98 Year old John Monaghan awarded a prestigious Dutch WW2 medal for humanitarian aid relief
John, from Poynton is sprightly, affable, full of charm with an infectious energy that defies his 98 years. He’s a WW2 veteran, an inspiration, and a living testament to the enduring vitality of the human spirit. But, he’s a modest, quiet soul who doesn’t appreciate unnecessary attention or fuss and considers that he was only doing his job and nothing special in the Second World War.
John though, served in one of the most dangerous wartime roles imaginable. He was a Radio Operator on a Lancaster bomber. Happily, his involvement in one particular mission hadn’t gone unnoticed. On Wednesday 13th December, 78 years after the end of WW2 he received a medal for one of the most important but least-known missions of the Second World War. It wasn’t for dropping deadly explosives from his Lancaster bomber but for dropping food supplies in a dangerous assignment which was one of the first airborne humanitarian aid missions ever undertaken by the Royal Air Force.
As an author and blogger about Lancasters and the Avro company that made them, I jumped at the chance when my friend, Ian Font, told me about John and asked if I’d like to have a chat with John despite the prospect of his reluctance to say very much. I had no expectations of what might transpire.
Earlier in the year I’d worked on a large exhibition to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Dambusters which also used Lancasters that were constructed and specially converted at Avro’s Woodford aerodrome, coincidentally just a few miles from John’s home. Avro became part of Hawker Siddeley, then British Aerospace, and eventually BAE Systems but sadly Woodford ceased to be an aerodrome in 2011. The site is now a new housing estate, but the Avro Heritage Museum was established there and has some fantastic exhibits including a full-size Vulcan bomber, numerous cockpits which can be accessed including a replica of the forward section of Lancaster fitted out with all the original equipment including the huge radio equipment that John would have used all those years ago.
The Dambuster exhibition was led by Ian Peat, an ex-BAE Systems employee and member of the Avro Heritage Museum’s Management Team. When I suggested that I bring John to the museum and chat with him sat in his radio position in the Lancaster he was enthusiastic about the idea and the Avro Heritage Museum was delighted to host the event.
So, I discussed the idea with John’s son Andy, who thought it was a great idea even though I was concerned about getting John into the Lancaster up the steep steps, through a small door, and over the main wing spar which obstructed the route to the radio operator’s position. Andy knew his dad well and had no such concerns about his ability to negotiate any of those obstacles.
Andy told me a little about his dad and that he had flown with 166 Squadron (Sqn). In preparation for the chat, I obtained the ORB (Operations Record Book) for the squadron and Andy sent me John’s flying logbook. I was astounded at what I saw.
John was born on the 18th of March 1925 and not even 19 years old when he joined the RAF in late 1943. After qualifying to be an air radio (wireless) operator his training throughout 1944 included Avro Ansons which were also made at Woodford, then the twin-engine medium bomber the Vickers Wellington before graduating to the Avro Lancaster with 1656 HCU (Heavy Conversion Unit) in the January of 1945.
The role of the wireless operator was to manage all messages to and from the aircraft and its base. They operated, tuned, and maintained all the wireless equipment in the aircraft when on operations and used both plain messages and morse code. As operations were generally conducted in radio silence, they had fewer tasks than the other crew members, so they were also trained as an air gunner to act as a reserve gunner if needed.
After a couple months of intense training with 1656 HCU John was posted as a fully qualified Wireless Operator to a mainly Canadian crew with 166 Sqn based at RAF Kirmington in Lincolnshire.
His crew were:
Though it was towards the end of the war John was to participate in some of the most incredible missions, several of which are not well documented and as such little known. His first mission (known as operations or ops) was less than a week before his 20th birthday on the 12th of March 1945. It must have been terrifying.
The target was Dortmund deep in the heart of Germany, and to make it more treacherous it was in daylight. John’s aircraft was AS-S (166 Sqn code) and one of 28 Lancasters provided by 166 Sqn. John was airborne at 13:10 carrying one 4,000lb high explosive ‘cookie’ bomb, twelve 500lb and four 250lb high explosive bombs. Despite one of 166 Sqn’s Lancasters having to turn back to base when it had a problem with one of its engines the others escorted by RAF Spitfires and Mustangs arrived at the target without incident. Dortmund was completely obscured by cloud and protected by heavy anti-aircraft defences. John’s aircraft released its bomb load at 16:35 from a height of 17,500 feet directly on their blue marker Target Indicators (TI) and is recorded in the ORB as “bombing was concentrated on markers”. John landed safely back at base at 19:00 after nearly six stressful hours.
