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
Vyazma airborne operation in conjunction with the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps and elements of 33rd Army conducted active military operations. Elements of the airborne troops were destroyed during Operation Hannover. In early April, the combined forces were placed under command of Major General Pavel Alexeyevich Belov. The united forces seized the area south of Vyazma and held it until the end of May, pinning down a few German divisions. On the night of 26 May, the group broke through the encirclement and joined the 10th Army to the north of Kirov on 24 June. Soviet Airborne Troops Vyazma airborne operation The Vyazma Airborne