In total, the ill-conceived operation saw the Germans take some 6,600 prisoners and Allied losses totalled almost 15,000

Veterans and royals gather this weekend to mark the 80th anniversary of one of World War II's greatest Allied debacles: an unprecedented but failed airborne operation to seize Dutch bridges and forge a path into Nazi Germany.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Britain's Princess Anne will join a handful of remaining veterans to commemorate Operation Market Garden, the ill-fated plan to enter Germany through the Netherlands in a surprise advance to end the war in 1944.