Airborne forces critical equipment carried in 408 gliders daylight missions code-named Operation Bluebird, phase 2, simultaneous with the beach landings, and Operation Dove, phase 3. A second daylight parachute drop, Operation Canary, dropped 736 men of the 551st PIB with nearly 100% effectiveness late on the afternoon of August 15. The airborne objective was to capture the area, destroy all enemy positions and hold the ground until the U.S. Seventh Army came ashore. Operation Market Garden of September 1944, involved 35,000 airborne troops dropped up to behind German lines in an attempt to capture a series of bridges over the Maas, Waal
1st Airborne Task Force (Allied) Alps in a static role, initiating patrols and keeping a close watch on Germans in the area of the Franco-Italian border. The 2nd (Independent) Parachute Brigadewas released on 26 August 1944. Six weeks later it was deployed to Greece. In November 1944 1ABTF was sent to Soissons to rest and refit, and was disbanded on 23 November 1944, with most of the units being attached to the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 1ABTF was composed of the following units: 1st Airborne Task Force (Allied) The 1st Airborne Task Force was a short-lived Allied airborne unit that was active during World War