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Operation Market Garden was the brainchild of British General Bernard Montgomery. The idea of the operation was to invade Germany through Holland in the hopes of ending the war by the Chrismas of 1944. Five airborne divisions, three American, two British, and one Polish were to capture key cities, bridges, harbors and other areas of strategic importance. The three American divisions were the 17th, 82nd, and 101st airborne divisions, the British contributed the 1st and 6th airborne division, and the Polish contributed the 1st airborne brigade. After bombing from well over 1000 bombers the invasion began with also over 1000 troop transports supported by several hundred fighter escorts. Few casualties were sustained in the first day from either troop or aircraft. Paratroopers and gliders also had a very high rate of success in landing in their designated landing spots. After the initial victory of day one however, multiple factors began to turn the mission to failure. Obviously after the initial suprise the Germans defending the area reorganized and prepared for attack losing the element of suprise. Also communication was quite poor, making communication between fellow soldiers difficult; combined with the poor weather, calling in air or artillery support was near impossible. The poor weather also caused many reinforcments to be grounded preventing them from assisting troops already on the ground. Total casualties are debated ranging from around 15,300 to 17,200 Allied troops and aproximentally 6,300 to 8,900 enemy. There was also reports of several hundred dead civilians being at around 500. The battle. It was the largest airborne battle in the history of warfare and lasted from September 17 to the 25th in the year 1944.

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_arnhem.html