Military history of the United Kingdom during World War II allowed them to be withdrawn from the line and redeployed to Greece where they were urgently needed to help quell the civil war. Montgomery and Eisenhower had long been debating the merits of a broad front attack strategy versus concentrating power in one area and punching through German lines. Eisenhower favoured the former, and Montgomery the latter. However, in late 1944, logistic problems meant that the former was temporarily out of the question. Montgomery conceived Operation Market Garden to implement a narrow front strategy. The idea was to land airborne forces in the Netherlands to take vital bridges over the
Richard Geoffrey Pine-Coffin Division. With the 7th Battalion, Pine-Coffin played an important role in the 6th Airborne Division's Operation Deadstick airborne assault around the River Orne in the early hours of 6 June 1944. His battalion was tasked with reinforcing Major John Howard's 181-strong coup de main force, which had seized the Pegasus and Horsa Bridges. The successful defence of these bridges was vital to 6th Airborne Division's objective of securing the Allied eastern flank. The bridges were to be held until relieved later on in the day following the Allied amphibious landings. Pine-Coffin dropped with his battalion at 00:50; they began to