Above -- Parachutes open overhead as waves of paratroops from the 1st Allied Airborne Army land in Holland during Operation Market-Garden. (Photo credit: U.S. National Archives)
Operation Market-Garden was an attempt by combined Allied airborne and ground assault troops to capture bridges over Dutch waterways in order to open a rapid northern route for the Allied advance into Germany. It was the largest Allied airborne operation of the war and the most costly. The third of the airborne landings, at Arnhem, proved to be a complete failure as British troops landed too far from the Arnhem bridges and the Germans quickly recovered from the surprise of the aerial assault. Of 10,000 British troops at Arnhem, 1,400 were killed while over 6,000 were taken prisoner.