Operation Varsity – Service of Remembrance
Published: March 2007
The Glider Pilot Regiment suffered the highest percentage of casualty rate of any British Regiment during World War II. The heavy fighting in and around Arnhem on Operation MARKET GARDEN had decimated the Regiment. In order to reconstitute its ranks for the Rhine crossing, large numbers if Royal Air Force personnel were drafted into the Army Air Corps.
Between 0600 hours and 0750 hours on March 24th 1945, a force of 440 gliders of the Glider Pilot Regiment towed by 440 tug aircraft of the Royal Air Force, took off from airfields across East Anglia, including Earls Colne. Their contribution towards the invasion of Germany was to capture and hold the town of Hamminkeln along with 3 vital bridges over the River Issel. Their loads included 3380 troops of the 6th Air Landing Brigade, 271 jeeps, 8 locust tanks, 2 bulldozers and more than 50 anti-tank guns with ammunition.
Due to the concentrated German anti-aircraft defences and the drift of the smoke screen laid down to cover the land offensive 6 miles away, many of the gliders failed to reach their allocated landing zones. Of the 402 gliders that reached the battle area, 37 were destroyed by fire and only 88 remained undamaged. 102 glider pilots were killed (42 GPR and 60 RAF) and a further 102 were wounded – the majority in the first 45 minutes of battle. Many of the tug aircraft of 38 and 46 Group Royal Air force were shot down or damaged with the loss of 43 aircrew killed and 153 wounded.