Operation Varsity - 24 March 1945

As the 24 March is on Tuesday we had our 'Celebration' of Operation Varsity today at the Jet Age Museum.
A replica of a Horsa Glider is being built, to the exact measurements of the original, and we are lucky enough to have two members who took part in the glider operations of Market Garden and Operation Varsity.

Market Garden was the operation portrayed in the film 'A Bridge Too Far' where we failed to secure the bridges across the Maas, particularly the one at Arnehm.

Operation Varsity was the crossing of the Rhine into Germany, this operation was successful with 9 battalions of the 6 division Airborne Division and 6 battalions of the US Airborne Division being dropped East of the River Rhine.
Leslie Kershaw on the left and Ken Plowman on the right of the picture flew these gliders loaded with troops and equipment, including jeeps. Larger Gliders even carried a tank!
They were towed by Stirling or Halifax bombers. When they got to their drop zone the cable would be released and they would glide down to the ground, not always landing smoothly as there were a number of fatalities when they crashed due to uneven ground, ditches etc. There were, of course, usually under heavy fire from the German forces and both have spoken of bullets whizzing through the cockpit but neither were hit.
After landing they, RAF Pilots, would make their way back to an airfield and however possible get a lift back to the UK so they could do it all over again.
Many gliders were flown by trained Army personnel and they would go on to fight with the troops they had transported.

After VE day (Victory in Europe) my father was to undergo training as a Horsa Glider pilot to be deployed to Burma against the Japanese, he was in the Blackwatch regiment. 
He told me he was very grateful to the Americans for dropping the Atomic bombs as they ended the war, he wasn't looking forward to fighting in the jungles after fighting his way from North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Belgium into Germany!!