 The seven divisions that formed the 1st Parachute Army were short of manpower and munitions , and although farms and villages were well prepared for defensive purposes , there were few mobile reserves , ensuring that the defenders had little way to concentrate their forces against the Allied bridgehead when the assault began . The mobile reserves that the Germans did possess consisted of some 150 armoured fighting vehicles under the command of 1st Parachute Army , the majority of which belonged to XLVII Panzer Corps . Allied intelligence believed that of the two divisions that formed XLVII Panzer Corps , 116th Panzer Division had up to 70 tanks , and 15th Panzergrenadier Division 15 tanks and between 20 – 30 assault guns . Intelligence also pointed to the possibility of a heavy anti @-@ tank battalion being stationed in the area . Also , the Germans possessed a great number of antiaircraft weapons ; on 17 March Allied intelligence estimated that the Germans had 103 heavy and 153 light anti @-@ aircraft guns , a number which was drastically revised a week later to 114 heavy and 712 light anti @-@ aircraft guns . The situation of the German defenders , and their ability to counter any assault effectively , was worsened when the Allies launched a large @-@ scale air attack one week prior to Operation Varsity . The air attack involved more than 10 @,@ 000 Allied aircraft and concentrated primarily on Luftwaffe airfields and the German transportation system . The German defenders were also hampered by the fact that they had no reliable intelligence as to where the actual assault would be launched ; although German forces along the Rhine had been alerted as to the general possibility of an Allied airborne attack , it was only when British engineers began to set up smoke generators opposite Emmerich and began laying a 60 @-@ mile ( 97 km ) long smokescreen that the Germans knew where the assault would come . 