John completed more successful ops to Herne, Misburg, Hildesheim, and Hannover in March. This was followed in April by Nordhausen, Potsdam, Bremen and the heavy fortified German island of Heligoland in the North Sea. His last ever offensive bombing op was on the barracks of a local SS detachment at Hitler’s Bavarian home (‘Eagles Nest’) at Berchtesgaden.
Though John was late into the action of WW2 he was on some incredibly important missions. Most crews were not assigned a dedicated Lancaster but John regularly flew with AS-J which he affectionately referred to as J-Jig (the WW2 British phonetic for the letter J).
Significantly, John’s logbook for April interspersed with his bombing ops has a couple of entries, undertaken in a different Lancaster to J-Jig, entitled ‘Practise Supply Dropping’. These were a prelude to one of the most unbelievable bombing missions undertaken by the Allies in the whole of World War II. Instead of dropping bombs which caused death and destruction, the four-engine British Lancaster bombers were going to drop lifesaving supplies and rations for salvation and mercy.
The background to this had started the previous year on the 27th of September when the ambitious Operation Market-Garden had failed in the Netherlands. Its objective had been to secure bridges over the rivers Maas (Meuse), Waal, and Rhine in order to outflank heavy German defences along the Siegfried Line and to ensure a swift Allied advance towards Berlin. As most of us know this failed with ‘A Bridge Too Far’ at Arnhem. The Allies advance simply bypassed the Netherlands effectively isolating the north and west areas of the Netherlands which remained occupied by German forces.
With the onset of winter, German occupation, a naval blockade, lack of fuel, and limited food supplies the Dutch suffered what is known as the Hongerwinter (hunger winter). Around 20,000 people had already died through starvation, a further 980,000 classed as malnourished, and there were fears of mass starvation. Almost immediately messages were received in London from occupied Holland which stated that food shortages were already becoming a problem and that there was only enough food supplies for several weeks.
The German occupiers faced significant challenges in supplying sufficient food resources which led to negotiations between the Allies and German officers in charge of the occupied Netherlands. Swiss and Swedish emissaries played a crucial role in facilitating an agreement for humanitarian food drops which became known as Operation Manna.
The missions were to be conducted with the understanding that aircraft would not be attacked by the German occupiers who still had many anti-aircraft artillery batteries positioned to shoot at Allied bomber formations on their raids over to Germany.
A truce was planned for the humanitarian effort to allow the Allied aeroplanes to fly at very low level to six specific drop zones via defined air corridors to deliver the much-needed supplies without any interference. The German occupiers placed anti-aircraft guns at each drop zone so they could immediately react if the allies used the humanitarian drop as pretext to deliver paratroopers instead of food. German authorities would also inspect samples of the dropped supplies to verify it was indeed food supplies and not weapons or items that could be used for sabotage.
Arrangements were in place by April of 1945 hence why John with 166 Sqn and other squadrons had undertaken practise low-level supply dropping. Lancaster bombers were modified to carry the life-saving supplies in their bomb bays instead of deadly bombs. Every Lancaster would carry a total of 284 hessian sacks of supplies carried in four blocks of 71 sacks. Each sack contained items such as flour, margarine, cheese, dried egg, peas, carrots, dried food, tea, coffee, cigarettes, and other essential provisions.
By the 24th of April, the possibility for the food drops had become a reality and expectations were high. Dutch authorities had to rapidly arrange for collection teams to gather and distribute the supplies and First Aid Posts that were located nearby just in case anybody was injured by falling supplies in their desperation to get to them.
The operation coded Manna (from the book of Exodus when God provided food from heaven) was scheduled to start on the 28th of April, but bad weather prevailed. In John’s squadron there were several aborted attempts including one in which all aircraft were fully loaded with food supplies, took off and then were immediately recalled back to base. The operation began in earnest on the Sunday the 29th. The truce though had not been fully agreed. During the morning to test the feasibility of the operation, the response from the German anti-aircraft teams, and not knowing what to expect, two Lancasters from 101 Sqn made the potentially perilous flight. It went unhindered, their supplies successfully dropped. At lunch time, with the truce still not in place 166 Sqn provided five Lancasters for the first mission.
One of the Lancasters was J-Jig with John onboard. Airborne at 12:15 the Lancaster proceeded southeast straight out over the North Sea at low level navigating through difficult thick cloud and sleet and snow showers. Their designated ‘safe’ corridor took them over the Hook of Holland through and then north to the Hague where Pathfinder squadron Mosquitos had marked the dropzone at Duindigt Racecourse with red TI marker flares.
