was probably 8 Para being first. Never knew where he crashed, found a decent strong point it seems!
     
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  7. Alex1975uk

    Alex1975uk Well-Known Member

    Looks like some anti vehicle obstruction on the left?
     
  8. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Guys,

    Here are a couple of articles on the crash of the B-17 Flying Fortress which was carrying combat cameramen and observers at the time. The newspaper clipping and Collier's Magazine PDF comes from a site with a few pages devoted to the career of the pilot, Lt-Col. Benton R. Baldwin.

    Lt-Col. Baldwin ClevelandPD.jpg

    Regards ...

    Added - War photographer Robert Capa witnessed this B-17 catch fire. Read about it in ths pdf on page 44:

    Robert Capa in the British Zone – Operation Varsity.pdf - Icedrive
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Aug 4, 2022
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  9. Alex1975uk

    Alex1975uk Well-Known Member

    So at least that position the B-17 landed on was friendly or abandoned enemy!
     
  10. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I was surprised to learn that. Apparently it landed west of the Rhine. The article in Colliers was excellent writing and reporting. Thanks for sharing, Cee!
     
  11. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Here the supply drop is right on target - DZ "W".
    Krater und Gräben DZ W.jpg
    I believe this is "Fluerener Feld" which was the DZ for US 507 PIR. On the map below I marked what I think is the segment represented in the photo:
    Karte markiert.jpg

    Quite a few photos on the ground show what the situation was on DZ "W" after the supply drop. German POW give the US paras a hand recovering the bundles...
    Bergung Flüren.jpg
    IMG_8909 Kopie.jpg
    Many photos taken on this DZ are easily identifiable by the small tracks and poles for the tram wire. The tram ran from Wesel via Bislich and Rees to Emmerich. It also passed Flueren where it followed the road along the edge of the wood.
    Kleinbahn.jpg

    Flüren CLE.jpg
    This is a view in the opposite direction on the ground on DZ "W" - interesting to see that apparently some C.L.E. containers were dropped here.
    Blick Foto.jpg
    The arrow marks the the view in the photo above - it correlates to the aerial photo of Fluerener Feld I posted a bit further above.
    Flüren Farbe.jpg
    This brings me back to the photo at the very top of this thread - it also shows the tram line and the colorful parachutes - red for ammo and weapons, blue for rations - and there is yellow one on the road for communications equipment. The man in the middle of the dirt road is leaning on a C.L.E container.
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2020
  12. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Bergung nah.jpg
    This is on US LZ "N" - German POW recovering bundles dropped for the airborne - with boxes of rations?
    There W6 printed on one of those boxes.
    Rations.jpg
     
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  13. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    The airborne troops on the ground were well supplied now...
    Drop concentration.jpg

    But the USAAF had to pay a price for this: Burning Liberators_Bild 3.jpg
    14 Liberators were shot down - one hit a mast and crashed.
    Tabelle_1.jpg


    "The 17th Division G-4 was unable to collectmore than about 50 percent of 306 tons of sup-plies dropped for that division. However, it was known that many bundles had been picked up and used on the battlefield without any report.The British airborne reported that about 85 per-cent of their 292-ton consignment landed in the divisional area and 10 percent to the north of it.On 7 April they reported having recovered about 80 percent, a very high ratio for parachute resupply. Probably the actual recovery ratio for the17th Division was equally good.The Liberators met no opposition until afterthe supplies were dropped, but after that they raninto light flak and small-arms fire which in theopinion of some participants surpassed anythingthey had encountered on bombing missions. Inspite of their armor 15 of the B-24's were shotdown* and 104 of them were damaged. Astonish-ing to relate, the bombers' loss ratio was seven times that of the C-47's which had flown to LZ N only a few minutes earlier. The losses and damage were so distributed that no single battery could have caused more than a small fraction of them.Some planes were hit very near their zones, others near Wesel after turning homeward. Seven of the15 lost aircraft were missing and unaccounted for."
    (Warren, Airborne Operations in WW2, 1956)
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2020
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  14. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Some drops were made south of Wesel - in the area where soldiers of US 30th Infantry Division were advancing to the east after having crossed the Rhine the night before.
    Voerde.jpg
    These are US infantry men south of Wesel, in the sector of US Ninth Army - they are advancing in the direction of Friedrichsfeld and Voerde. The drops in this area were probably made from Liberators on the return trip - or by some B24s which had been completely off course on the way in... The accidental drops here led to an entry in the war diary of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht (Kriegstagebuch des OKW) on March 25th, stating that "paratroops jumping from 40 aircraft had teamed up south of Dinslaken with other enemy troops advancing from the west." In the OKW they were getting a bit confused at this stage of the war... too many advances on all fronts... by the enemy!

