The third issue of the miniseries War Year 1944 reminds us that the German army was far from defeated in the penultimate year of World War II. The Czech Mint dedicated the gold coin to the infamous Market Garden operation.

It seemed that the war on the Western Front would end soon after the defeat of the German troops in France in August 1944. The Germans retreated and the Allies sought a way to break into the heart of the Third Reich as quickly as possible. An ambitious plan to make this possible was drawn up by British Field Marshal Montgomery. His operation consisted of two parts. The task of Market Operation was to occupy the bridges across the Rhine in the occupied Netherlands, with the help of a massive deployment of paratroopers. This was followed by Garden Operation, or the transfer of tank troops from the Belgian borders to positions previously secured by paratroopers. Operation Market Garden began on September 17, 1944 and became the largest airborne operation in history. It was attended by 35 thousand British, American and Polish paratroopers, which was twice more than the invasion of Normandy. But the soldiers who believed that their mission would decide the war till Christmas did not know that they would jump straight to hell. The intelligence did not see the elite tank forces of the SS, which moved to the Eindhoven-Nijmegen-Arnhem area only shortly before the operation to recharge their forces after the hard fighting on the Eastern Front. Although battling like lions, lightly armed paratroopers could not compete with the strength of the German armor. There was no reinforcement from Garden Operation because the Allied ground forces could not reach the bridges in time. Market Garden Operation ended on September, 25 with a significant defeat of the Allies. Although the ambitious Montgomery categorically rejected the misconduct, the numbers spoke clearly. More than 17 thousand paratroopers were killed, wounded or captured. The operation, which entered history, did not speed up the end of the war - on the contrary, it lasted a quarter of a year longer…

The medal maker Mgr. Petr Horák depicted airborne landing- allied parachutists jump out of the Dakota aircraft over the Dutch landscape on the reverse side of the coin. The English inscription bears MARKET GARDEN OPERATION. The obverse side is common to the entire miniseries War Year 1944. It presents the flags of the states that participated in the operations together with the essential elements of the coin issuer. Since the Pacific Island of Niue provides the Czech Mint with a license to to coin its own commemorative coins, it bears the profile and the name of the ruler Elizabeth II, the nominal value of 5 DOLLARS (NZD), together with the year of the issue 2019.

The collection of war coins can be stored in the thematic tin etui which can also be found in the offer of the Czech Mint.