Operation Manna
29 April 1945 — Western Netherlands
- Date
- 29 April 1945
- Target
- Western Netherlands, Netherlands
Narrative
Operation Manna, flown between 29 April and 7 May 1945, was Bomber Command’s mercy mission to the starving western Netherlands. After the failed Arnhem offensive and a Dutch railway strike, the Germans had cut off food to the cities, and the ‘Hunger Winter’ of 1944–45 killed many thousands of civilians. With a local truce arranged, RAF Lancasters — joined by Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Polish crews — flew low over The Hague, Rotterdam and other towns to drop food rather than bombs. In roughly 3,300 sorties they delivered more than 7,000 tons of supplies, while the American Operation Chowhound added thousands of tons more. For aircrew accustomed to destruction, dropping food to crowds waving from the rooftops was an unforgettable end to the war in Europe; the Dutch have never forgotten it.
Sortie details (which aircraft from which squadron, which crew flew, the outcome) will populate this page once the TNA AIR 27 squadron-diary importer arrives.
The fallen
20 airmen in this archive died on 29 April 1945 or the day that followed. For a raid of this kind these are overwhelmingly the night's losses, though a death-date match is not by itself proof an individual flew this operation.
- Flying Officer Gordon Alexander Aubrey (31)
- Flight Sergeant Stuart Berryman (23)
- Flight Lieutenant William Gavin Campbell (23)
- Leading Aircraftman Lawrence Davies (26)
- Corporal Joseph Bridle Ellery
- Flight Sergeant Raymond Ernest Fontaine
- Sergeant James Frederick Heimsath (21)
- Leading Aircraftman William Herbert Henshaw (25)
- Sergeant John Henry Kay (26)
- Pilot Officer Albert Charles Frederick Klingner (26)
- Warrant Officer Class II Thomas Daniel Lawley (20)
- Flying Officer William McCabe (25)
- Flight Sergeant Howard Bryant Montgomery (30)
- Leading Aircraftman Joseph Howarth Redman (36)
- Flying Officer Brian Charles Robinson (22)
- Pilot Officer Geoffrey George Minchin Smith (23)
- Flight Lieutenant Owen Patrick Fewster Taylor (25)
- Flight Sergeant John Lester Tweedy (19)
- Corporal John Cowan Warrender (24)
- Flight Sergeant Edward James Wright (16)
Source: Wikipedia — Operations Manna, Chowhound, and Faust →