Operation Market Garden
Operation Market Garden was the codename for the Allied military operation carried out in the Netherlands and Germany in World War II, from September 17 to September 25, 1944. It was the largest airborne operation in history and the only attempt by the Allies to use airborne forces in Europe during the war. Although Operation Market Garden was successfully at the beginning, with the capture of several bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen, the Allied forces failed to achieve its main objective of crossing the Rhine in sufficient force and advancing into northern Germany. Thus the Rhine remained an obstacle to the Allied eastward movement until the later offensives that took place in March 1945.
Background of Operation Market Garden
After the Battle of Normandy, by the end of August, 1944, the remainder of German forces retreated across the Low Countries and eastern France towards the German border. In early September, the British 21rst Army Group, under the command of Bernard Montgomery, advanced on a line running from Antwerp to the northern border of Belgium, along with the British 2nd Army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir Miles Dempsey. The 1rst Canadian Army under Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar had begun its task of taking the ports of Dieppe, Le Havre and Boulogne-sur-Mer. In the south, the U.S. 12th Army Group under Lieutenant General Omar Bradley approached the German border and oriented on the Aachen gap with Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges’ U.S. 1rst Army in support of Montgomery’s advance on the Ruhr, while its U.S. 3rd Army under Lieutenant General George S. Patton moved eastward towards the Saar.
The Operation
Operation Market Garden was the brainchild of British General Bernard Montgomery, who suggested that the Allied forces should launch an offensive across northern France conducted by the British 21rst Army Group and supported by the US 1rst Army under Major General Courtney Hodges. But since the operation plan required the seizure of bridges across the Meuse River and two arms of the Rhine as well as several smaller canals and tributaries, Montgomery would need the British I Airborne Corps and the US XVIII Airborne Corps. The seizure of bridges would allow the Allied ground forces cross the Rhine River. By crossing the Lower Rhine the Allied forces could outflank the Siegfried Line and encircle the Ruhr, Germany’s industrial heartland.
After a preliminary bombardment of anti-aircraft batteries carried out by B-17 bombers the day before, Operation Market Garden began at 09:30 hours on September 17, 1944, when the British and American airborne units took off from the airfields in southern England. During the first four days of the operations nearly all bridges were taken by the Allies. Nevertheless, after a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Allied aiborne units and the German forces, by September 25, several Allied airborne elements had been severely mauled by the Wehrmacht ground troops, which included the 9th SS Division Hohenstaufen. Beaten, the Allies had to fall back to their former positions.
[...] towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze, Driel and the surrounding countryside. It took place during Operation Market Garden from September 17 to September 26, [...]
[...] by the US Army in the Vietnam War, and the second largest in its history, surpassed only by Market Garden during World War [...]