A Paratrooper's Panoramic View

About the Book

At 10:00 AM on March 24, 1945, a literal “sky train” of two and one-half hours in length flew in 226 C-47 and 72 C-46 transport planes carrying 17,122 paratroopers together with 906 gliders being pulled by 610 C-47 tow planes. Paratrooper Robert L. Wilson jumped from the lead serial of planes in this largest airborne assault in military history. He landed in the designated drop zone near Wesel. There, with others in “Branigan’s Bastard Battalion,” – the 464^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion – he made history as part of the first artillery airborne outfit to land, reassemble, and fire their howitzer’s east of the Rhine River.

Field Marshall Montgomery, who had elaborately orchestrated this airborne assault, gathered Prime Minister Churchill together with Generals Eisenhower, Ridgway, and Brereton on the western bank of the Rhine to watch the air spectacle unfold.  The objectives of this airborne assault – Operation Varsity – were achieved predominantly through the efforts of the U.S. 17^th and British 6^th Airborne Divisions. These troopers closed in along the Rhine all along its length to prevent any German stronghold from being secured on its bank. They later thrust across Germany’s northern plains en route to Berlin. In sum, Varsity’s success accelerated the Nazi collapse.

A Paratrooper’s Panoramic View provides readers a historical perspective of Varsity from one of the Operation’s participants. In it, Wilson vividly recounts the attractions of the airborne during the early days of Army parachute training. From entering Ft. Benning’s Parachute School in 1943, to Camp Mackall, to Europe’s “Cigarette Camps,” to the Marshalling Area in Chalons-sur-Marne, France, in March 1945, this book closely follows the preparations that guided this trooper towards the “Rhine Jump.”

About the Author

After his induction into the U.S. Army in February 1943, Robert L. Wilson was lured into the airborne by the extra $50 per month hazardous duty pay. Upon earning his wings, he was sent to Camp Mackall where he was inducted into the 464^th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion (PFAB) under the command of Lt. Colonel Edward S. Branigan. There he worked as a cook through February, 1945, when he and 5,000 other rotation troops were shipped overseas. Wilson arrived in LaHarve, France on February 22, 1945 – his 22^nd birthday. Although initially assigned to the 13^th Airborne Division, a new Table of Operation reassigned him to the 17^th Airborne Division – the Golden Eagle Claw Division – known as “Thunder From Heaven.” 

On March 24, 1945, Wilson – heavily laden with gear – boarded a “Gooney Bird” (C-47) in Chalons-sur-Marne, France, and flew as part of the 507^th Combat Team in the largest airborne assault in military history. Wilson remained in Germany, moving beyond Wesel, guarding bridges, receiving a “battlefield promotion” to Cpl. T-5, and celebrating V-E Day before returning to the States in August 1945. While en route, he learned of the Hiroshima attack and arrived back at Camp Mackall as the U.S. declared victory over Japan.

Robert L. Wilson, a salesman retired from Manufacturing Tool and Supply in Wichita, KS, together with his son, Philip K. Wilson, Ph.D., a historian in the Humanities Department at Penn State’s College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, recounts paratrooping adventures before, during, and after this historical period of Airborne warfare. Their historical memoir is substantiated by the authors’ work in the U.S. Army Military History Institute and recent reunion discussions with other WWII troopers.