"A Bridge Too Far"

"A Bridge too Far." This was General Montgomery's chief objective in Operation Market-Garden, the plan designed to end the war in 1944 by outflanking Hitler's West Wall and driving into Germany's industrial heartland. It failed mainly due to the English soldiers landing on two German Panzer divisions that were being refitted in the Arnhem area. Landing too far from their target, along with communication breakdowns and not listening to Dutch Underground reports were other factors. Of the 10,000 Tommies that landed across the Neder Rijn only 2,500 escaped across the river seen below. Wounded men stayed behind and manned radio communications so that the Germans thought they were still there. The 1977 film about this action shows the conflict from both sides and has a mass para-troop jump done by hundreds of English airborne soldiers that acted as extras in the movie.