Command Decision: Test of Battle – Operation Market Garden

An overview history of the Market Garden campaign, from inception to completion, following each airborne division: the 101st around Eindhoven, the 82nd around Nijmegen, and the British 1st Airborne around Arnhem. 10 historical battles presented as game battles -covering the entire operation, from the initial breakout by XXX Corps (September 17th, 1944) to the bitter end, after the British toehold at Arnhem Bridge had been eliminated, and the operation had been stalled on the Island. After the Normandy landings, over 25 major airborne operations were planned by the Allied high command and cancelled for one reason or another. Finally, on September 10th, 1944, Field Marshall Montgomery met with Dwight Eisenhower at Melsbroek airfield outside of Brussels. At this meeting, Montgomery won approval for an ambitious plan to allow the Allies to drive from Belgium through Holland and then cross the Rhine River into Germany - an operation that called for three airborne divisions to be landed in stages over three days miles behind enemy lines - code name: Market Garden.