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
British airborne operations in North Africa a new command, and was replaced by Brigadier Gerald Lathbury. Shortly afterwards the brigade rejoined 1st Airborne Division and began training for the airborne landings that would take place during Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily. During its time in North Africa, the 1st Parachute Brigade had captured more than 3,500 enemies as prisoners of war (POWs) and suffered well over 1,700 casualties. To take Lieutenant Colonel John Frost's 2nd Parachute Battalion as an example, it had entered North Africa with a strength of 24 officers and 588 other ranks, absorbed some 230 replacements in January 1943, and left