Lt. Col. Nick Eslinger, battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Mobile Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), gives a speech during the Market Garden Remembrance Ceremony in Sint Oedenrode, Netherlands on September 14, 2025. Operation Market Garden was conducted by Allied powers during World War II from Sept. 17-27, 1944, and is considered the largest airborne operation in history, with more than 41,000 Allied jumpers being dropped into the Netherlands to occupy bridges until land forces arrived. Its intent was to open a liberation route into northern Germany, and it was split into two phases. Phase one, known as Market, used U.S. and British airborne forces to seize nine bridges. Phase two, known as Garden, used British land forces to further secure the bridges.