An occasion which remains vividly with me to this day occurred on 30th. April 1945.

Piloting a Lancaster bomber with the rest of 514 Squadron we went unarmed and at low level to Rotterdam in Holland whilst the German army was still in occupation. The Dutch people were by this time starving and relied only on eating tulip bulbs, leaves, flowers, berries and scraps found in garbage. Death by starvation was a daily occurrence..

We made several runs over the city at low level and finally dropped several panniers of food into the main square. .One could see the Dutch people waving. with happy smiling faces. An incredible sight never to be forgotten. Two days later we carried out a similar operation over The Hague. I sometimes wonder if any surviving Dutch people occasionally gaze skywards today remembering the sounds of our Lancasters merlin engines so often heard by them during WW2 and think about those terrible times..

I’m lucky, I’m still around in February 2016.
Good luck to all at IBCC. Jim Eley.