During World War II, the 17th Airborne Division earned more Medals of Honor than any other airborne division and sustained casualties nearly double the daily combat average of the other airborne divisions. In the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge, the troopers of the 17th entered combat in waist-high snow with poor intelligence and inadequate artillery support, facing two German panzer armies in a bloody combat on a narrow, high-rimmed road known as Dead Man's Ridge. In early March 1945, the division participated in Operation Varsity, the last airborne operation of the war, executing a daylight jump into the Ruhr heartland, across the Rhine River.