    KT OKW.png

    Below are Liberators on the return trip crossing the Rhine in the US Ninth Army sector, south of Wesel: Panzer un Liberators.jpg

    And here's a single B24 near Xanten, in the British 12th Corps sector - I would say it is on the return trip. Or a straggler? But on the way to the east bank of the river the B24s should be flying in close formation...
    Liberator bei Xanten.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2020
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  15. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Liberators am Rhein.jpg
    This picture was taken a bit south of Wesel in the Ninth US Army sector. The soldier is cleary American. I am really not sure about the direction of flight. Are they coming back from their mission east of the Rhine and flying west? Then they would be on the right course. Or are they going east to drop their stuff? Then they would be far off the planned course, flying in south of Wesel...
     
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  16. Bedee

    Bedee Well-Known Member

    Alberk.

    Talking about directions, in the video you posted about the supply drop Operation Varsity Low Level Resupply WWII Footage, at 2:32 the plane passes the first tower or antenna at 2:38 the other side of the Rhine the 2nd Tower.

    Do you know more about these towers, until now i couldn't find anything about these two Towers / Antennas / Beacons.
     
  17. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    Hi Bedee,

    I cannot really see any towers or antennas ... are you sure that it is not just dirt or some technical thing on the film?

    The were no towers or structures that high near the Rhine. There was the high voltage power line west of Hamminkeln and that was it. At Bislich there were some chimneys used for making (roof-)tiles ... nothing else. And the next industrial chimneys were at Duisburg...
     
  18. Cee

    Cee Senior Member Patron

    Alberk,

    I can see what Bedee is referring to. They are not very clear unfortunately due to the video quality and appear to be powerline pylons/masts. No idea if there were pylons that large at Wessel at the time. There were two tall ones on either side of the river at Duisberg as can be seen in this thread.

    Operation Varsity Low Level Resupply WWII Footage_snapshot_02.39.jpg

    Regards ...
     
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  19. alberk

    alberk Well-Known Member

    There was nothing that tall at Wesel, close to the river. From Wesel it is about 20 kilometres to Duisburg as the bird flies... so if some Liberators were on course straight to the south to make their way home they may have crossed the Rhine at Duisburg. There you had plenty of industrial plants... The bridge on the photo below, though, is the southernmost of Duisburg bridge.
    Duisburg aerial.jpg
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2020
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  20. Bedee

    Bedee Well-Known Member

    Cee,

    Nice catch of the Towers near Duisburg. Could be the same kind of towers as in the footage.
    I aksed this question because of the question about the route of the airplanes.
    Looked at the maps of Wesel from that time i couldn't find anything, according the mission the way back of the airplanes would be over Wesel. Duisburg is a quite far detour, but because of possible Flak this could be possible.

    Important to know, how the Liberators returned to Base.

    Just found this article about the towers in Götteswickerhamm. Build in 1930. Article is in German. This town is Close to Wesel. And in the movie you see a left turn in the river.
    https://goo.gl/maps/1L3P3nwSAyn83mct7
    Now looking for old pictures of the towers.
     
    Last edited: Nov 11, 2020
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