September 17 - Start of "Market-Garden"

Today in 1944 began Operation Market Garden, one of the great battles in World War II. It is the greatest airborne operation in history.

The purpose of this campaign was to occupy the Netherlands and hence outflank the German's Siegfried Line to quickly end the war. Market-Garden had two components: The first, named "Market" consisted of dropping four airborn divisions onto German occupied territory in Holland: The US 101st and 82nd divisions, the British 1st Airborne, and the Polish 1st Parachute brigade. These divisions were to hold several key bridges so that the British X X X ("thirty") Corps would break through German defenses and advance north to relieve the airborne troops. The advancement of the ground forces was the "Garden" component of the campaign. The British 1st Airborne was to drop and hold Arnhem, the ultimate destination for the army to reach in order to secure victory. If any of the the other two airborne divisions failed to secure the bridges and surrounding area south of Arnhem, then the X X X Corps would not be able to advance in time to relieve troops further north.

September 17 was the first day of the operation, on which the 82nd, 101st and 1st divisions landed in their respective locations, and so the battle began... By the ninth day, the X X X Corps was unable to break though to relieve the British troops in Arnhem, resulting in the destruction of the the 1st Airborne Division. Thus, the Operation was a failure and the war could not be ended early.

Other Events:

1117, The Battle of Myriokephalon, Seljuks defeat Byzantines to seal with fate of Byzantium's decline.

1984, The Battle of the Yalu River, Japanese victory over the Chinese in the major naval battle of the first Sino-japanese War.


Edited by Imperator Invictus