First published in 1950 when memories were fresh, this is the story of the British Army's Parachute Regiment and airborne forces in World War Two. The story is in a chronological sequence and covers the exploits of the various battalions and brigades. The author gives the reason for the failure at Arnhem as due to a lack of aircraft to deliver the troops; that and the fact that the roads leading to Arnhem were raised and ran through marshy ground and allied armour could not easily reach Arnhem. They were delivered in three lifts rather than one and some of the drop zones were too far from their objective - that would not have been a problem if the defenders were fewer but the intelligence as to the number of enemy troops in the area was faulty. Allied intelligence did not use the more accurate information provided by the Dutch resistance. Lessons learned from that operation were applied to the crossing of the Rhine, where airborne troops were dropped onto their objectives.