The 50th Division had a minor role in Operation Market Garden: on 17 September Stanier's 2nd Dorsets actually supported the Irish Guards Group at the beginning of the Guards Armoured Division's attack up the road towards the airborne troops' drop zones on the way to Arnhem, but as the operation progressed the division was left to protect the narrow corridor behind the advancing tanks. After the failure of Market Garden, the 50th Division was left to defend the captured area beyond the River Waal against determined German counter-attacks in early October 1944. Stanier was later awarded a Bar to his DSO for his actions during the autumn of bitter fighting in the Rhine valley.