World Battlefronts: The Battle of Desperation

The battle was fought in the undulating countryside just west of where the Rhine divides (into the Waal and Lek) for its final course to the sea. Here the rich burghers of Utrecht, Rotterdam and Amsterdam once had summer villas and liked to call its pleasant hills and forested hummocks "Little Switzerland." Here there were three fine towns: Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem, rich in the histories of ancient wars and in the traditions of peaceful living. And here Allied parachutists dropped behind German units like pieces on a checkerboard hopping over their opposition....

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