The 6th Airborne Division was an airborne infantry division of the British Army during the Second World War. Despite its name, the 6th was actually the second of two airborne divisions raised by the B
Glider infantry of D Company, 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, of the 6th Airlanding Brigade, 6th Airborne Division, in Normandy 1944.
The division's first GOC, Major-General Richard Nelson "Windy" Gale.
Men from the 22nd Independent Parachute Company, the division's pathfinders, prior to take off for Normandy 5 June 1944.
Paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division climbing into an RAF Albemarle aircraft at RAF Harwell, 5 June 1944.
Operation Varsity
Videos
Operation Varsity was a successful airborne forces operation launched by Allied troops toward the end of World War II. Involving more than 16,000 paratroopers and several thousand aircraft, it is the
6th Airborne Division (United Kingdom)
…1944, to help counter the surprise German offensive in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge. Their final airborne mission followed in March 1945, Operation Varsity, the second Allied airborne assault over the River Rhine. After the war the division was identified as the Imperial Strategic Reserve, and moved to the…
C-47 transport aircraft drop hundreds of paratroopers as part of Operation Varsity.
C-47s and CG-4A gliders before take-off, 24 March 1945
British paratroopers in Hamminkeln, 25 March 1945
The city of Wesel lies in ruin after Allied bombardment.