LZ 'P' Scenes and Photos, Operation Varsity

The only close up is a low level Recce, so before any glider troops were there. There is one from a few thousand feet up which shows gliders (circled) but not of any detail. I did put together a few files for someone regarding the RUR on Varsity, I can send you the whole thing to email and if it’s helpful all the better. Message me your email and I can send it.

Alex.

 

Hi,

On the Carson glider from the book "The Last Drop":

... The glider of the CO, Lt. Col. Jack Carson, broke up on landing. His first pilot was S.Sgt. H. N. "Andy" Andrews DFM, a veteran of the three previous European operations, who describes their experience in the December 1988 issue of The Eagle:

"With some difficulty, due to a faulty tug engine, we struggled across the North Sea and got over the target. The element of surprise was gone and there was very active German ack ack to greet us.

Smoke obliterated the LZ and I had to pull off blind. Eventually, I saw the canal running North to South and turned approximately in the right direction. We had lost valuable height in free flight and the ack ack had damaged something. In any case the descent and the gliding speed were too fast. Until we got to 500 feet we couldn't see the ground and there was no place to land. Flying straight ahead, I made for a small field but knew that, at 250 feet, I would have to go through some tall trees to get in. We got through the trees but the undercarriage was half off. The next thing we knew was that the Horsa II was disintegrating around us and the tail detached itself to fly over the nose and land facing us."

Hopefully Alex can find an aerial or two.

Regards ...

 

Hi,

Like Alex I don't have much in the way of aerials but I'll put them up in order to keep the ball rolling and generate interest until something better comes along.



I could never figure out the recon aerial - what is east and west? Has it been flipped?

Regards ...

 

Flip Compare

The recon aerial appears to have been horizontally flipped.



Regards ...

 

The Bridge

Shots of the Bruner Bridge from footage likely taken by Sgt. Harry Oakes, 5 AFPU. A soldier runs eastward over the bridge and a group of Airborne men on the west bank, just north of same bridge.



Dug in

A couple of photos of RUR men dug in along the Issel by Oakes' partner, Sgt. Jim Christie. Exact locations unknown but probably near the bridge. What could be a shed appears in background of the first. I'll include another crop from this pic as well.



There is a glider near the river in the next well known photo but because of the distance and angle it is difficult to determine its condition and orientation.



Regards ...

 

Returning to LZ 'P'

SH drew my attention to an account by Pte. Eric William Clitheroe of the 22nd Independent Parachute Company as found on Paradata. He may have been on RASC Hamilcar CN 278 that landed close to the 6th Airborne HQ at Kopenhof Farm as discussed earlier.

" ... On the 24 March 1945 he took off for the Rhine Crossing operation in a Hamilcar with a Bren Carrier, Jeep & trailer + 8 men. During the flight to the Landing Zone (LZ), code-named ‘P’ near Hamminkeln in Germany, the glider had an anti-aircraft shell explode very close to them and it damaged Eric’s right ear-drum, rendering him deaf in that ear for the rest of his life. Their glider was one of the few to make it onto LZ ‘P’ intact and in the right place and Eric recognised the location immediately from his study of the air photographs.

“We had instructions about the destruction of the signals kit and equipment, if it looked likely that we could be captured. However, we were able to get straight out of the glider and into a ditch, at the corner of a field, to take cover. This was near a small wood, two farms and with an anti-aircraft gun firing nearby, at other gliders still landing. As we moved towards the farm complex a machine-gun opened fire on us and shot off the top of our radio aerial.”

It is likely that this was the Kopenhof Farm location, which was being used by 6th Airborne Divisional Headquarters.

“Later on in the day I got dug-in next to an orchard, plenty of apples, and used a camouflaged parachute over and in my trench. One of our group commandeered a German truck and used it to collect containers. We took several German soldiers prisoner during the course of the day, some of them just ‘wandered’ into our position. That night when we set up our perimeter we put out comms chord to keep in touch with each, as we were spread so thin.” ... "

It is great to read a first hand account from someone who actually travelled on one of the Hamilcars that landed on LZ 'P'.



Regards ...

 

Hi Everyone : )

MAJOR EDIT - AND NOTE FOR FUTURE READERS I MADE A MISTAKE THE ACCOUNT I LIST BELOW DOES NOT SPEEK ABOUT THE TRANSMITTER (I muddled 2 sets of notes together and assumed incorrectly which related to which).

