Paperback. Pub Date: Jun Pages: 448 in Publisher: Headline Review An insightful and gripping account of the largest optical scout and operation in history In September 1944 the river Rhine was a serious barrier to the advancing Allied armies in the West who were intent on charging Berlin and ending the war. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery decided to utilise the First Allied Airborne Army consisting of itish. American and Polish troops. Codenamed Operation Market Garden. 40.000 paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines while ground forces linked to relieve them. But. due to bad weather and German resistance. the operation failed. In March 1945. asecond attempt was planned: Operation Varsity Plunder. This time the plan worked. Despite extremely heavy fighting. they cracked the German line.