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
112th Special Operations Signal Battalion Airborne and Special Operations Forces. Over the next half century, this bond would strengthen. The 512th soldiers, then commanded by 1LT George R. Hartley, conducted signal operations in support of Brigadier General Robert T. Frederick's 1st Airborne Task Force during Operation Dragoon (15 August 1944) at Le Muy, France. They made the unit's first parachute and glider assaults into battle. Thus, earning an "arrowhead" for the unit battle streamer. The 1st Airborne Task Force blocked German counterattacks in support of an Allied landing near Cannes, France. It was an operation that tested the concept of daylight mass tactical parachute drops