The division arrived in the European Theater of Operations in early February, coming under the command of the First Allied Airborne Army, and Major General Chapman was informed that there was a possibility that the division would be required to conduct airborne operations during the closing stages of the Battle of the Bulge. However, the campaign in the Ardennes ended before the division could be transported there. The next chance for the 13th to participate in an airborne operation, and to actually see combat, was in March 1945 when the Allies had penetrated into Germany itself and reached the River Rhine. A few weeks before the division was to participate in a combat jump over the Rhine it was reorganized, after a conference by the War Department had decided that a more efficient composition for an airborne division was two Parachute Infantry Regiments and only a single Glider Infantry Regiment. Subsequently, the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, a veteran unit that had served in Italy, Southern France and the Ardennes, joined the division in early March, and the 88th Glider Infantry Regiment was combined into the 326th Glider Infantry Regiment that remained as the division's sole glider-based element. The 517th had recently fought during the Ardennes campaign, and had received a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions.