The Airborne Forces are obvious, because Belgium has the Ardennes Mountains, and the Netherlands has such terrain, if you want to break through from here, you can only use the Airborne Forces to control the bridges, roads, and important places in this area like Germany did in a "blitzkrieg", so that it is possible to make a rapid breakthrough of its mechanized and armored forces.

Otherwise, it would be a situation in which the two armies were exhausted with infantry in the mountains and in the mud and in the mountains and forests, which the Allies would never want.

"But it can't be!" Rundstedt said: "Several of their airborne divisions have already been routed by us in Normandy, and I am afraid that less than a third of them can escape back!" ”

The U.S. Airborne Forces are worthy of being an elite division, and in that situation they knew that they would not be able to complete the mission, so they retreated to the next best thing and chose to preserve their strength...... The way to do this was to flee to the jungle or to the countryside where the Germans were less strong.

The Germans, because the British and American forces on the other side were attacking with all their might, could not encircle and suppress the American airborne troops with all their might, so they finally let them flee back to part of it.

"The remnants of their army are not enough to parachute into the Netherlands!" Rundstedt said: "Even if they dare to carry out the airborne!" ”

What Rundstedt means is that the US Airborne Forces have already suffered such huge losses that it is hard to believe that they will carry out another large-scale airborne landing.

Rundstedt was right, the Americans were unwilling, but Montgomery insisted on it.

At this time, the United States had a total of five airborne divisions, namely the 11th, 13th, 17th, 82nd, and 101st divisions.

The 82nd and 101st Divisions suffered heavy losses in the airborne operation in Normandy, and indeed could not participate in the battle.

The 13th Division was formed on American soil.

The 17th Division was used as a reserve in England.

But only one 17th division was not enough, so after the heavy losses of the 82nd Airborne Division and the 101st Airborne Division, Eisenhower urgently transferred the 11th Airborne in the Pacific Theater to Britain.

The 11th Airborne Division was originally intended to deal with the Japanese, but airborne troops were almost useless in the landing battles on the small islands in the Pacific, and the 11th Airborne Division was only prepared as a reserve in case there were no troops available in case an airborne landing was needed.

(Note: The 11th Airborne Division was last used as ordinary infantry in the Pacific Theater in history)

This also gave Montgomery three more airborne divisions: the US 11th and 17th Airborne Divisions, and the British 1st Airborne Division.

As early as the time of the mass retreat of the German army, Montgomery was already thinking about attacking the German lines.

He thought that the quickest and relatively easy way to bypass the German "Siegfried" line through Belgium, the Netherlands, and then through the Lower Rhine, and then sweep through northern Germany.

(Note: The "Siegfried" line was a line built by Germany to fight against the French "Maginot Line", and after the German army broke through the "Maginot Line", the "Siegfried" line was considered meaningless, so the artillery and other artillery were dismantled to the "Atlantic Barrier")

In Montgomery's direction of attack, the Allies needed to capture several bridges and roads over the Maas, Vaal and Lower Rhine rivers to open the way for the advance of the Panzer Division.

As a result, Montgomery developed a battle plan called "Market Garden".

According to Montgomery's concept, the Allies would control the key bridges in the Netherlands with a large-scale airborne battle, and at the same time, the airborne troops and British armored forces would flank the German army in the Ardennes Mountains in Belgium, quickly break through and occupy the entire territory of the Netherlands through the roads and bridges guarded by the airborne troops, and then enter the German mainland.

It was a bold offensive plan, not at all like Montgomery's conservative, old-fashioned style of command.

But if you think about it in more detail, it's not uncommon for Montgomery to come up with such a plan......

The French army actually invaded Paris, and the 3rd Army led by Patton was in the limelight on the battlefield, so the British were forced to declare to the world that the American army led by Patton was the first to liberate Paris.

So what did the British do?

The fact that the British Empire, known as the "empire on which the sun never sets", was actually held to the death by the Germans throughout the battle, which is not in line with the status of "the world's first power" in any way.

So, Montgomery needed to take back this face, or take it back for Britain.

As for whether the Airborne Forces will be in danger...... Two airborne divisions are American, and only one is British, and this level of risk is acceptable.

If Operation "Market Garden" was successful, the British would be the first to invade the German mainland, and even occupy the Ruhr industrial area of Germany, which would largely determine the outcome of the battle.

This credit was much greater than the liberation of Paris, especially since Britain was able to grab advanced equipment and engineering talent from the Ruhr industrial area.

So Montgomery decided to do it without much thought.

"This will be the largest airborne operation in the history of mankind!" "Our Airborne Forces have three divisions with a total strength of 34,600 troops, of which 20,011 are parachuted and 14,589 are gliders," Montgomery said. At the same time, the glider will also transport 1,736 vehicles of various types and 263 artillery pieces, and about 3,342 tons of ammunition and supplies will also be delivered to the theater of operations by parachute and plane landing......"

"No, we can't do that!" Eisenhower objected worriedly: "This is too risky, if the enemy deploys an armored division in the Netherlands, our airborne division with only light weapons will suffer heavy casualties again!" ”

"We don't need to worry about this, General!" Montgomery replied: "You know the terrain of the Netherlands, which is not suitable for armored forces to fight. At the same time, our spies in Holland told us that there were no German armoured units there, and that their main forces had withdrawn to the 'Siegfried' line! ”

What Montgomery said was not the truth.

"Super Intelligence" obtained information that a German Panzer Division had sent troops to the Netherlands, but Montgomery ignored this information, and not only that, but he suppressed this information.

On the other hand, Major Ert of the Spitfire-11 reconnaissance aircraft of the 16th reconnaissance aircraft squadron of the British Royal Air Force also reported the sighting of German tank units in the Netherlands.

Montgomery again ignored this information, and ordered the British military doctor to put Major Eart on sick leave on the grounds that "Major Eart is so tired that he is a little nervous!" ”

These are clearly a series of low-level errors.

Or maybe Montgomery thought that these German tanks were not to be feared, and that the British or British and American airborne troops were capable of killing them and ultimately winning the victory.

Either that, or Montgomery's victory over the German mainland was so urgent that he overlooked many things that he could not normally ignore.

"We should do it!" Montgomery said, "And quickly, or the opportunity will slip out of our hands!" ”

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