Fortunately, cloud had lifted over Holland and though it was planned to make the drop from no higher than 500 feet the Lancasters released their stores as low as possible to reduce impact damage as no parachutes were being used with the supplies. J-Jig released its supplies at 13:15 and despite the truce not being in place, the Germans made no attempt to stop or disrupt the mission. John and J-Jig returned to RAF Kirmington safely at 15:05. On that first day, almost 535 tons of supplies were dropped.
The truce was finally agreed on the 30th of April, Operation Manna lasted ten days and John in his beloved J-Jig went on to make a further five trips, all to the drop zone at Rotterdam’s Waalhaven airfield. Together with the US Air Force involvement known as Operation Chowhound (which started on the 1st of May) nearly 7,000 tonnes of food supplies were dropped with more than 3,000 sorties. On the 2nd of May, a further ground-based relief mission, Operation Faust was also launched, and it’s estimated that without all that humanitarian aid a further million Dutch civilians could have starved.
The Dutch were enthusiastic in their gratitude. Many of the aircrew record being tearful seeing the happy recipients waving flags and making impromptu ‘Many Thanks’ signs from the empty sacks which could be clearly seen from the low-flying Lancasters.
The RAF did not consider Operation Manna flights to be combat missions and didn’t give the crews credit for flying them. Though they were clearly less difficult and were, certainly following the truce, less dangerous than normal bombing missions, they were still difficult and required the utmost skill and dedication of all the crews involved.
The war in Europe ended on the 8th of May and with it came the end of Operation Manna. John was soon back in the air. He was to take part in two more little known but highly significant operations. On May the 10th and 11th he was involved in Operation Exodus, flying to Melsbroek Aerodrome in Brussels to bring home British former Prisoners Of War (POW’s) from northern Europe in Lancasters hastily converted into very uncomfortable, and cramped troop carriers. During August, September and October John also made six repatriation flights to Pomigliano Airbase near Naples as part of Operation Dodge, bringing home British soldiers from the Mediterranean area.
He also participated in the little-known Cook’s Tours whereby Lancaster crews flew low level over several bombed German cities to review the damage from the air. John’s final flight in Lancasters was in the November of 1945. He was then posted from 166 Sqn to 5 ANS (Air Navigation School) in Yorkshire where he once again flew in the lovely Avro Anson. He finally left the RAF in 1947.
So having gone through the 166 Sqn ORB, John’s logbook, and swatting up on the operations he’d taken part in, I was already in awe and amazement by the time we met at Woodford on the 10th of August 2023. I brought a GoPro video camera so I could film our chat and Ian Sanders the Avro Heritage Museum’s Oral History Archivist was there to record the event for a podcast.
Me and the two Ians were so excited but John, was as expected, quiet at first and unsure what all the fuss was about. We led him up into the Lancaster, and just as John’s son Andy had said he had no trouble, even though getting over the troublesome main spar needed yoga-like contortions.
(my photo left, Ian Sanders right)
At first he was reticent to say much but soon relaxed and like most WW2 veterans I’ve talked to his memory of what he’d done all those years before was incredible, with attention down to the smallest detail. It was an absolute privilege to listen to. As we discussed his time as a radio operator, letting him talk about what he wanted, rather than asking pointed questions our jaws dropped ever further. The more time went on the more he opened up.
It was incredible listening to his stories. He mentioned things I’d never heard of or even thought about: for example, during his early days of training in order to tune radio equipment he had to take a bag of copper coils and every time a frequency change was needed a coil needed to be removed from the radio set and replaced by a different one. He told us of how he got a wartime nickname of ‘Flames’. It was on a training flight in a Wellington bomber and he had to fire a flare from a hatch above his radio station. Unfortunately, the flare ignited the canvas fuselage covering, and the pilot was forced to divert to the nearest airfield to make an emergency landing. The event is simply recorded in his logbook as ‘Fire’.
It was always the little snippets that were the most intriguing and possibly never recorded anywhere before. He mentioned seeing the crowds of the cheering civilians when he was on Operation Manna and the fact that they actually dropped the supplies from about 30ft but there were two of his memories that really stuck out and were both quite moving.
The first was that whilst on Operation Manna, John and his entire crew took their own supplies of chocolates and sweets and during the drop they would have the back door of the Lancaster open and throw the chocolate out. He even remembers that the chocolate was Terry’s Empire Chocolate. The second was John’s most significant memory of his entire flying career. Again it was on Operation Manna, and it was when he was flying so low over the drop zones he could clearly see the German soldiers with their anti-aircraft guns watching them, normally on his bombing missions they would only have been represented by flashes of light 20,000 feet below.
