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Operation Market-Garden

Operation Market Garden
Part of the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine
Waves of paratroops land in Holland.jpg
Waves of paratroopers land in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden in September 1944
Date 17–25 September 1944
Location The Netherlands and Germany
51°59′N 05°55′E / 51.983°N 5.917°E / 51.983; 5.917Coordinates: 51°59′N 05°55′E / 51.983°N 5.917°E / 51.983; 5.917
Result Allied operational failure
Belligerents
 United Kingdom
 United States
 Canada
Second Polish Republic Poland (Polish forces in the West)
Netherlands Netherlands
 Germany
Commanders and leaders
United Kingdom Bernard Montgomery
United States Lewis H. Brereton
United Kingdom Miles Dempsey
United Kingdom Frederick Browning
United Kingdom Brian Horrocks
Poland Stanisław Sosabowski
Nazi Germany Gerd von Rundstedt
Nazi Germany Walter Model
Nazi Germany Kurt Student
Nazi Germany Wilhelm Bittrich
Nazi Germany Gustav-Adolf von Zangen
Strength
41,628 airborne troops
1 armoured division
2 infantry divisions
1 armoured brigade
Unknown
Casualties and losses
15,326–17,200 casualties
88 tanks
144 transport aircraft
incomplete estimates:
3,300–13,300 casualties
30 tanks and SP guns
159 aircraft

Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944) was an unsuccessful Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in the Second World War. The operation was split into two sub-operations:

Market Garden contained the largest airborne operation up to that point.

Field Marshal Montgomery's strategic goal was to encircle the heart of German industry, the Ruhr, in a pincer movement. The northern end of the pincer would circumvent the northern end of the Siegfried Line giving easier access into Germany. The aim of Operation Market Garden was to establish the northern end of a pincer ready to project deeper into Germany. Allied forces would project north from Belgium, 60 miles (97 km) through the Netherlands, across the Rhine and consolidate north of Arnhem on the Dutch/German border ready to close the pincer.

The operation made massed use of airborne forces, whose tactical objectives were to secure the bridges and allow a rapid advance by armored ground units to consolidate north of Arnhem. The operation required the seizure of the bridges across the Maas (Meuse River), two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine) together with crossings over several smaller canals and tributaries.

Several bridges between Eindhoven and Nijmegen were captured at the beginning of the operation. Lieutenant-General Brian Horrocks' XXX Corps ground force advance was delayed by the initial failure of the airborne units to secure bridges at Son and Nijmegen. German forces demolished the bridge over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son before being secured by the 101st Airborne Division. The 82nd Airborne Division's failure to capture the main road bridge over the river Waal at Nijmegen before 20 September also delayed the advance of XXX Corps.


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