U.S., Allies, Remember Operation Market Garden

Paratroopers jump out of an original C-47 Dakota during the commemoration of Operation Market Garden 75 years ago, in Groesbeek, the Netherlands, 18 September 2019.

They jumped down over Groesbeek, near the Wylerbaan near the Den Heuvel estate.

Shortly after the invasion of Normandy and the liberation of Paris during World War II, Allied forces in Europe wanted to create an invasion route into northern Germany from the Netherlands.

Operation Market Garden, meant to achieve that objective, kicked off 75 years ago, on Sept. 17, 1944.

At the National World War II Memorial in Washington in the United States, representatives of the Allied nations that participated in Operation Market Garden — including Canada, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom — participated in a commemoration of Operation Market Garden.

As many as 20,000 Allied airborne soldiers participated in the operation, as did more than 3,600 Allied bombers, fighters and transport aircraft. Eventually, Allied forces had to withdraw. They suffered as many as 13,000 casualties.

Photo: EPA-EFE/Piroschka van de Wouw