After we had concluded the chat I published a blog which included several clips from the video recording and Ian Sanders published the entire discussion as a podcast (links to both at the end). The comments and thanks we received to these clearly demonstrated just how much of a significant story he had told, but also just how important it was to record talks such as this told in their own words for posterity. It’s really the last opportunity to obtain such so we need to ensure we can get as many as we can before it’s too late.
As chance would have it, the Dutch Embassy in London became aware of the blog and whilst John didn’t consider he’d done anything special and that he was only doing his job, the Dutch thought otherwise. Despite it being almost 80 years since the operation was mounted, the people of the Netherlands have never forgotten the great sacrifice and dedication of those aircrew that had risked their lives to get much-needed food to the starving civilians. John’s son Andy was contacted by Wing Commander (Wg Cdr) Martine Verhulst, the Air Attaché to the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, stating that her government would like to recognise John’s past contribution to the people of her country by awarding him the unique ‘Thank You Liberators Medal’.
An award ceremony was on for the 13th of December and The Avro Heritage Museum was once again gracious in opening the museum especially for the event and providing refreshments. Wg Cdr Verhulst arrived early with members of the Dutch Embassy staff and were given a tour of the museum and I was delighted to give her a personal tour of the Lancaster cockpit including the Wireless Operators position where John would have sat.
Museum staff were on hand to greet John’s family and friends and to make the presentation as fitting as possible the award ceremony was conducted in front of the Lancaster cockpit. The ceremony was kicked off by Terry Barnes Chairman of the Avro Heritage Museum who welcomed John, his son Andy, John’s family and friends, and Wg Cdr Verhulst and her colleagues. Terry went on to say how honoured and humbled he was to have the Avro Heritage Museum host such a unique and prestigious event.
John’s son, Andy followed and told us a little more about John with the sobering thought that at 98 his father is now one of a very small group of possibly less than 20 men still living who saw active service with Bomber Command during the war and able to tell their stories first hand. He went on to describe how the ceremony had arisen before introducing me to give some further information on John’s career in the Royal Air Force and some of the aircraft types he had flown.
I then introduced Wg Cdr Verhulst who described in a little more detail about Operation Manna and concluded with
“Dear John, on behalf of the people of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the National Committee has awarded the Medal of Remembrance ‘Thank you liberators’ to Sergeant John Edward Monaghan. It is a token of gratitude for contributing to the liberation of the Netherlands during World War Two. The certificate is signed by the Ambassador of the Netherlands to the United Kingdon His Excellence Mr Karel van Oosterom. The people of the Netherland will forever remain grateful and will never forget the brave men and women who took part in the liberation of the Netherlands. Thank you so much.”
Wg Cdr Verhulst then presented John with his certificate, some unique photographs of Lancasters during Operation Manna, and pinned his medal on his left breast. It was quite emotional.
John then reluctantly said a few words.
“I suppose I’ll have to say something. I accept this award particularly on behalf of all my colleagues that took part in that Manna exercise, but not only them but all the aircrews that used these wonderful Lancaster bombers during the war. They were a great help to us, not only getting there and doing our stuff but getting back. Oh, I could go on and on. Thank you all for coming.”
I concluded with a few interesting snippets John had told me about his trips on Operation Manna and Terry Barnes wrapped up by once again thanking everyone and confirming that next year as John moves into his 100th year, so too does the Woodford site. The Avro Company moved to Woodford on the 17th of September 1924 and next year on the 17th of September 2024 there will be a large exhibition to commemorate the centenary of Woodford and the hope is that John will be there to help celebrate what will be a unique event.
Following the ceremony, all the guests were invited to have a look around the museum and John was keen to show his guests inside the Lancaster cockpit. Interestingly, one of the delegates from the Dutch embassy mentioned that one of their grandparents had told them that they had been at one of the Operation Manna drop zones and collected bars of chocolate thrown from Lancasters. Maybe they were from John’s.
Many thanks to the Avro Heritage Museum, in particular Terry Barnes, Ian Peat, Roger Yates, and Ian Sanders. Also, to Andy Monaghan, Ian Font, Wg Cdr Martine Verhulst and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in London, and to Keith Gordon for being our photographer. But especially big thanks to John for eloquently sharing his experiences.
Links
John Monaghan Avro Lancaster Wireless Operator Interview
Blog
Podcast
Frank Pleszak's Blogs 
What a fascinating read.
Many thanks Frank.
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