 Operation Plunder began at 9 pm on the evening of 23 March , and by the early hours of the morning of 24 March Allied ground units had secured a number of crossings on the eastern bank of the Rhine . In the first few hours of the day , the transport aircraft carrying the two airborne divisions that formed Operation Varsity began to take off from airbases in England and France and began to rendezvous over Brussels , before turning northeast for the Rhine dropping zones . The airlift consisted of 541 transport aircraft containing airborne troops , and a further 1 @,@ 050 troop @-@ carriers towing 1 @,@ 350 gliders . The U.S. 17th Airborne Division consisted of 9 @,@ 387 personnel , who were transported in 836 C @-@ 47 Skytrain transports , 72 C @-@ 46 Commando transports , and more than 900 Waco CG @-@ 4A gliders . The British 6th Airborne Division consisted of 7 @,@ 220 personnel transported by 42 Douglas C @-@ 54 and 752 C @-@ 47 Dakota transport aircraft , as well as 420 Airspeed Horsa and General Aircraft Hamilcar gliders . This immense armada stretched more than 200 miles ( 322 km ) in the sky and took 2 hours and 37 minutes to pass any given point , and was protected by some 2 @,@ 153 Allied fighters from the U.S. Ninth Air Force and the Royal Air Force . The combination of the two divisions in one lift made this the largest single day airborne drop in history . At 10 am British and American airborne troops belonging to the 6th Airborne Division and 17th Airborne Division began landing on German soil , some 13 hours after the Allied ground assault began . 
