U.S. airborne troops fight east of the Rhine. German prisoners are lined up by men of the 17th U.S.

U.S. airborne troops fight east of the Rhine. German prisoners are lined up by men of the 17th U.S. Airborne Division, First Allied Airborne Army, near Wesel, Germany. A newly landed paratrooper is in the foreground. Airborne troops took about 800 prisoners in the early hours of their landings east of the Rhine March 24, 1945. More than 1,500 troop-carrying planes and gliders flew approximately 40,000 sky soldiers over the river in the greatest airborne assault of the was.