Bowman, Martin W. Air War Varsity

Here, Martin Bowman presents the first book on Operation Varsity, which summarises both British and American air and ground operations as well as the parachute and supply missions of the USA, Great Britain and Canada in one ambitious volume. Operation Varsity-Plunder, the last large-scale airborne operation by the Allies in the Second World War, was certainly no walk in the park. Varsity was the airborne part, while Plunder referred to the British amphibious operations of the British 2nd Army. The air transport consisted of 541 transport aircraft carrying airborne troops and another 1,050 troop transports towing 1,350 gliders. The C-46 Commando transporters and Waco gliders of the American 17th Airborne Division joined the C-54 and C-47 transport aircraft and Horsas and Hamilcar gliders of the British 6th Airborne Division to form a huge armada stretching more than 200 miles across the sky. More than 10,000 Allied aircraft were involved in the successful air raid, which focused primarily on Luftwaffe airfields and the German transport system. The combination of the two divisions in one transport made this mission the largest airborne operation in a single day in history. In this report, Martin Bowman weaves eyewitness accounts and historical narrative with a wealth of photographic illustrations, many of which have never been published before, to create a complete and fascinating record of the events of March 1945.