One of the most unbelievable bombing missions by the Allies in World War II took place in the closing days of the war, but instead of dropping bombs that resulted in death and destruction, the four-engine British Lancaster and American Flying Fortress bombers were dropping rations for salvation and mercy. After the ambitious, yet failed Operation Market-Garden took place in the Netherlands in September 1944, the Dutch people were stricken with what is referred to as the Hongerwinter or “hunger winter.” The famine, paired with a lack of fuel for warmth, led to an estimated 20,000 civilian deaths. With only half of the country liberated, those in the northern and western portions suffered from continued occupation by German forces, limited food supplies, and the cold season of northwest Europe.
As the war was wrapping up in April of 1945, in an effort to alleviate the suffering of the Dutch, the Allies devised a plan to deliver much needed food via airlift. In a pre-cursor to the famous Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, the plan was complicated for a number of reasons, one of the biggest being the fact that the Germans had their anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) positioned to shoot flak up at the Allied bomber formations on the way to their raids over Nazi Germany.
