On 17 September 1944, the skies above the Netherlands filled with aircraft and parachutes as Operation Market Garden began, an ambitious attempt to capture a chain of bridges and open a route directly into Germany.

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This original artwork captures a Douglas C-47 releasing its stick of paratroopers into a cloudless autumn sky.

My fascination with Market Garden began at seven, when my father took me to see A Bridge Too Far at the cinema. What began as excitement later became an enduring interest in the operation’s ambition, heroism and tragedy.

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The title, borrowed from Robert Kershaw’s account of Market Garden, recalls the reported words of a German soldier who momentarily mistook the descending parachutes for snow.