Operation Faust, 1945: the units and vehicles

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Many people have heard about Operation Manna and Operation Chowhound. These were humanitarian food drops carried out to relieve a famine in German-occupied Holland, undertaken by Allied bomber crews during the final days of World War II in Europe. Far less people know about the ground-based relief operation named Operation Faust. On 2 May 1945, 360 Canadian and British trucks began delivering food to the city of Rhenen, behind German lines.

To commemorate this Operation which saved thousands of civilian lives, an event is being organised to recreate and remember Operation Faust by driving along the historic route from Den Bosch via Wageningen and Rhenen to Utrecht in May 2020.

To better prepare this event, this thread is placeholder to research the units and vehicles involved in Operation Faust.

If you have anything to add, please do! This Operation is not very well documented and we need to bring this back from oblivion. An essential part of the event in 2020 is to inform the public on what happened back then. This will include material for school kids to use for study, lectures and presentations.

Thanks in advance!
Hanno
Organization Committee Operation Faust, Keep Them Rolling Association

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Here are some websites with partial quotes as reading material:

Operations Manna, Chowhound, and Faust - 29 Apr 1945 - 10 May 1945:

The third effort, Operation Faust, began at 0730 hours on 2 May 1945 and ended on 10 May 1945. During this operation, 360 Allied trucks (from 8 Canadian and 4 British transport platoons) conducted multiple round trips, delivering a total of about 9,000 tons of food and supplies to a designated area between the villages of Wageningen and Rhenen in central Netherlands. Logistical problems prevented Faust supplies from being distributed to the civilians in Amsterdam until 10 May 1945, in The Hague until 11 May 1945, and in Utrecht until 11 May 1945, however. While Operation Faust officially concluded on 10 May, 200 Canadian trucks remained on food distribution missions in the Netherlands for some time to come.

Humanitarian Aid to the Dutch-Operation Faust :

This leads me to the few memories of the Liberation of Holland that my grandfather Morley Roy (Mike) Brown shared. He told us that he usually transported ammunition. (...) The ammo was removed from the truck and replaced with flour and sugar – these are the two commodities that my Gpa Mike remembers transporting. He remembers that the civilians were in such dire straights. They welcomed the Canadians with open arms. My grandfather had picked up some Dutch at this point so that it could be explained to the Dutch that their part of the homeland was still considered Nazi-occupied so to keep alert, be careful and stay inside. The fact that my grandfather had this level of interaction with the Dutch civilians while delivering sugar and flour leads me to believe that he was a part of the Canadian group that assisted the Dutch with the distribution of the supplies beyond 10 May.

Operation Faust: THE WAGENINGEN - RHENEN TRUCK EXPRESS:

Extract from the book On to Victory from Mark Zuehlke:
"Captain Robert H. Parkinson's platoon from 1st Canadian Armoured Brigad, Royal Canadian Army Service Courps, was first to enter hte German lines. Each truck had a white flag mounted on the front fender, but the drivers all had a weapon discreetly hidden in the cab and were under instructions not to get out of the truck for any reason. "We knew we were taking food to the Dutch people. It was interesting and somewhat scary as we passed German soldiers who were fully armed and probably the were as interested or frightened as we were... We offloaded the food at the side of the road and turned it over to some kind of Dutch authorities... They took charge of the food and we didn't at any time have ... contact with the Germans." The twelve platoons continued moving food into Holland even after the war ended, delivering the last thousand-ton allotment on May 10."

A Slap-Up Meal Courtesy Operation ‘Manna’/Operation ‘Faust’:

‘Operation Faust’, began at 7:30 a.m. on 2 May as the first 3-ton trucks, including those of the Polar Bears, began deliveries to a depot at Rhenen, on the Neder Rijn. The food came from food dumps in Oss and Den Bosch and was transported to Rhenen through Wageningen. By the following day the operation was in full swing, with convoys of 30 vehicles crossing the truce line every 30 minutes. Twelve transport platoons (eight Canadian and four British), comprising 360 vehicles, delivered approximately 1000 tons of supplies daily until the 10th, when the "Faust" organisation was disbanded and responsibility for food distribution transferred to other formations.

Bevrijdingsdag in Utrecht:

Although today marks the liberation of the Netherlands, the full component of allied forces didn’t arrive in Utrecht until 7 May (and later in other areas). However, in the days leading up to their arrival, food began to make its way into the city as part of Operation Faust. Food had been dropped by airplane in various cities in the country and then was gradually distributed to help feed the starving citizens of the Netherlands.

The Utrecht Archives has some photos of the early arrival of these important food deliveries, which I found particularly fascinating and poignant, as many were taken here in my neighborhood.

