Paratroopers mark 80 years since Operation Market Garden

Eighty years after hundreds of allied soldiers parachuted from military aircraft into Nazi-occupied Netherlands as part of a daring World War Two offensive, their modern equivalents will on Saturday repeat the jump in commemoration.

In an airborne spectacular, 700 paratroopers from eight Nato nations – including the Netherlands, Germany, UK and US – will parachute from 12 aircraft.

The jump will be done in two waves and those involved will land at the same location at Ginkel Heath, near the Dutch town of Ede.

Among them will be members of the parachute display team, the British Red Devils.

The airdrop is one of several events organised to mark the anniversary of Operation Market Garden, an ambitious military offensive designed to speed up the invasion of Nazi Germany and shorten the war in Europe.

Among those who parachuted into the Netherlands were 1,900 allied airborne soldiers from Britain’s 4th Parachute Brigade.

It combined one of the largest airborne assaults in history, known as “Market”, with a ground offensive, “Garden”, aimed at swiftly capturing key bridges over the Rhine River.

Immortalised by the everyday phrase “a bridge too far”, the failure to secure a final bridge at Arnhem was the result of stronger-than-anticipated German resistance, logistical setbacks and tactical decisions by Allied commanders.