Post by Australian War Memorial

Today marks the 75th anniversary of Operation Varsity, the Allied airborne crossing of the Rhine. The operation involved some 17,000 paratroopers and glider infantry from the British 6th Airborne Division and the United States 17th Airborne Division as well as thousands of Allied air crew, including Australians, who transported and provided air cover to the force. One of the more outstanding Australian ‘lucky escape’ stories of the day was that of Flight Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a Typhoon pilot whose aircraft was hit soon after a strafing run on a German flak position, which forced him to bail out in no man’s land between US paratroopers and German positions. “I tried to convince them I was an Australian. I used all the American epithets I knew in the process, but I am tall and fair, and I was wearing a German belt, and they were just not having any. Read here for details on how Jack managed to escape: https://lnkd.in/fsV8nsA