[Bram G.]

In the operation the following unit's took part;

From the CRASC;

• 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade Company
• 3rd Canadian Infantry Brigade Company
• 1st Canadian Divisional Troops Company
• 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade Company
• 2nd Canadian Medium Regiment, First Platoon
• No.32 Canadian Corps Troops Composite, Company
• Headquarters 1st Canadian Infantry Division Royal Canadian Army Service Corps

From the RASC;

• 118th Company
• 460th Company
• 482th Company
• 483th Company
• 930th Company General Transport
• 1542th Artillery Platoon
• 1578th Artillery Platoon

The depot's where most of the food came from where under the Britisch controle of the following unit's;

• No. 80 Base Supply Depot
• No. 192 Detail Issue Depot

I have put in the attachement the rapport of the Canadian Army about the Surrender of the German Force's, which is my scource for the unit's that took part in Operation Faust. On page 42 of the rapport (in the pdf 47) the unit's are listed. The other pdf is a overview of the unit's with there unit serial's, that I have put together so far.
The sources that used for the overview are listed below;

• Order of Battle 1st Canadian Corps http://www.pymes75.plus.com/history/wwii_cdnicorps.html
• Order of Battle XXX Corps (Normandie) http://www.pymes75.plus.com/history/...kxxxcorps.html
• Order of Battle R.C.A.S.C. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roya..._Service_Corps
• Britse Markeringen http://www.wdbsa.nl/division_markings.html
• 21st Army group Markeringen http://www.fireandfury.com/britinfo/divmarkings.pdf
• Unit Signs 1st Canadian Division https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/veh...ntryunits.html
• Order of Battle 1st Canadian Corps https://www.canadiansoldiers.com/org.../1stcorps.html
• Polar Bear Decals http://www.star-decals.net/35-964.html
• A Souvenir of 930th Coy (G.T.) RASC Author: 930th Coy
• World War 2 Military Vehicle Markings Author: Terence Wise

Greetings,

Bram
Member of the Organization Committee Operation Faust, Keep Them Rolling Association

[Alex van de Wetering]

Excellent idea for the event, guys!

I am not sure if the pictures attached shows actual "Faust" vehicles, as the pictures dates and locations are not really precise. However they do show trucks with the white flag attached to the front......and the absence of weapons, national flags, troops hanging from the trucks and civilians chearing with flags, leads me to believe the pics might be taken just before the liberation(?).

Pictures all taken in or around Utrecht. source: hetutrechtsarchief.nl

Het utrechts archief also has some pictures marked as "operation faust"....however they don't show the white flag, so I wonder if they are pics of the liberation in stead.
Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Some pictures from the Gelders Archief. I am not sure where these were taken.

source: www.geldersarchief.nl/

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Couple from https://beeldbankwo2.nl
The first three are dated "may 1945", the last two may 6th 1945.

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Two more from https://beeldbankwo2.nl

the first is dated "early 1945".....the second "may 1945"....flags are already hanging from the houses in the last picture, so I think this might be just after this town was liberated.

Alex

[Bram G.]

Thanks for the post's of the photo's, I found some of them during in my research the past year.

The photo's in your first post:

• The first one is at Grave brigde and the Bedford belongs to 930th General Transport Company RASC.
• Second is in Utrecht at the Biltstraat, one of the Dodge D60L which where driven by the Dutch.
• Third photo is at the Van Asch van Wijcks Brigde, I think this truck is on his to the Korenschoof Factory on the Kaatstraat, which was one of the depot's in Utrecht.
• Fourth photo is at the foodmarket in Utrecht, which was the largest depot there. This was located at Heycopplein.
• Fifth photois the Biltstraat again around the crossing with the Kruisstraat.

The photo's in your second post are taken in Wageningen in the Hoogstraat.

The photo's in your third post;

• First one is at Nude Depot, second and third are in the Hoogstraat again.
• The last two I can't place them.

On your last post:

• Photo on the left is at Enka Factory in Ede, the truck belongs to the 438th RASC Company part of 49th West Riding Division (Polar Bear Division). At the Enka Factory was advanced food depot from where the depot in the Nude in 'No Man's Land' was supplied.
• Photo on the right is in Utrecht, I think it's before the liberation in some of the Dutch newspapers from that period these kinds of scenes are decribed.

Most of all thanks for research!

[Alex van de Wetering]

Canadian Army Newsreel 71

https://youtu.be/9w0N-S_MJQc?t=523

Alex

[Bram G.]

In the footage the Enka Factory, Wageningen and the Depot in the Nude are seen.
http://in.beeldengeluid.nl/collectie...536/false/true

[Bram G.]

