Air Corps nearly all badly scattered and dispersed and took high casualties as they engaged in hard fighting over the first week of the Normandy campaign, including against veteran Fallschirmjäger deployed as light infantry in the Côtentin peninsula hedgerow country (bocage) The same American divisions made a second combat jump into the Netherlands during MARKET GARDEN They were deployed on the ground as emergency, veteran infantry during the opening confusion of the Wehrmacht’s Ardennes offensive in December 1944 They were critical in disrupting the German drive toward Antwerp, with the 101st notably holding out at Bastogne after becoming completely surrounded None of the five U.S airborne divisions fielded during the war had organic air transport They were delivered to their drop zones by USAAF C-47 Dakotas or in towed-gliders, notably the Waco CG-4A U.S 13th and 17th Divisions completed training stateside and were deployed to the ETO before the end of 1944 The 11th Division was sent to the Pacific, where it carried out several combat drops on Luzon in late 1944 The four American airborne divisions in the ETO were expanded to an official complement of 12,979 men each in December 1944 That was only a paper reform that had little or no impact on airborne operations The last Western airborne operation of the European war was a joint combat jump made by British 6th Division and American 17th Division across the Rhine on March 23, 1945, in Operation VARSITY Despite the fact that other American ground forces and elements of French 1st Army were already over the Rhine farther south, VARSITY was carried off as planned Regardless of exhaustive advance preparation by Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, the jumps incurred heavy casualties among the airborne component See also Air Commando; recoilless guns; Otto Skorzeny; Slovak Uprising; WESERÜBUNG AIR COMMANDO A small U.S Army Air Force command in Burma and India It operated in support of British and Commonwealth forces fighting the Japanese Its gliders carried Chindit fighters into action behind Japanese lines, while its small complement of fighters and bombers interdicted Japanese air and ground formations It subsequently flew supplies to the Guomindang in southern China AIR CORPS “aviatsionnaia korpus.” A large Soviet air formation See Fliegerkorps; Red Army Air Force (VVS) AIR CORPS FERRYING SERVICE See Air Transport Command AIRCRAFT See selected land and sea battles and: aircraft carriers; airborne; airlanding; air power; anti-aircraft weapons; anti-submarine warfare; balloons; blimps; bombers; bombing; fighters; float planes; French Air Force; helicopters; Italian Air Force; Jabo-rei; Jabo; Jagdbomber; Japanese Army Air Force; Japanese Naval Air Force; jets; kamikaze; Kondor; Luftwaffe; radio; Royal Air Force (RAF); Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF); Royal Canadian 19