Crossing the Rhine

From one of the world's leading military historians comes a thrilling and richly detailed account of the two most critical offensives in World War II's western theater after D-Day--the Allied airborne assaults on the Rhine. In September 1944, with the Allies still celebrating their success at Normandy and eager to finish the job, thirty-five thousand U.S. and British troops parachuted into Nazi territory in the Netherlands. The controversial offensive, code named "Operation Market Garden," was conceived by British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery to secure the lower Rhine--Germany's last great natural barrier in the west--and passage to Berlin. Allied soldiers outnumbered Germans by two to one, but they were poorly armed against German Panzer tanks and suffered devastating casualties. After nine days of intense fighting, they were forced to retreat. Several months later, in March 1945, Montgomery orchestrated another airborne attack of the Rhine; this time they won and began their march into the heart of the Third Reich. Crossing the Rhine moves at a fast pace, delivers an innovative interpretation of the past, and forces us to ask ourselves just what it takes--in blood spilt, in lives lost--to win in war.