THE FLIGHT On 17 September 1944, three airborne divisions descended in daylight. The U.S. 101st Airborne seized crossings around Eindhoven; the 82nd Airborne took the vital bridges at Nijmegen and the Groesbeek Heights; and the British 1st Airborne Division, reinforced by the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade, landed at Arnhem. Over three lifts, the 1st Airborne Division alone employed 358 gliders on the first day, 301 on the second, and 35 on the third. RAF and IX Troop Carrier Command aircraft flew through flak to deliver troops, jeeps, and anti-tank guns. The 82nd Airborne's daily plans reveal that the division had prepared its entire administrative and air-supply apparatus before the mission was even assigned. At Arnhem, the British held the northern bridgehead for nine days against the German II SS Panzer Corps, but the final Rhine bridge proved one bridge too far. Of the 10,000 men who landed at Arnhem, fewer than 2,400 returned across the river.