"Operation Manna"
This time the bomb bays of Bomber Command aircraft were carrying the much needed food to feed a hungry nation. "Operation Manna"
was first started with RAF bombers flying within specified flight path where they would not be fired. The negotiations had been spurred
into action by Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and the plan has been passed by Churchill and Roosevelt.
Meetings with the German High Command in the still non-liberated part of Holland and by allied participants including
Farley Mowat, later to be a well known Canadian writer, paved the way for a cleared path for the food laden bombers to follow without
danger of air attack or ground defenses.
Food dropped from slings setup within the Lancaster’s big bomb bays would be released to the Dutch people as the Lancasters
flew slow and low over the western parts of the Netherlands where an estimated three million plus people were starving .
And although 419 squadron did not take part in this operation there were Canadians involved in the different stages of the operation.
Canadian airmen made up part of the crew that carried out the first trial run of this operation. Five airmen from Ontario left their base with the belly
of the Lancaster full of food stuffs, they flew the mission before the confirmation of the plan had yet come from the Germans. A Lancaster nick named “Bad Penny"
with Windsor Ontario native Robert Upcott at the controls and his crew made the drop and returned to base without incident
.
Over 3,200 sorties were flown, with Mosquitoes acting as Pathfinders to mark the drop zones, the bigger four engine bombers flying as low
as 400 feet to drop their loads as close as possible to the waiting people below. In all approximately 6,700 tons of food were dropped by the RAF.
While not a complete success it did indeed save many lives. Problems with the distribution of the goods once on the ground took up time
needed to those save those in the last stages of starvation. It was a problem beyond control of the RAF or the USAAF who were also dropping food stuffs via
Operation Chowhound
To the Dutch it was a moral builder of sorts, they were not forgotten in their time of need, nor did they forget those who had brought them from a state of
starvation to live to see their country liberated. To the occupying German troops it must have been a sign of the beginning of the end.
The Allies were able to continue their war efforts on two fronts and still have resources to help out with a massive air lift of supplies.