Operation Market Garden

An Allied airborne and ground offensive in the Netherlands in September 1944 aimed at capturing Rhine crossings and opening a route into Germany.

Operation Market: The airborne component of Operation Market Garden, in which Allied paratroopers seized bridges and key terrain in the Netherlands. Paratroopers were tasked with capturing the crossings needed by the advancing ground force.
Operation Overlord: The Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe in Normandy, launched on 6 June 1944. Market Garden followed the breakout from Normandy and the Allied advance across western Europe.
Frederick Browning: A British lieutenant general who commanded the First Allied Airborne Army during Operation Market Garden. Browning planned and directed the airborne operation, including the deployment around Arnhem.
Battle of Arnhem: A battle in September 1944 in which British and Polish airborne forces fought German troops around Arnhem. The fighting at Arnhem became the operation's decisive failure to hold its northern objective.
Broad front strategy: An Allied strategy of advancing across a wide front rather than concentrating resources on one narrow thrust. Eisenhower favored this approach over committing the main supply effort to Montgomery's corridor.
Operation Garden: The ground component of Operation Market Garden, an advance by British XXX Corps along a single route through the Netherlands. XXX Corps had to relieve airborne forces and push north toward Arnhem.
Operation Cobra: A U.S. Army offensive in July 1944 that broke out of the Normandy beachhead into France. Its success helped create the fast-moving campaign that encouraged a thrust toward the Netherlands.
Roy Urquhart: A British major general who commanded the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem. Urquhart led the isolated force that fought to hold the northernmost objective.
Nijmegen: A Dutch city whose road and rail bridges over the Waal were captured by Allied forces in September 1944. Capturing Nijmegen achieved a major objective but came too late to rescue the Arnhem force.
Operation Comet: A smaller airborne plan for seizing Dutch bridges, cancelled before its expanded replacement began. Market Garden grew from Comet but committed substantially more forces and a larger ground advance.

Linked from 17 pages