Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery the number of people interred in the cemetery continues to grow. In September 1944 the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, an attempt by the British 2nd Army to bypass the Siegfried Line and advance into the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland. The operation required the 1st Airborne Corps to seize several bridges over rivers and canals in the Netherlands, allowing ground forces to advance rapidly through the Netherlands and cross the River Rhine. The British 1st Airborne Division was tasked with securing the most distant objectives; bridges over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem. The division dropped onto the area on 17
1st Airborne Task Force (Allied) land simultaneously in Normandy and in southern France in June 1944, attacking the Germans from the north and south in a classic pincer movement, after which the southern forces would head east to aid Allied forces in Italy. However it was soon realized that there were not enough landing ships or men available to carry out both operations at the same time, so the southern invasion ("Operation Anvil") was postponed. The southern invasion (now "Operation Dragoon") was planned for August 1944, and all airborne forces were allocated to a new unit formed on 11 July 1944 as the Seventh Army