While doing some further research I found the Order of Battle of the 1st Cdn Corps on the 7th of May 1945. Most of the unit's that took part in Operation Faust are in the order of battle. But depot unit's and 930 G.T. Coy are found under; 6 L of S Sub Area. Does someone know what kind of unit this is? And where L of C stands for? I believe that I have found it, L of C stands for Lines of Communication

I found the Order of Battle in WD of the 1st Cdn Corps, http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oo...c_mikan_133700
It's in microfilm: T-1848 ; Images: 2041 - 2054. Image 2051 contains the order of battle of the 6 L of S Sub Area. Also added the images of all the units that took part in Faust from the order of battle.

Hope to hear from you all,

Gr Bram

[Alex van de Wetering]

Bram,

Thanks for commenting on the location of the pictures!

Attached is another picture of the Dodges at of the Foodmarket in Utrecht. Source:
https://nimh-beeldbank.defensie.nl/

Alex

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Courtesy of Steve Guthrie:

“More from Operation Faust. A Dutch volunteer driver and RCCS Signalmen share some smokes. C15A is being used to lay lines for comms between the Canadians and the Germans”



“Flower bedecked Dodge D60L, part of Operation Faust.”

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Recent post in another thread by Lang Kidby which gives some context to Operation Faust:

Originally Posted by Lang

Just reading a book "Countdown to Victory" by Barry Turner about the last year of the war particularly in the North Europe/Montgomery area.

The Dutch blokes will be able to tell us more but I always thought the northern front was one continuous sweeping curve along the North Sea coast through Belgium/Holland/Germany, but not so.

The entire aim was the Rhine and Germany so Holland was bypassed with no immediate intention of wasting troops to liberate it. Both Holland and Denmark were occupied in the main by low class units with reserve type soldiers including many old men and boys so posed little threat to the British left flank. Any "A" grade troops had been moved to the main battle front to defend the German border.

The allies stopped in the south because they had outrun their supply lines and could not easily continue north without access to the German occupied ports. The French and Belgian ports were fully occupied supplying the entire American and British main offensives directly towards the Rhine and Germany. If the Arnhem drops had come off it would have been a different matter.

As a result of the delay during a terrible winter, the Dutch quickly went into a famine situation. Several months went by and by the time the (mainly) Canadians were tasked with liberation (after negotiations for a peaceful take-over with the German authorities) over 20,000 people had starved to death. Neither Churchill nor Roosevelt wanted to supply food to Holland. The former saying they were having enough trouble feeding their own people and Roosevelt fearing this would be the start of USA having to feed the entire hungry European population. They caved in to pressure from the international community and Red Cross.

The political situation in Holland did not make it easy with many Dutch pro-German and tens of thousands voluntarily either fighting or working for the Germans. The Dutch resistance never got off the ground properly because it was infiltrated by the Gestapo from day one and many brave people died, betrayed by their countrymen. It took the British SOE a very long time to realise that the whole system was compromised. The very useful large scale internal disruption caused by the French Resistance behind the lines after D-Day was not available to help in Holland.

Interestingly enough the German administration of Holland was a civilian administration, not military, and as such was arguably legal after the Dutch royal family and government fled to UK leaving a vacuum. The Geneva Convention requires an occupying power to create a working administration in such circumstances. The Germans were just "administering" Holland, with many Dutch in senior positions although the SS commander Hanns Rauter battled for supremacy with the very capable Governor Seyss Inquart who had no control (but sympathized with) their excesses, particularly with Jews, without any way of blocking their direct SS command line to Himmler. More than half the entire Dutch casualties of the war consisted of Jews (100,000+) deported by the SS. The Dutch workers went on strike in 1941 to protest the deportations but this was quickly suppressed. Seyss Inquart approved the execution of 800 strikers for which he himself was executed in 1946.

In 1944, because all the nearby ports except badly damaged and limited capacity, Antwerp, were held by the Germans, relief supplies could not be brought in after the worst winter for decades.

Several starving months passed before there were two face to face meetings between the German Reich's Commissar for Holland, Seyss Inquart (blindfolded to drive to the meeting), firstly with General de Guingard (British Army Chief of Staff) then a few days later with General Bedell Smith (Eisenhower's Chief of Staff)

As a result, in the 10 days from 28 April British and American aircraft dropped 14.5 million individual ration packages. On 30 April the Germans allowed convoys of British and American vehicles to pass through the lines to bring food supplies so long as they agreed to halt any military ground operations north of the "Grebbe Line" near Utrecht. This suited the allies fine because they immediately transferred troops to the main Rhine battles.

On 5 May General Blaskowitz surrendered all German forces in Holland without any major battles occurring.

