Sjaak van Dam W4RIS / PA3GVR and his team in the USA.
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Operation Chowhound.
On the 23rd April 1945, a convoys of lorries made their way through narrow lanes towards the American Bomber airfields in the east of England. What they were carrying was secret, but not deadly. The sleek metal containers were designed to carry supplies. Ground crews had been briefed on how to load these containers. Air crews were given training in low level flying and how to drop these strange cylinders, dropping them over the runways. On the 25th April, the containers were loaded with food, and crews were briefed on their secret mission; dropping food to the Dutch.
They were told that there were thousands of people in Holland dying of starvation due to the Nazi forces actions. Thanks to negotiations, there was a truce. As long as the bombers stuck to a set heading and height, the Nazi forces would allow food to be dropped to the Dutch population at the designated drop zones. The crews could only have one shot at dropping the food, and were not allowed to take any hostile actions against the Nazi forces.
The missions were not classed as combat missions, but if the took fire from the ground as some did the crew were credited with a combat mission, many ground crew flew along to assist with the dropping of food. Several crew members added chewing gum, chocolate, oranges, cigarettes and anything else they thought would be appreciated by the Dutch.
Operation Chowhound dropped 4000 tons of food from the first until the eighth of May 1945 along with the operation Manna contribution 11000 tons of food were dropped. It is estimated by some experts the lives of four Million people were saved.