An account of Operation Manna
Title
An account of Operation Manna
Description
An account of events leading up to, and during Operation Manna, plus personal involvement. Page contains head and shoulders photograph of Jeff Brown, in uniform, showing an air gunners brevet and sergeants stripes.
Creator
Date
1944-09
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
One type-written sheet
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
MBrownJ2205595-170131-010001
Transcription
Operation Manna
1944 September
Railways in Western Holland go on strike. German Reichkommissar, Seyss-Inquart, denies the Dutch the use of transportation for food supplies.
October
Dutch Government in exile (London) warns allies of famine in occupied Holland. Electricity and gas supplies terminated.
November
First famine casualties in cities.
December
Bread ration down to 1000 grams per week
1945 January
Severe winter weather Queen Wilhelmina writes to King George and President Roosevelt about the famine in Holland. Sugar beets distributed for human consumption. Soup kitchens in Amsterdam use tulip bulbs for human consumption. Daily ration of soup, half a litre. Two Swedish ships allowed to bring flour and margarine.
February
Wholesale starvation. Funerals in big cities impossible due to lack of coffins. Dutch government requests allied offensive to stop further starvation. Eisenhower explains the impossibility of an offensive.
March
Some supplies arrive from Portugal.
April
Soup kitchens can only supply food every other day.
Agreement signed for air dropping of food supplies by British and American planes. Bread ration down to 400 grams per week.
29th April
Operation ‘Manna’ (British) commences.
May 1st
Operation ‘Chowhound’ (American) commences.
May 8th
V.E. day. Final food drops. Thousands of Dutch people saved from starvation.
May 9th
Seyss-Inquart arrested – later tried as a war criminal and hung.
The allied air forces flew over 5000 sorties and dropped nearly 12,000 tons of food in ten days of operations.
At this time I was a young lad of nineteen, an air gunner on No. 576 Squadron. From the first to the eighth of May, I flew on five Manna operations, four to Rotterdam and one to Valkenburg.
Jeff Brown
[photograph]
Jeff Brown, September 1944
1944 September
Railways in Western Holland go on strike. German Reichkommissar, Seyss-Inquart, denies the Dutch the use of transportation for food supplies.
October
Dutch Government in exile (London) warns allies of famine in occupied Holland. Electricity and gas supplies terminated.
November
First famine casualties in cities.
December
Bread ration down to 1000 grams per week
1945 January
Severe winter weather Queen Wilhelmina writes to King George and President Roosevelt about the famine in Holland. Sugar beets distributed for human consumption. Soup kitchens in Amsterdam use tulip bulbs for human consumption. Daily ration of soup, half a litre. Two Swedish ships allowed to bring flour and margarine.
February
Wholesale starvation. Funerals in big cities impossible due to lack of coffins. Dutch government requests allied offensive to stop further starvation. Eisenhower explains the impossibility of an offensive.
March
Some supplies arrive from Portugal.
April
Soup kitchens can only supply food every other day.
Agreement signed for air dropping of food supplies by British and American planes. Bread ration down to 400 grams per week.
29th April
Operation ‘Manna’ (British) commences.
May 1st
Operation ‘Chowhound’ (American) commences.
May 8th
V.E. day. Final food drops. Thousands of Dutch people saved from starvation.
May 9th
Seyss-Inquart arrested – later tried as a war criminal and hung.
The allied air forces flew over 5000 sorties and dropped nearly 12,000 tons of food in ten days of operations.
At this time I was a young lad of nineteen, an air gunner on No. 576 Squadron. From the first to the eighth of May, I flew on five Manna operations, four to Rotterdam and one to Valkenburg.
Jeff Brown
[photograph]
Jeff Brown, September 1944
Collection
Citation
Jeff Brown, “An account of Operation Manna,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed October 30, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/15903.
Item Relations
This item has no relations.