YouTube - Operatie Manna, voedseldropping boven Rotterdam eind april 1945 Recently found and restored material
Thanks Philip. My Grandfather must have seen the drops over Ypenburg as he and his family lived very close to that airfield. When my Mum was reunited with her family many months after the war ended, he still had a bad case of hunger odema. A link to a site about Operation Manna. More than food, the Manna-Chowhound fooddrops Groetjes - Rob
In 2006 the memorial you can see in the pictures below was erected. A modern one which can take some getting used to... It depicts the cargo hold of a bomber (grey) with the foodboxes (yellow). Regards, Marco
A map of Ypenburg from the 1940's with what looks like unit locations. I've marked the location of my Grand Parents house in red. Wonder what they and my Mum must have felt when the aerodrome was attacked in May 1940 and when the Operation Manna food drops happened five years later. The usual story, nobody wanted to talk about it and only recent research gave me the basic outline of that time in my Family's history. The site of the aerodrome is now covered by housing. I remember walking with my Parents to a farm next to the old aerodrome to get milk and eggs in the late 1960's.
Dutch bulb mosaic marks Operation Manna campaign. A floral mosaic showing a Lancaster bomber dropping food supplies in Nazi-occupied Holland has been unveiled at Lincoln Cathedral. For 10 days from 29 April 1945, Operation Manna dropped nearly 7,000 tonnes of food over The Netherlands. The country had lost 20,000 people through starvation, with a further 980,000 classed as malnourished. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-32388511