Arnhem

"Operation Market Garden in September 1944 was the largest airborne operation in history. Its planners hoped to end the European war by Christmas 1944, using airborne formations to seize key bridges in Holland and on the Lower Rhine, over which ground troops would advance into Germany itself. On 17 September, over 35,000 airborne soldiers from three nations prepared to drop in Holland as ground forces raced forward to link up with them. The Allied planners underestimated the strength and tenacity of the German response, however. The execution of the operation was hampered by problems, not least the poor weather and stiff German resistance, and the ground forces failed to break through to Arnhem and to open the door into Germany. The failure of this ambitious operation and the thousands of Allied casualties that resulted have ensured that Market Garden has remained highly controversial. Lloyd Clark is a senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he specialises in the history of airborne warfare and the First World War."--BOOK JACKET.