Operations Manna and Chowhound

Operation Manna and Operation Chowhound were humanitarian food drops to relieve a famine in the German-occupied Netherlands undertaken by Allied bomber crews during the final days of World War II in Europe. Manna (29 April – 7 May 1945), which dropped 7,000 tonnes of food into the still Nazi-occupied western part of the Netherlands, was carried out by British RAF units and squadrons from the Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Polish air forces. Chowhound (1–8 May 1945), which dropped 4,000 tonnes, was undertaken by the United States Army Air Forces. In total, over 11,000 tonnes of food were dropped over one and a half weeks with the acquiescence of the occupying German forces to help feed Dutch civilians in danger of starvation.

After it was realised that Manna and Chowhound would be insufficient, a ground-based relief operation named Operation Faust was launched. On 2 May, 200 Allied trucks began delivering food to the city of Rhenen, behind German lines.