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65th Anniversary of Food Drop in Holland
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by skintone | April 29, 2010 at 06:57 am
663 views | 4 Recommendations | 4 comments
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Today, April 29th, 2010 marks the 65th anniversary of the test flight of Bad Penny, a Lancaster bomber flown by Bob Upcott of Windsor, Ontario into war-torn western Holland. Upcott's mission was to be the first to drop food bundles for the starving Dutch. The people in that area of the country had suffered terribly from a long Nazi occupation and a brutal winter. Tens of thousands had died of starvation during the winter and spring and others were subsisting on whatever food they could scavenge, sometimes only sugar beets and tulip bulbs.
Because Bob Upcott and his crew returned safely, "Operation Manna", the Allies' code for their humanitarian food drop effort, was able to start in earnest. This ten-day mission not only saved lives but was another signal to the Germans that they had lost the war.
For more information and to learn about the story of Bad Penny, Bob Upcott and his crew, read "A Bad Penny Always Comes Back" by Glen Mitchell.
badpennybook.com
This site features a fascinating interview with Upcott about his flight several years after the war:
http://operationmanna.secondworldwar.nl/commemorations2.html
In Holland, an official commemoration took place on April 29/10 at (horse) race track Duindigt in Wassenaar (one of the food drop sites) and at the Manna monument in Terbregge outside of Rotterdam:
http://operationmanna.secondworldwar.nl/2010/
Uphill Battle, a book promotion company in the Netherlands, created this effective video to explain the importance of the flight of Bad Penny
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZfzrBRm3VA
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skintone
Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 07:58 on April 29th, 2010
Great story. It helps people in Canada remember the brave people that helped forge the strong bonds between Canada and Holland. We had a premier in BC - Van der Zaam - who lived through the famine, surviving on tulip bulbs.
at 08:06 on April 29th, 2010
I remember him well. I didn't realize he had lived through that time but i guess he is old enough! There was a Skype video call this morning between school kids in Windsor and Dutch kids in Terbregge where the Operation Manna monument is. Very exciting and a great way to keep the bond strong between the two countries. i hope to post photos soon.
at 11:27 on April 30th, 2010
Thank you to these brave men. Without their efforts my parents may not have survived to eventually come to Canada and create me. Their experience in that famine shaped my childhood and to this day affects my relationship to food and waste. I really hate to see food wasted!
at 06:45 on May 1st, 2010
Thank you for sharing your story anarkissed. That people were able to survive those many months of starvation, deprivation, fear and anarchy is testament to the strength of the human spirit. We live in such a land of peace and plenty it is even harder to imagine what they suffered on a daily basis. And of course, what so many continue to suffer around the world today.
That is why it is vital that we remember not only that war and brutality happens, we must remember those who have the courage to risk all to help others in need, like the crew of the Bad Penny did that early morning, 65 years ago. As they flew below 100 feet to locate their food drop targets, the crew of that first plane in could see the muzzles of enemy guns; there was no signed agreement by the Nazis not to shoot them down.