It's hard to remember now, but Europe was like this in 1944.
The Second World War was in its fifth year... and still going Hitler's way.
German troops controlled most of Europe.
D-Day changed all that.
D-Day:
June 6, 1944... when the Allied forces, under their commander General Eisenhower... landed on the northern coast of France.
By July they were able to begin their own offensive.
到7月，他们能够开始自己的进攻。
By August, Paris was liberated.
Everywhere the Germans retreated.
But with the Allied victories came problems.
Supplies still had to be driven from Normandy, over 400 miles away... and became dangerously short.
The Allied advance began to come to a halt.
Another problem facing Eisenhower was this: his two most famous generals... Patton, who was in the south... and Montgomery in the north... disliked each other intensely.
The longstanding rivalry had never been more fierce.
There simply were not enough supplies for both armies.
Each wanted to be the one to defeat the Germans.
Each wanted to beat the other to Berlin.
In September, 1944... Montgomery devised a new and spectacular plan... given the code name "Market Garden." Eisenhower, under great pressure from his superiors... finally sided with Montgomery... and Operation Market Garden became a reality.
The plan, like so many plans in so many wars before it... was meant to end the fighting by Christmas... and bring the boys back home.