In the late summer of 1944, Allied victory against Nazi Germany seemed absolute. The German Wehrmacht was retreating in chaos, Paris was free, and General Montgomery conceived a daring gamble to end World War II by Christmas. Codenamed Operation Market Garden, it was designed to be the largest airborne assault in human history, dropping 35,000 elite troops deep behind enemy lines to capture vital bridges and open a back door into the German heartland.
But a catastrophic failure in intelligence processing sent the British 1st Airborne Division dropping directly into a hornets' nest. Instead of facing weak reservists, the paratroopers landed on top of two highly disciplined SS Panzer divisions. Lieutenant Colonel John Frost and a mere 800 men managed to seize the northern end of the critical Arnhem bridge, but without immediate reinforcements or reliable supply drops, they were quickly surrounded by heavy armor and merciless artillery.
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