Operation Faust, 1945: the units and vehicles

[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!