several light machine guns. Elsewhere, the 13th Parachute Battalion had captured the high ground and the 12th Parachute Battalion had moved across country, and were ready to assault Erle once daylight came. They attacked at dawn, and captured the village after a 15-minute fight. The brigade held these positions while the rest of the division passed through them to continue the advance. They then resumed the lead after the division crossed the Dortmund–Ems Canal towards Osnabrück, fighting several small engagements on the way. After the River Weser, the brigade again assumed the lead towards Leine. Supported by tanks from the 4th Armoured Battalion, Grenadier Guards, they captured two bridges at Bordenau and Neustadt, and fought a small battle at Wunstorf airfield. On 7 April the brigade was informed that they were the lead formation of 21st Army Group, having advanced further into Germany than any of its other units. The 15th (Scottish) Infantry Division then took over from the 6th Airborne Division as the lead formation until 30 April when the airborne division once more resumed the advance, crossing the River Elbe over a bridge captured by the Scottish. The division's objective was Wismar on the Baltic Sea; the two parachute brigades advanced on separate routes to Gadebusch, aware that the brigade to arrive first would continue as the division's lead formation. By this stage of the war the advance was hampered more by refugees fleeing westwards than by any organised opposition. The 3rd Parachute Brigade won the race and led the division to Wismar, arriving on 1 May only 30 minutes before the lead troops of the Soviet Red Army advancing from the east. While the rest of the brigade remained at Wismar, 'B' Company of the 13th Parachute Battalion were sent to Denmark to liberate Copenhagen, arriving on 5 May. They remained in Copenhagen until the 1st Parachute Brigade arrived from England to relieve them. Far East Now that the war in Europe was over, plans were made to form an airborne corps comprising the 6th Airborne Division and 44th Indian Airborne Division for service against Japanese forces in the Far East. The corps would be used in operations to recapture Malaya and Singapore. The division's advance party, based partly on the 5th Parachute Brigade, arrived in India in July 1945. The brigade travelled ahead of the rest of the division as it had been intended to use