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Airborne soldiers on D-Day took disproportionately high casualties compared to the beach landings (with the exception of Omaha) while the airborne attack on Arnheim proved to be a failure. The success of the Allies in using parachute regiments to capture airstrips in Burma was only due to the involvement of ground forces as well as airborne troops. In the western sector of Europe, the speed of the Allies advance was such that the time to plan and co-ordinate a massed airborne raid was never available. Most senior military commanders saw the role of the airborne troops simply as to seize strategic sites (such as bridges in the example at Arnheim) and to hold them until ground troops arrived. In 'Operation Varsity', airborne troops held a ridge overlooking the River Rhine to give support to the ground troops who needed to cross the river before moving on. In this example, the paratroopers were also expected to fight off any German attack which would hinder the speed of the crossing of the River Rhine. On many occasions, paratroopers were used as normal infantrymen. This happened in both the European conflict as well as in the Pacific. During the Battle of the Bulge, Eisenhower used three airborne divisions as infantry units to fight off the German counter-offensives. In the Philippines, the US 11th Airborne Division fought as regular infantrymen.