COMMEMORATIONS

Not only in the Netherlands is the memory of the mercy missions kept alive with events.

In July 1995 the Nanton Lancaster Society held an operation Manna Commemoration Day. Nanton is located in Alberta Canada. On that day a crowd of over 2000 people attended the commemoration. A large number of these people were Dutch Canadians.

The day was completed with the fly past of a Lancaster and several other planes. One aircraft dropped 180 parachuted miniature loaves of bread and candies, to the awestruck crowd.

Photos of the Lancaster bomber in the Bomber Command museum in Nanton, Alberta, Canada.

Click on the photo for a larger version

The anniversary of the mercy missions does not go by unnoticed in England. The Amsterdam branch of the Royal Air force Association has it's own yearly event. They drop cheese into the gardens of Sussexdown.

The local newspaper the West Sussex County Times recalled the event in June 1998 in the following words:

"Cheeses fell from the sky in Storrington when the annual Dutch Day celebrated 25 years on Tuesday 16, 1998. It was held at Sussexdown, the nursing home of the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA) to commemorate operation Manna, the food-dropping by the RAF over starving Holland which took place in April 1945. Dutch Day is the way the Amsterdam Branch of the RAFA say thank you for the life saving deed."



Operation Manna / Chowhound event at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, USA



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The Manna Monument at Terbregge

At the exact spot of one of the dropzones overlooking the freeway at Terbregge is the Manna monument located. It symbolizes the belly of an allied bomber filled with food parcels. The monument has been the central location of the Manna / Chowhound commemorations since its unveilling in 2006. One year later the Air Commodore Geddes footpath was opened next to the memorial.

Diary of Norman Coats

May 3 - "Another mercy mission to Holland. We went deeper into Holland today. Very low altitude. I believe I must have waved at everyone in Holland. It is really a shame the ocean being turned into Holland. The great fields of tulips are beautiful. They had, "Thank You" spelled out with rocks. They could see me waving at them because they would point each others attention to it. Some of them had American flags waving them."