On the final day of World War II in Europe, the United States and Great Britain went on a mission to defeat an enemy that threatened millions of lives in the Netherlands. It was May 7, 1945 and hundreds of planes from the U.S. Air Force and Britain’s Royal Air Force were called into action.
Crews loaded the Allied planes with over a thousand tons of supplies to be used in the mission. Their target was numerous cities in the German occupied part of the Netherlands.
The Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, cabled the Netherlands government in exile in London with the result of the May 7 mission. It was a success with Rotterdam and Utrecht among the target cities reached in the Netherlands. Many tons were successfully dropped by U.S. and British planes that day, but these were not bombs.
In fact, this Allied mission involved not a single weapon. U.S. and British planes were dropping food to starving people in the Netherlands.
Famine emerged in the German occupied Netherlands during the Hunger Winter of 1944-45. Food had run out and people were dying on a daily basis from hunger. So even though the fighting of World War II in Europe had ground to a halt by May 7, the campaign against hunger was accelerating.
In April, 1945 the Allies negotiated with the German occupying forces in the Netherlands to allow food to be dropped to end the starvation. It was a remarkable humanitarian airlift that got started on April 29 with Operation Manna led by the Royal Air Force. The U.S. Air Force also began food drops into the Netherlands on May 1st with Operation Chowhound.
Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945 with V-E Day (May 8) officially bringing the war in Europe to an end. The enemy of hunger though was still going strong. The U.S. and Britain had to continue with airlifts to save millions from starvation. In early May, Canadian forces began truck convoys of food into the Netherlands.
This heroic mission was made possible by the stockpiling of food in the already liberated section of The Netherlands and in British depots for the air drops.
The Netherlands was saved from famine, but this was just the start of a long war against hunger.
The war against extreme hunger in Europe would continue for years after V-E Day. It took a herculean effort by the United States to prevent the biggest famine in history in Europe after World War II.
That is something we must remember about World War II, the fight against hunger that went on for years in the devastated countries. War always leads to hunger, and the food crisis often continues long past the final shots are fired in a conflict.
Wars taking place today in Gaza, Sudan, D.R. Congo, Ukraine and other nations are causing hunger emergencies. These will continue long after the wars mercifully come to an end.
For those who are making decisions about fighting wars, remember the enemies that emerge as a result. Hunger, as well as chaos result from war. These scourges can have very long lasting implications that can lead to more wars and unrest.
General Eisenhower saw the impact of war up close and spent the rest of his life of service trying to avoid it. People who understand war are the ones most likely to avoid and prevent future ones from occurring.
V-E Day is a celebration of the end of the World War II in Europe. It should also remind us of the horrors that war causes like famine. War always creates that powerful enemy of hunger and famine that is hard to defeat.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book Ending World Hunger. His writings have been published by the Washington Post, Newsweek, Cleveland Plain Dealer and many other news outlets. His father, Vincent, served with the U.S. Army in the liberated section of the Netherlands at the end of World War II.
