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Operation Market Garden (September 17 September 25, 1944) was an Allied military operation in World War II. Its tactical objectives were to secure a series of bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherlands by large-scale use of airborne forces together with a rapid advance by armored units along the connecting roads, for the strategic purpose of allowing an Allied crossing of the Rhine river, the last major natural barrier to an advance into Germany.

The operation was initially successful with the capture of the Waal bridge at Nijmegen on September 20, but it was a failure overall since the British XXX Corps failed to relieve the 1st Airborne Division who had managed to take the road bridge at Arnhem, and overall held out far longer than planned.

The Rhine remained a barrier to the Allied advance until the Allied offensives in March 1945. As a consequence of the battle, Holland could not be liberated in time and the 'Hungerwinter' in Holland took thousands of lives."