Approximately 20,000 people had died through starvation, with a further 980,000 classed as malnourished. Desperation had lead to many having to survive by eating small animals including pets and tulip bulbs, some of which were poisonous.

Scooping out the remains at a soup kitchen

Negotiations for a truce to be agreed between the allies and Nazis had already begun in the winter of 1944/45, after pressure had been placed on Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt by Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. This agreement would allow the humanitarian relief for the starving Dutch people.

There was much work to be done to enable this rescue mission to take place.  Key amongst these was the arrangement for a ceasefire to enable the safe transit of the food aid. Food had to be sourced and mechanisms for dropping it safely had to be researched and trialed.  The dropping of the food followed a huge logistical programme which was masterminded by Air Cdre Andrew Geddes. He was also responsible for negotiating the ceasefire with the Axis forces. The Dutch call him the Man of Manna.

The Dutch authorities had only one day’s notice in which to arrange for the actual collection of the food once it had hit the ground, and to arrange for its transportation from the fields.  There were six designated drop zones: Valkjenburg airfield (Katwijk) , Duindigt Racecourse and the Ypenburg Airfield (The Hague), Waalhaven Airfield and Kralingse Plas (Rotterdam) and Gouda.  To each of these an air corridor had been agreed under the terms of the ceasefire.

Food being transported from the drop site to The Hague

It was reported by a member of the first crew that flew, that at Terbregge in the Rotterdam area, not even a horse drawn cart could enter the enormous field and thousands of men had to manually collect and carry the food by hand. First Aid posts were also set up across the country as there was a real fear of food parcels actually striking and injuring the people in the fields, who were awaiting the arrival of the aircraft. The Germans decided that anti-aircraft guns would be placed at certain drop sites as a precaution. The idea was that they could react immediately if it turned out that the Allied aircraft dropped paratroopers instead of food!

Leaflets like this were delivered to alert the population, help was on its way

Food packs included tinned items, dried food, tea and coffee and chocolate.  After much testing of different packaging, hessian sacks were used, some of which were sourced from the US Army.

The ceasefire was signed on the 30th April.  Operation Chowhound, the US Army Air Forces aid drop, started on the 1st May and delivered a further 4,000 tons of food.  This was followed, on the 2nd May, with a ground based relief mission, Operation Faust.  It is estimated that these drops saved nearly a million Dutch people from starvation.

The Dutch showed their gratitude for the drops in a number of ways.  Here marked with empty food bags

Three aircraft were lost during the operation, two in a collision and one suffered an engine fire.  Despite the ceasefire, several aircraft returned with individual bullet holes, assumed to have been fire from individual German soldiers.

For more images from Operation Manna click here

Hear an account of the Op by Norman Wilkins here and an interview with the world’s leading expert on Op Manna, Johannes Onderwater here