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00:09Operation Market Garden
00:10was a bold gamble to end the war before Christmas.
00:13The largest airborne operation in the history of the world.
00:16There will never be another one like it.
00:18And it failed.
00:20More soldiers died
00:23on the first day
00:24than the Americans have lost
00:26in the entire Iraq war.
00:33Hell's Highway
00:34was named of the character that gave
00:35this narrow band of roadway
00:38because the battle for it was
00:40true hell.
00:50Why make a video game
00:51about a battle
00:53where the guys that you're becoming
00:56the allies lose?
00:57Why do that?
00:58Because of the strategic defeat
01:00I think this is one of the most interesting stories.
01:03It's not your usual story
01:04where at the end there's a victory parade
01:06and everyone has patted each other on the back
01:08and said wow we did it.
01:10That kind of backdrop where things don't always work out
01:12makes for some very interesting opportunities for storytelling.
01:17On the 17th of September 1944
01:20it was a quiet day
01:21in Eindhoven
01:23in Zaun
01:23and on the Belgium border.
01:25The sky filled with airplanes.
01:2835,000 paratroopers
01:29were being flown.
01:30In countless flights of C-47s
01:33the German soldiers looked up into the sky
01:35and their jaws dropped.
01:37We're heading into Highland
01:39and opening up a goddamn highway.
01:41Operation Market Garden
01:42was a pretty bold plan.
01:43The big pitch was
01:44we'll just march right into Berlin
01:45you know
01:46and that's a long march.
01:47We punch through the German line
01:49punch straight into Berlin
01:50punch Hitler in the face
01:52win the war
01:52and be home by Christmas.
01:54They were going to drop
01:55a carpet of paratroopers
01:56to seize the bridges
01:58across the canals in Holland
02:00that led along a very thin road
02:03all the way to the Rhine River
02:0460 miles in length.
02:05The Germans were certainly not ready
02:07to just allow that to happen.
02:08Everything had to go
02:09according to plan
02:10and if any one aspect of it failed
02:12the whole thing would just start to unravel.
02:17In military operations
02:18very seldom does everything go wrong.
02:20Germans!
02:21Find cover!
02:22Now!
02:23Move!
02:24The German army pulled off a miracle.
02:26They happened by chance
02:27to place two tank divisions
02:29in Holland
02:30to rest and recuperate.
02:34Going in
02:35it was planned that
02:36we were just fighting
02:36old men and young boys.
02:39They didn't plan
02:39to fight
02:40two whole divisions
02:42of tanks.
02:45A German tank
02:46is a pretty impressive thing
02:47in 1944.
02:52Between that
02:53and the weather
02:53and all the mist drops
02:54and the lack of reinforcement drops
02:56just couldn't hold on to it.
02:59Get this tank off blue!
03:01There's Jerry all over!
03:02We need support now!
03:04Not supplied,
03:05not equipped,
03:05starving,
03:06hungry,
03:07wet, cold, tired
03:08and getting killed.
03:11Bob!
03:12Bob!
03:14Once the Germans
03:15understood what was going on
03:17they immediately
03:17counterattacked.
03:18They surrounded the corridor
03:19and they crushed it.
03:21They were way behind enemy lines.
03:23They were outnumbered.
03:24The paratroopers
03:25were on their own.
03:29We have an outstanding department
03:32that just focuses
03:33on all the authentic details.
03:35Basically we create
03:36the time
03:37and the place
03:38trying to bring
03:39all these people
03:40to life.
03:41The British government
03:41had spy planes
03:43taking photographs
03:44of Operation Market Garden
03:45every three hours
03:46during the battle.
03:47I mean we're able to like
03:48look at the details of it
03:49and see, you know,
03:50each artillery piece
03:51and some of the photographs
03:52you can actually see
03:53in the middle of a fight.
03:54Unlike other video games,
03:56when we have historical photos,
03:57historical references,
03:59we've got to put it in there.
04:00Rather than just
04:01making up a field
04:02or doing whatever
04:02I wanted to,
04:03I could actually go and say like,
04:04okay, well here is
04:05the village of Zaun
04:06and here is what
04:07this field behind this farm
04:09actually looks like
04:09and I can actually recreate that.
04:11Like we went out
04:12and did a tank shoot.
04:12We went out and recorded jukes.
04:14We went out and did a gun shoot.
04:15We did things like that
04:17to make sure that
04:18it was as close to being
04:19what, you know,
04:20it should be.
04:21I've even taken them out
04:22on a field training exercise
04:23where they had an opportunity
04:24to actually practice being soldiers.
04:26We would find more photos
04:27of really intense situations.
04:30Guys carrying other guys
04:31or guys like wounded
04:33or even dead soldiers
04:34on the side of the road
04:34and it's like this guy's
04:35buddy is dead
04:36and like there's a story
04:37there behind that photo
04:38and, you know,
04:39that's what we're trying
04:40to get across.
04:42Some of the stories
04:43we learned from the veterans
04:44were just grim.
04:47The kind of stuff
04:47you actually can't retell.
04:48The guy who picked up
04:49his friend's gun
04:50and it wouldn't fire
04:51because his friend's brain matter
04:53was stuck in the breach.
04:55We met with George Koskamacki
04:57who wrote many great books
04:59on World War II.
05:00But he told us
05:01of moving into the outskirts
05:02of Zaun.
05:03They entered a small barn
05:04and they had seen
05:06a Dutch civilian,
05:07a teenage girl
05:08who had been hung
05:09by the Germans.
05:10And when he told us
05:11this part of the story
05:12he got really choked up.
05:13This really bothered him.
05:14But that's what
05:15we really wanted to get.
05:15We wanted people to feel that way.
05:17We wanted to say,
05:17this is a video game
05:18but we really are trying
05:19to capture what happened
05:20in World War II.
05:21These men survived
05:22and that's why we're honoring them.
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