Here is Cornelius Ryan's masterly chronicle of the greatest armada of troop-carrying aircraft ever assembled for a single battle -- culminating in the most grandiose and devastatingly tragic struggle of World War II. Now in a new edition for the 50th anniversary of VE Day, A Bridge Too Far tells the classic story of the battle of Arnhem, one of the most dramatic battles of World War II, which cost the Allies nearly twice as many casualties as D-Day. In this compelling work of history, Cornelius Ryan narrates the Allied effort to end the war in 1944 by dropping the combined airborne forces of the American and British armies behind German lines to capture the crucial bridge across the Rhine at Arnhem. Focusing on a vast cast of characters, from Dutch civilians to British and American strategists, to common soldiers and commanders, Ryan brings to life one of the most daring and ill-fated operations of the war. A Bridge Too Far superbly recreates the terror and suspense, the heroism and the tragedy of this epic operation, which marshalled some of the greatest resources of the war yet ended in bitter defeat.