📅 On This Day in Military History
2 events across history
The bloodiest single day in American military history. Lee's first invasion of the North was halted at Antietam Creek in Maryland. McClellan's cautious tactics allowed Lee to escape, but the Union claimed a strategic victory.
The Union victory gave Lincoln the political cover to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, transforming the war into a crusade against slavery and preventing British and French recognition of the Confederacy.
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Montgomery's bold plan to end the war by Christmas: drop three airborne divisions behind German lines to seize key bridges in the Netherlands, then rush armored columns up a single highway to cross the Rhine at Arnhem. The first two bridges were taken; at Arnhem, the British 1st Airborne Division landed near two SS Panzer divisions resting after Normandy. 'A bridge too far' — the division was destroyed; the Rhine crossing failed.
A costly failure that likely extended the war by six months. Had it succeeded, Allied forces would have outflanked Germany's Ruhr industrial heartland by autumn 1944. The defeat forced a grinding winter campaign instead, including the Battle of the Bulge.
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