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The Allies believed that they would need an innovative plan to break the Low Countries and Alsace-Lorraine's German frontline. General Eisenhower and other leaders turned their attention to the Low Countries. It offered them ports that could be used to re-supply the Allied divisions, who still were reliant on the Normandy ports for their supplies. The more forward-thinking of the allied strategists became concerned about the Rhine.<ref>Ryan, p. 46</ref> This river would form a formidable natural barrier to any Allied advance, but if they liberated the Low Countries, it would allow them to cross the Rhine and then to cross into Northern Germany and then onto Berlin. The American and British governments became increasingly eager to end the War in Europe and wanted to turn their attention to the Pacific War. Then the western allies believed that they were in a race to Berlin with the Soviet Army, and they did not want the Red Army to capture all Germany and turn it into a client state of Moscow.

[[File:British paratroopers in Oosterbeek.jpg|thumbnail|350px|left|British paratroopers at Arnhem (1944) during Operation Market Garden]]

The allies needed to break the Germans' resistance and cross the Rhine in the Low Countries. General Bernard Montgomery, the hero of the British victory at El Alamein, proposed a daring plan. As recounted in his memoirs, field Marshal Montgomery’s goal was to invade Germany by securing the bridges over the Lower Rhine in the Netherlands.<ref> Montgomery, Bernard Law. ''[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007J1BXO/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0007J1BXO&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=1ed80a46adf53fbeae6a37e7dbcb15e2 Normandy to the Baltic]'' (Hutchinson & Co. London, 1947), p. 157</ref> This idea had several advantages such as by-passing the Siegfried Line. Montgomery wanted an airborne assault in the Netherlands to secure key bridges over the Lower Rhine. This would allow the Allies to enter into the Northern German plains, where there were no natural barriers, to their advance to Berlin.<ref>Burgett, p. 117</ref>