Editing Curtiss C-46 Commando (section)

===Europe===
Although built in approximately one-third the number as its more famous wartime compatriot, the [[C-47 Skytrain]], the C-46 nevertheless played a significant role in wartime operations, although the aircraft was not deployed in numbers to the European theater until March 1945. It augmented USAAF Troop Carrier Command in time to drop paratroopers in an offensive to cross the [[Rhine River]] in Germany ([[Operation Varsity]]). So many C-46s were lost in the paratroop drop during Varsity that [[Army General]] [[Matthew Ridgway]] issued an edict forbidding the aircraft's use in airborne operations. Even though the war ended soon afterwards and no further airborne missions were flown, the C-46 may well have been unfairly demonized. {{Original research inline|date=January 2025}} The operation's paratroop drop phase was flown in daylight at low speeds at very low altitudes by an unarmed cargo aircraft without [[self-sealing fuel tanks]], over heavy concentrations of German 20&nbsp;mm, 37&nbsp;mm and larger caliber anti-aircraft (AA) cannon firing explosive, incendiary and armor-piercing incendiary ammunition. By that stage of the war, German AA crews had trained to a high state of readiness; many batteries had considerable combat experience in firing on and destroying high-speed, well-armed fighters and [[fighter-bomber]]s while under fire themselves. Most, if not all, of the C-47s used in Operation Varsity had been fitted with self-sealing fuel tanks; the C-46s had not.<ref>Bolce, Don. [http://www.able506.com/440th/tcarticle_operationvarsity.shtml "Operation Varsity."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707074515/http://www.able506.com/440th/tcarticle_operationvarsity.shtml |date=2011-07-07 }} ''able506.com'', 24 March 1945.</ref> Although 19 of 72 C-46 aircraft were shot down during Varsity, it is not as well known that losses of other aircraft types from AA fire during the same operation were equally as intense, including 13 gliders shot down, 14 crashed and 126 badly damaged; 15 [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|B-24]] bombers shot down and 104 badly damaged; 12 C-47s shot down, with 140 damaged.<ref>Seelinger, Matthew J. [http://www.armyhistory.org/ahf2.aspx?pgID=877&id=139&exCompID=56 "Operation Varsity: The Last Airborne Deployment of World War II."] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201185145/http://www.armyhistory.org/ahf2.aspx?pgID=877&id=139&exCompID=56 |date=1 December 2010 }} ''The Army Historical Foundation''. Retrieved: 11 May 2011.</ref><ref>Devlin 1979, p. 624.</ref>