 In the early fall of 1944 they began preparing for an airborne assault into the occupied Netherlands.Code-named "Market Garden," it combined a deep airborne thrust through the west of the Netherlands by the 1st Allied Airborne Army, with an overland drive by the British 2nd Army.The plan visualized airborne forces seizing key bridges over rivers and canals so 2nd Army could move very deep and fast over a distance of more than , past the Rhine River, the last major water obstacle short of Berlin.