Post by Dave Homewood on May 21, 2007 0:23:48 GMT 12
This is a fascinating piece of history i didn't know, Operation Manna. And the connection between the two Wigram guides is neat too.
We'll meet again...
REBECCA TODD - The Press | Thursday, 26 April 2007
If you ever needed proof that it's a small world after all, sit down for a chat with Nevill Staples and Luke Damen.
The two Wigram Air Force Museum workers have a connection spanning both the globe and a lifetime _ and one may have saved the other's life.
On May 4, 1945, just days before the end of World War 2, Royal Air Force 75 Squadron (NZ) set off on Operation Manna, a organised drop of 6700 tonnes of food to the starving people of Holland.
The country was in the grips of a famine _ reduced to eating tulip bulb soup _ after four years of Nazi occupation.
More than 20,000 people died during what is infamously known as the hongerwinter or hunger winter of 1944. Thousands of planes were involved in the operation. It was arranged with the Germans who, realising they were near defeat, allowed the allied planes a low clear-flying zone.
New Zealand-born Nevill Staples was navigating one of the Lancaster aircraft flying over Holland that day, their bomb bays bursting with food.
Born in Gore in 1922, Staples volunteered for the air force when he was 19. He thought becoming a fighter pilot was "the thing to do".
A slight problem with his eyesight which had him attempting a near-perfect landing while still 20-feet above ground saw him train as a navigator.
After completing training in Canada, he moved to Britain to start operations in late 1944. "On normal operations we didn't get told until the day of the operation so we had very little notice, but with this one we knew beforehand," he said.
The Kiwi was excited at the prospect of the drop. Accustomed to night flying at 20,000 feet or more, the opportunity to fly low over a foreign land in daylight was thrilling. "It wasn't a surprising thing to happen and we felt rather privileged that we were on one of the crews that got to go."
He flicks through his old log book to find the entry which reads "4 May 1945, Lancaster Navigator, food drop to Dutch people, target _ The Hague".
On the ground, quaking at the sound of yet more bombers heading towards his village was Luke Damen.
Born in The Hague in 1938, Damen was just seven but already knew of the destruction wreaked by allied bombs.
Germans had been hiding out in the forest near his town, firing V-2 rockets at Britain.
On March 3, 1945, Britain decided to retaliate. A slight mistake in co-ordinates made Damen's town square the accidental target.
Bombs rained down on his family's heads, destroying his home and much of the town and killing hundreds.
"It was quite a horrific experience because I was only a youngster. You don't forget that sort of thing in a hurry."
But these planes flying overhead on May 4 were different.
"We heard this enormous roar coming up from the planes and I was diving on the ground, but my brother said `they are not bombs this time come have a look'. You have never seen anything like it."
They were flying so low, Damen could see the crew through the planes' glass noses ntsa_ and he remembers waving hello nte.
He knew everything was OK when they started waving back.
After months of very little food and eating "absolutely disgusting" tulip bulb soup, the biscuits and bacon from the drop was like the name Manna _ heaven sent. Damen moved to New Zealand in 1962 and has lived in Christchurch since.
He has been volunteering at the Air Force Museum for 10 years where Staples has 20-years experience.
"It's possible that I stood there waving at him (Staples) and that so many years later we should meet up at the Air Force Museum and both be guides there is amazing."
We'll meet again...
REBECCA TODD - The Press | Thursday, 26 April 2007
If you ever needed proof that it's a small world after all, sit down for a chat with Nevill Staples and Luke Damen.
The two Wigram Air Force Museum workers have a connection spanning both the globe and a lifetime _ and one may have saved the other's life.
On May 4, 1945, just days before the end of World War 2, Royal Air Force 75 Squadron (NZ) set off on Operation Manna, a organised drop of 6700 tonnes of food to the starving people of Holland.
The country was in the grips of a famine _ reduced to eating tulip bulb soup _ after four years of Nazi occupation.
More than 20,000 people died during what is infamously known as the hongerwinter or hunger winter of 1944. Thousands of planes were involved in the operation. It was arranged with the Germans who, realising they were near defeat, allowed the allied planes a low clear-flying zone.
New Zealand-born Nevill Staples was navigating one of the Lancaster aircraft flying over Holland that day, their bomb bays bursting with food.
Born in Gore in 1922, Staples volunteered for the air force when he was 19. He thought becoming a fighter pilot was "the thing to do".
A slight problem with his eyesight which had him attempting a near-perfect landing while still 20-feet above ground saw him train as a navigator.
After completing training in Canada, he moved to Britain to start operations in late 1944. "On normal operations we didn't get told until the day of the operation so we had very little notice, but with this one we knew beforehand," he said.
The Kiwi was excited at the prospect of the drop. Accustomed to night flying at 20,000 feet or more, the opportunity to fly low over a foreign land in daylight was thrilling. "It wasn't a surprising thing to happen and we felt rather privileged that we were on one of the crews that got to go."
He flicks through his old log book to find the entry which reads "4 May 1945, Lancaster Navigator, food drop to Dutch people, target _ The Hague".
On the ground, quaking at the sound of yet more bombers heading towards his village was Luke Damen.
Born in The Hague in 1938, Damen was just seven but already knew of the destruction wreaked by allied bombs.
Germans had been hiding out in the forest near his town, firing V-2 rockets at Britain.
On March 3, 1945, Britain decided to retaliate. A slight mistake in co-ordinates made Damen's town square the accidental target.
Bombs rained down on his family's heads, destroying his home and much of the town and killing hundreds.
"It was quite a horrific experience because I was only a youngster. You don't forget that sort of thing in a hurry."
But these planes flying overhead on May 4 were different.
"We heard this enormous roar coming up from the planes and I was diving on the ground, but my brother said `they are not bombs this time come have a look'. You have never seen anything like it."
They were flying so low, Damen could see the crew through the planes' glass noses ntsa_ and he remembers waving hello nte.
He knew everything was OK when they started waving back.
After months of very little food and eating "absolutely disgusting" tulip bulb soup, the biscuits and bacon from the drop was like the name Manna _ heaven sent. Damen moved to New Zealand in 1962 and has lived in Christchurch since.
He has been volunteering at the Air Force Museum for 10 years where Staples has 20-years experience.
"It's possible that I stood there waving at him (Staples) and that so many years later we should meet up at the Air Force Museum and both be guides there is amazing."
