Operation Market-Garden 1944 (1)

The American Airborne Missions

Operation Market-Garden 1944 (1) cover

Operation Market-Garden 1944 (1)

The American Airborne Missions

Description

Overshadowed by the dramatic British failure at Arnhem, the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were a vital component of Operation Market-Garden and succeeded in capturing their objectives at Eindhoven and Nijmegen.

In the summer of 1944, plans began for a complex operation to seize a Rhine river bridge at Arnhem in the Netherlands. The American portion of the airborne mission was to employ two divisions of the US XVIII Airborne Corps to seize key terrain features that otherwise might delay the advance of British tanks towards the bridge.

The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions succeeded in their tasks of capturing the vital bridges at Eindhoven at Nijmegen in the face of fierce German resistance. However, the delays caused to the British armored advance, combined with stronger than expected fighting at Arnhem led to the withdrawal of the remnants of the British 1st Airborne Division in one of the Western Allies' most costly defeats of World War II.

Contemporary photographs, maps and detailed color artwork complement extensive archival research that reveals the successes of those American airborne missions, largely overshadowed by the failure of the operation as a whole.

Table of Contents

Origins of the campaign
Chronology

Opposing commanders
Opposing armies
Orders of battle
Opposing plans
The campaign

Aftermath
The battlefields today
Further reading
Index

Product details

Published 20 Aug 2014
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 96
ISBN 9781782008170
Imprint Osprey Publishing
Illustrations 65 b/w; 14 col
Series Campaign
Short code CAM 270
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Steven J. Zaloga

Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in History from U…

Illustrator

Steve Noon

Steve Noon was born in Kent, UK, and attended art…

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