by anything but the same. Dempsey did convince Montgomery to enlarge the operation so that while Horrocks's XXX Corps would just be the spearhead, it would be accompanied by Ritchie's XII Corps on the left and O'Connor's VIII Corps on the right, and employ three airborne divisions instead of just one. Market-Garden commenced on 17 September. Airborne troops secured a succession of canal and river crossings to enable XXX Corps to reach the Nederrijn at Arnhem and advance into Germany. Intelligence had not detected the presence of unexpected German formations in the area and resistance proved greater than expected, frustrating XXX Corps' attempts to reach its final objective. During the operation, Dempsey, forward near the front with his Tac HQ, witnessed the assault crossing of the Waal by the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division's 504th Parachute Regiment. He later wrote that the 82nd was "easily the best division on the Western front". Dempsey met with the 82nd's commander, Brigadier General James M. Gavin, shook him by the hand and said "I am proud to meet the commander of the greatest division in the world today." Dempsey also impressed the American paratroopers with his demeanour. When a paratrooper told him that all the leaders of his squad were dead, Dempsey replied: "You're in charge." When it became clear that the operation no longer had any chance of success, Dempsey and Horrocks agreed to terminate it and withdraw the 1st Airborne Division from the north bank of the Nederrijn. On 15 October, during a visit to the Second Army, King George VI invested Dempsey in the field with his award of the Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, which had been gazetted on 27 June. The Second Army, with XII and XXX Corps in the vanguard and Simonds's II Canadian Corps under command, and VIII Corps in reserve, eventually crossed the Rhine on 23 March 1945. Dempsey was the first British Army commander to do so. On 7 April, The Illustrated London News carried a full front page of a specially commissioned portrait painting of Dempsey by artist Arthur Pan. In May, Dempsey's men captured Bremen and Kiel. On 3 May, a delegation of senior German officers led by Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg arrived at Dempsey's Tac HQ and after questioning it appeared that Friedeburg was a representative of Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, who wished to surrender to Montgomery. Dempsey sent them