One of the least successful battles of WWII (from the allied viewpoint) was "Operation Market Garden". Although the goal of the operation was commendable and the setup was very promising. the outcome was not what the generals had expected. Operation Market Garden was a twofold undertaking. The airborne part, called Market, involved the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the British 1st Airborne Division who would take all key bridges along the invasion road which would be used by Montgomery's 2nd Army to push through the Siegfried Line stronghold and into Germany (a ground operation called Garden). On 10 September, only six days before the actual invasion. MGen R.E.Urquhart (1st Airborne) was given orders to plan the invasion. Intelligence reports, which turned out to be wrong, indicated little or no German resistance. On top of that, some British officer carried the complete plans of the operation with him, while his glider was shot down. The information carried allowed the- Germans to take evasive action under the command of General-oberst Kurt Student, who was an expert in airborne tactics. Underestimating the German strength in the region, the slow speed of XXX Corps moving along the roads (due to heavy resistance) and airborne drops too far from the objectives were some of the mistakes leading to the lost battle. Few people could foresee the prophecy of LtGen Browning's words when he was claiming "This time we may be going a bridge too far".
