The 13th Airborne Division was activated in August 1943 and spent most of the war training in the United States. Its preparation was extended by shortages of transport aircraft and the need to provide replacements to airborne units already in combat.
The division arrived in France in February 1945 and was assigned to the First Allied Airborne Army. It was considered for several planned airborne operations associated with the Rhine crossings and the final advance into Germany, but none were carried out. In some cases, insufficient transport aircraft limited available lifts; in others, advancing ground forces overtook the planned objectives.
As a result, the division remained in reserve through the final months of the war without entering combat. After Germany’s surrender, it returned to the United States for possible use in the planned invasion of Japan. With Japan’s surrender, that operation was canceled, and the division was inactivated in February 1946. It remained one of the few U.S. divisions deployed overseas without seeing combat.
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