September 17, 1944: Operation Market Garden

September 17, 1944: The Allies launch Operation Market Garden, an attempt to liberate the Netherlands. It turned out to be the Nazis' last win... and the Allies handed it to them through bungling.

Its objective was to create a 64-mile salient into German territory, with a bridgehead over the Nderrijn (Lower Rhine) River, creating an Allied invasion route into northern Germany. This was to be achieved by two sub-operations: Seizing 9 bridges with combined U.S. and British airborne forces (the part of the operation codenamed "Market"), followed by British land forces swiftly following over the bridges ("Garden"). British General Bernard Montgomery was the architect of Operation Market Garden.

The airborne soldiers, numbering more than 41,000, were dropped in sites where they could capture key bridges and hold the terrain until the land forces arrived. This included the U.S. Army's famed 101st Airborne Division, which further included the 1st Demolition Section of the Regimental Headquarters Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. They became known as "The Filthy Thirteen," and inspired the 1965 novel and the 1967 film The Dirty Dozen.

The land forces consisted of 10 armored and motorized brigades with a similar number of soldiers. The land forces advanced from the south along a single road surrounded by flood plains on both sides. The plan anticipated that they would cover the 64 miles from their start to the bridge across the Rhine in 48 hours. About 100,000 German soldiers were in the vicinity to oppose the allied offensive.

The operation succeeded in capturing the Dutch cities of Eindhoven and Nijmegen, and a few V-2 rocket launching sites. It failed in its most important objective: Securing the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem. The Germans slowed and then halted the armored brigades advancing from the south before they reached the Rhine. The First Airborne Division was unable to secure the bridge, and was withdrawn from the north side of the Rhine after suffering 8,000 dead, missing, and captured out of a complement of 12,000 men.

Market Garden has been called "a testament to the failure of intelligence." Despite all the Allies' planning and logistics, they never had agents with actual eyes on the ground, and signal intelligence missed the Panzer division that was there for resupply and retrofit.

For this reason, the argument that Montgomery stopped U.S. General George Patton from coming in and winning the battle, waylaying the fuel and supplies he was using in France following the liberation of Paris, and made the European Theater of the war last months longer than it should have, is wrong: Patton's troops would have run into the same German tanks, and faced the same resistance.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Germans punished the people of the Netherlands by cutting off food shipments to the country, and 20,000 died of starvation. Arnhem was finally captured by the allies in April 1945, near the end of the war.

The story was told in the 1974 book A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan, made into a film in 1977.

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September 17, 1944 was a Sunday. The NFL season kicked off, but with just 1 game: The Green Bay Packers beat the Brooklyn Tigers, 14-7 at the Dairy Bowl in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin. The Dairy Bowl was a football stadium built in the infield of a speedway, now known as the Milwaukee Mile, at the Wisconsin State Fair Park.

Formerly the football version of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1930 to 1943, the Tigers folded after the season.

Since it was a Sunday, especially with wartime travel restrictions in effect, most baseball teams played doubleheaders that day:

* The New York Yankees were swept by the Philadelphia Athletics, 5-4 and 2-1 at Yankee Stadium.

* The New York Giants were swept by the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-0 and 5-4 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. Bill Lee (no relation to the later pitching "Spaceman" of the same name) pitched a 2-hit shutout in the opener.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers split with the Boston Braves at Braves Field in Boston. The Braves won the 1st game, 3-0. Jim Tobin pitched a 4-hit shutout. The Dodgers won the 2nd game, 3-2.

* In a single game, the Washington Senators beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-6 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* There was a split at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Pirates won the 1st game, 7-1. The Cincinnati Reds won the 2nd game, 2-1. Frank McCormick doubled home Woody Williams with the winning run in the top of the 10th inning.

* The Detroit Tigers swept the Cleveland Indians, 7-2 and 3-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Rufus Gentry pitched a 2-hit shutout in the 2nd game.

* The Chicago Cubs swept their arch-rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Both games ended 2-1.

* And there was a split at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. The St. Louis Browns won the 1st game, 5-1. The Chicago White Sox won the 2nd game, 8-2.