It was a humanitarian disaster on a huge scale but it is debated whether more civilians would have been killed in full-scale fighting if the allies had continued their main push up the coast against a defence by the high quality German units they had to confront on their push more easterly to the Rhine. The delay certainly saved thousands of soldiers and, although there was damage, it saved the total destruction of the beautiful Dutch cities.

Lang

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Bram had found a reference to files pertaining Operation FAUST held by the NIMH (Netherlands Institute for Military History):

Source: https://proxy.archieven.nl/0/DF0E2A7...51D3A150C07CD4

3.1. First Canadian Army
3.1.4. I Canadian Corps
3.1.4.1. Staf
Instructies uitgegeven door de S&T Maintenance van de I Canadian Corps betreffende operatie Faust: de voedseldroppings boven Rhenen

These very interesting files have now been digitized which is why I share them here.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Mark W. Tonner

But, what if they didn't revert and 1st Cdn AGRA were assigned the 181-187 block instead, this would be more in line with Garry's dad's history and since it was a 1st Cdn Corps operation, this would mean that the 182 was for the 1st Med Regt, RCA and if thats the case, then that would mean that the vehicles themselves, again, judging by the markings, are from "B" Platoon, No. 81 Artillery Company, RCASC, who were attached to 1st Cdn AGRA throughout the war.

Time to bring Corporal William James ("Jimmy") Shipton back from the limelight again, and to confirm Mark Tonner's research into the markings and units involved. The above document confirms No. 81 Artillery Company, RCASC, was one of the units assigned to Operation Faust.

"Jimmy" Shipton was riding his Harley-Davidson WLC to guide the Ford F60L trucks delivering the food to the starving population of western Holland.

This picture was most likely taken at Nude, halfway between Wageningen and Rhenen, 1 May 1945 (but I would be happily corrected by our resident FAUST historian Bram G.)

[Bram G.]

Sorry, I have to correct you. Most likely its 2nd of May, as the first transports where made to the Nude starting at 7:30 AM on the 2nd of May.

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi

Co-incidentally from Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Faces of the Second World War:


"A convoy of trucks of Allied food supplies moving into German-occupied territory along the road from Wageningen to Rhenan, Netherlands, 3 May 1945."
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discove...?IdNumber=357&

regards
Darrell

[Darrell Zinck]

Hi

Another:


"Major K. Henninger (centre), a German Army signals officer, speaking on a telephone linkup between Canadian and German forces, Wageningen, Netherlands, 5 May 1945."
http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discove...x?IdNumber=11&

regards
Darrell

[Bram G.]

We are still try to figure out to which unit these Ford's belong.
When you look at this picture and the one Hanno posted above, I might start to think it's the same unit. As of the black square on the door of the Ford.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

See the webpage with extensive information on Operation Faust on the Canadian Forces Logistics Association (CFLA) website:

https://www.cfla-alfc.org/op-faust-2020/

Load of useful links!

The CFLA is coming over to Holland in May this year, I look forward to meeting them.

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Bram, do you know if this is related to Operation Faust?

"Beschrijving: Een rij vrachtwagens met het opschrift NMA CA Food Distribution Dordrecht. Datering: 05-1945 - 1945"


Source: https://hdl.handle.net/21.12133/FF99...DAC3ADD91503BC


"Beschrijving: Padvinders helpen bij het overladen van Engelse voedselvoorraden. Datering: 05-05-1945 - 05-1945"


Source: https://hdl.handle.net/21.12133/58B0...F790125830409F

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Short video describing the Operations Manna, Faust and Chowhound:

https://youtu.be/wbt4e87DvWc


Short video on Operation Faust:

https://vimeo.com/411396990


More historical footage:

https://youtu.be/4c_vUopWKBA

https://youtu.be/YDnTH86rAeE

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Hanno

Any details on the content of these metal cans/boxes......? were they normal army rations bulked shipped from North America...? or special containers intended for civilians........

Impressive that the allies had so much food and some areas of Holland starving..... there must have been food containers left over after the war..... as a child I remember meat tokens, bacon, butter, sugar was rationed well into the 1947-48.......

I remember my dad walking from work by a hardware store and get his daily allotment of one bag of cement powder....about 80 pounds....walked about 8 blocks with a grin on his face..... now he could plan repairing the veranda...... paint was canary yellow or black one gallon at a time.....when available......

...but we never went hungry!!!!

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Hi Bob,

The rations distributed by Operation Faust came from army depots so were regular army rations. The food supplied by Faust, Manna, Chowhound, by the Red Cross and by ship from Sweden was nowhere near enough to feed everyone properly, but the psychological effect was tremendous.

Food was rationed here till well after the war.