An Allied military campaign in World War II. Following the Normandy Campaign, Montgomery’s forces captured Antwerp (4 September) and crossed the Albert Canal. The US 1st Army captured Namur and Aachen, while the US 3rd Army moved east and reached the Moselle. Montgomery’s attempt to seize the lower Rhine by dropping the 1st Airborne Division at Arnhem ended in failure. In November the Germans consolidated and in December launched a counter-attack in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge. In January 1945 Montgomery’s forces pushed forward to the Rhine. In March a massive bombardment at Wesel preceded a successful crossing of the lower Rhine by Montgomery’s troops. The US 7th Army pushed east towards Munich, French forces moved up the upper Rhine to Lake Constance, and the US 3rd Army advanced to Leipzig and across the Austrian border into Czechoslovakia. On 11 April Montgomery reached the River Elbe. Following the capture of Berlin by the Red Army and the suicide of Hitler (30 April), Montgomery received the surrender of the German forces in north-west Europe on Lüneburg Heath on 4 May. Four days later (V-E Day), the war in Europe was declared at an end.