"CHOW HOUND" was the code name for the missions run in the last few days of the war, when food supplies were dropped to the starving Dutch. The first shuttle mission had been "Frantic"; the supply missions to the Maquis had been "Buick, Cadillac, and Hippopotamus."

"Chow Hound" was the most descriptive term of all.

The Canadian First Army had driven from Arnheim to the North Sea, sealing off western Holland, and isolating several German divisions that had no intention of surrendering. As a vituperative measure alleged to be in the name of military necessity, the Germans blew canal dikes, and loosed upon the lowlands a flood which cut supply lanes to the outside world.

The atrocity stories of concentration camps were still fresh in the minds of all civilized people, so public opinion was aroused at this latest outrage. After considerable dickering, the German commander in Holland protested that supply missions by air would give the Allies a chance to photograph his situation, certain zones were laid out where food could be dropped.

Abandoned airfields and fields were selected, with large white crosses marking the dropping points. If Allied planes flew over territory out of bounds they were to be met with flak. The Eighth Air Force and Royal Air Force met the conditions of the truce, and no infringements were reported.

The crews were not credited with operational sorties, as the perils were not considered any more serious than long practice flights. The planes dropped their supplies from as low as a thousand feet.

Soon these missions assumed the aspect of a Cook's tour. Ground personnel who had never been given a chance to fly operational missions were carried along as passengers.

In all, the 390th conducted six "Chow Hound" operations. They were:

It was the final irony of the war. Together with a series of missions in which the planes brought back liberated prisoners of war from deep in Germany to France, the airplanes which had been designed as instruments of destruction ended their careers in the ETO as agents of good-will.

Webmaster's note: The 390th Bomb Group led the 3rd Air Division on the first “Chow Hound” mission (CH1). My father, Capt. Martin K. Presswood was the Pilot in the lead B-17 airplane, and Col. Joseph A. Moller, the 390th Group Commander, was the Command Pilot.

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