Going back to this Photo I found an interesting account in "The Last Drop" by "Stephen Wright". On Page 210 there is an account That speaks about the "Rear Divisional HQ" being setup and including a long range transmitter at Oly-Hollshof farm. Whilst some maps list this farm by other names, it appears to be various spellings of the name for the farm located at Google Maps

This is particularly interesting as the haystack aerial (from the post above) shows a shadow of a large structure with guy lines located adjacent to the railway line at this farm. I therefore suspect this is the Long Range Transmitter being spoken about.

Just something that cropped up that I thought worth mentioning.

BR
SH

 

Hi,

Don't know about the transmitter but the farm beyond (west of) the tracks may get picked up in the Capa landing photo.



Regards ...

 

What’s the reasoning behind this being a view of the area of rear Div HQ farm?

 

Eh,

Here's a crop with the pole or possibly transmitter seen to bottom right as pointed out by SH.



Regards ...

 

Hi,

On a positive note Capa's landing photo doesn't pick up a tall mast of any kind in that direction which could indicate it was erected later on the 24th or 25th of March. But the photo is not the best quality and the view could be blocked by a descending parachute for example.



The field track seen in the aerial probably leads to and gives access to same farm. Cinematographer Lee Howard shot scenes at CN 155. He probably turned around at that location to film burning and crashing gliders to the south. In the process he captured a passing jeep with trailer probably on same track. They may have picked up an American paratrooper.



Regards ...

 

MAJOR EDIT - AND NOTE FOR FUTURE READERS I MADE A MISTAKE THE ACCOUNT I LIST BELOW DOES NOT SPEEK ABOUT THE TRANSMITTER.

Hi Alex,

1) There is an account by Lt. P.E M. Bradley in "The Last Drop" by Stephen Wright (page 210).
2) Below the first part of this account which speaks about landing and arrival at the main HQ, Bradley appears to have confirmed separately to whoever was recording the account (presumably Stephen Wright) that "Rear headquarters was set up at another farm "Oly-Hollshof" this is the account that then goes onto to mention a radio transmitter being put up at this location.
3) One of alberk's maps shows an "Oly-Hollshof" possibly "Oly-Bollshaf" (the H is a bit smudged and o might be an a) farm at 51.722, 6.550 which I have concluded on the basis of the closely matching names is the farm being spoken about in the Bradley Account.
4) The Aerial showing CN 155 and the haystack was geolocated in earlier posts in this thread (mainly based on the glider positions and distinctive field boundary's), the track in the aerial is the track to Oly-Hollshof farm.
5) The farm itself is sadly just out of shot across the railway line to the south / bottom of the aerial. Based on alberk's map there is a small track adjacent / north of the railway line in this area which is probably the object at the bottom of the aerial.

If the Rear Divisional HQ farm is not Oly-Hollshof then my reasoning above is flawed, so it is entirely based on the Bradley account. Do we have any other known accounts that mention the Rear Div HQ to which this can be corroborated?

BR
SH

 

I think the farm is called Oly Mollshof.
Also I know it was abandoned in the afternoon of the 24th due to incoming fire. Up until that point comms between Div and Rear was on a handset, SCR 300. So not sure that any large mast would’ve been erected there.
The track from Kopenhof up to the Oly Mollshof is a slight uphill gradient which I’m not sure you can see on that aerial pic with the haystack?

 

Ok, so I’ve just ID’d this location of the haystack. It’s late so I’ll post it in the morning!

 

Guys,
The haystack is just a few hundred meters NW of the olly mollshof. You can clearly see the two impact craters off the nose of the horsa and surrounding light coloured dirt. Also the glider orientation lines up perfectly.
Alex.

 

And the haystack is pretty central on the image.

 

I may have made a mistake with the transmitter. Ignore my previous comments for now! I will edit once confirmed which account speaks about it. Apologies for any errors! More tomorrow!

 

Not about errors, it’s throwing things out there and seeing if anyone can work it out, it’s not a competition!
The shadow is a difficult one to know for sure what it is. I thought maybe a lifting A frame type thing? Perhaps Royal Engineers were recovering something from a glider? It’s a shame the photo frame cuts off at that point!

 

"Not about errors, it’s throwing things out there and seeing if anyone can work it out, it’s not a competition!" appreciate the kind words and agree with your ethos : ) !

I was most worried about misattribution which it appears I have done, I seem to have muddled some notes up and the book account I cited does not discuss the transmitter.

I will make sure to go back and edit my previous posts over the weekend and search out the transmitter quote I misplaced.

BR
SH : )

 

Also, we haven’t even started to guess what the two vehicles are driving through the scene!