Most people know about Arnhem and the bridge too far. But the critical battle was at Nijmegen — the Waal River bridge — where a group of American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne executed one of the most audacious daylight river crossings in military history on September 20, 1944. In freezing water, 26 men of Company C, 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry, paddled across in canvas boats under direct fire. Of the 26, only 8 made it across alive, but they secured the north end of the bridge long enough for tanks to cross. What is never mentioned: among the dead was Private First Class Charles O. Daniel, a 19-year-old from Georgia who had received a battlefield commission to second lieutenant just two hours before the crossing. He never got to wear his new rank.