Operation Market Garden was an allied military operation of limited success during the Second World War that was fought in the Netherlands from 17 to 25 September 1944. The airborne operation was planned and undertaken by the First Allied Airborne Army with the land operation by XXX Corps of the British Second Army. The objective was to create a 64 mi salient into German territory with a bridgehead over the River Rhine, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by seizing a series of nine bridges with combined US and British airborne forces, with land forces swiftly following over the bridges. The operation succeeded in liberating the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen along with many towns, and limiting V-2 rocket launching sites. It failed, however, to secure a bridgehead over the Rhine, with the advance being halted at the river.
Market Garden consisted of two sub-operations:
Market: an airborne assault to seize key bridges, and;
Garden: a ground attack moving over the seized bridges creating the salient.
The attack was the largest airborne operation up to that point during the war.