Skype to Connect Kids Across Time and Space

Sixty-five years is an eternity for most ten-year-olds. Chances are, anything that happened that long ago would be ancient history in their young minds. But thanks to the marvels of 21st century technology, the significance of an event that took place long before they were born should feel a lot more immediate to some school children on either side of the Atlantic, who, until recently, knew nothing of their historic connection.

At 9:10 a.m. on April 29, 2010 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Grade 4 and 5 children at Central Public School will go forward in time six hours for a "meet and greet" with their counterparts from Montessori School Tuinstad in the Netherlands, where it will be 3:10 p.m.  

Via Skype, lap top computers, a couple of webcams, and two SMART Boards, the kids will connect in a thoroughly modern way across one ocean and several times zones to commemorate a daring flight that took place that very same day, 65 years before.

The Dutch children will encounter kids from the city that was home to a 21-year-old pilot who flew through terrible weather into Holland with food to save thousands of lives during WWII; the Canadian kids will encounter children who might not even be alive if pilot Bob Upcott and his Lancaster, "Bad Penny" hadn't succeeded in dropping that first load of food thus launching "Operation Manna", a 10-day food relief mission created by the Allies. 

As Managing Editor of Walkerville Publishing, the company which assisted author Glen Mitchell in producing his children's book about Bob Upcott's flight, "A Bad Penny Always Comes Back", I organized this Skype video call not only to connect these children but to hopefully provide them with a clearer understanding of this little known but significant moment in their history, and how it directly affected their lives.

It is very likely that many of the children who were there on that day in 1945 are no longer alive to pass on their story, but hopefully their great grandchildren, their children and their children's children, will tell it for many years to come.

Skype Call a Resounding Success!

Another call between Windsor and Holland is planned to commemorate Remembrance Day in Canada on November 11 at Windsor Airport, in the hanger where one of the last remaining Lancasters in the world, (which has been christened "Bad Penny" to keep alive the memory of pilot Bob Upcott and his flight into war-torn Holland with food for the starving Dutch), is being restored by a team of volunteers. I will post details closer to the date.

Background on the flight of Bad Penny:

Bad Penny Comes Back – Operation Manna Begins

Early morning, April 29, 1945

Delayed by horrendous weather for two days, a Lancaster bomber rumbled down the runway to begin a dangerous journey over the English Channel. But this was no ordinary WWII bombing mission – this was the crucial test flight for “Operation Manna”, the code name for the Allied humanitarian endeavor to feed three million Dutch citizens suffering from a severe food shortage in German-occupied western Holland.

The International Red Cross had accused the Nazis of “planning to starve the Dutch people to death.” By April 1945, desperate residents of western Holland had resorted to potentially toxic tulip bulbs as a source of nourishment.

Not only had the Nazis confiscated food supplies and ruined dykes and bridges, preventing food from growing or being transported, a savagely cold and snowy winter (called the Hongerwinter) had also taken its toll on the Dutch; thousands had died over the last several months.

Something drastic had to be done to help those who had managed to survive thus far and also signal to the Germans that the Allies would not stand idly by.

Piloted by 21-year-old Robert Upcott from Windsor, Ontario, and his brave crew of six young men, including four other Canadians, the Lancaster, named Bad Penny, (as in the old expression “a bad penny always turns up”),would fly low over designated targets and drop precious bundles of food. If she, along with a second Lanc that had followed returned safely, then “Operation Manna” could begin in earnest.

Bad Penny’s pilot and his crew were essentially guinea pigs since there was no signed “do not shoot” agreement by the Nazis. Indeed, as they flew less than one hundred feet up towards their target their stomachs churned at the sight of German guns trained on them from the ground.

After dropping its load and turning back towards England, Bad Penny’s radio operator wired back to base “mission accomplished” and hundreds more bombers carrying foodstuffs for the Dutch began roaring over the Channel later that day.

From April 29 to May 7, 1945, inclusive, RAF Bomber Command delivered 6672 tons of food to the people of western Holland. No. 1, 3 and 8 (Pathfinder). Groups flew a total of 2835 Lancaster sorties and 124 Mosquito sorties.

Upon hearing the remarkable but little known tale of Robert Upcott and his crew’s amazing flight, and of Peter, a boy who saw Bad Penny (and later met some of the crew after moving to Canada), Glen Mitchell was hell bent on preserving this story for all time. He decided his best audience would be children so this first-time author wrote the story, hired an illustrator and the services of Walkerville Publishing (www.walkerville.com) to create a children’s book he called, “A Bad Penny Always Comes Back” (www.badpennybook.com).

Since the book’s release in August 2006, Mitchell has continued his mission to ensure that Bad Penny’s story is never forgotten. A visit there in 2007 to share his book with school children revealed that the story of Bad Penny’s first flight was virtually unknown.

Bad Penny was decommissioned after the war but around the time of Mitchell’s book release in late 2006, a Lancaster (one of under two dozen left in the world) that had been “flying” in the middle of a Windsor park for nearly 50 years, was taken down for restoration work and christened “Bad Penny” in honor of home-town hero Upcott. 

The restoration is being undertaken by the volunteers of the Canadian Historical Aircraft Association to not only honor Bad Penny, Pilot Bob, Peter, but all the children who suffered and were subsequently saved by Operation Manna. Photos of Windsor's Bad Penny, can be seen at  www.ch2a.ca

To learn more about the story of Bad Penny, her crew, (including wireless operator Stan Jones’ personal account of the Bad Penny flight), the war in Holland, and author Glen Mitchell, or to order the book and its companion puzzle, go to: 

www.badpennybook.com 

http://badpenny.uhb.nl. 

http://www.aviodrome.nl/english/

http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/visit_us/at_the_museum/

Here is a radio broadcast from April 1945, describing the food relief effort:

http://archives.cbc.ca/war_conflict/second_world_war/topics/1669-11617/

Sources

http://badpennybook.com/pdf/Dutch-Treat-Article.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Manna

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944

http://operationmanna.secondworldwar.nl/

www.uphillbattle.nl