Great idea for a thread!
My grandfather flew B-17 bombers in WWII. My absolute favorite story he told of the war was the Chowhound missions he flew. Quick backstory: Operation Chowhound was a humanitarian effort to help Dutch citizens who were not liberated from the Nazis yet. The war wasn't technically over yet, and the Nazis were basically stealing/destroying everything on their way out just to f*ck with the Dutch, leaving them to starve to death. So, instead of dropping bombs from the plans, we flew over and dropped crates of food & supplies. The planes were not armed, so they had to fly super low to avoid being shot at. My grandfather would also talk about the thrill of flying a few hundred feet off the ground, and that there was an old church with a large steeple on their route, that was always a landmark that stuck in his memory.
Anyway, to the good part of the story. My Grandfather was a talker, and loved to tell stories to anybody. In the 1990's, he was retired living in Florida. Walking the beach one day he saw a man wearing wooden shoes. He ran up to him and started telling him how he flew planes in the man's homeland back in the day, etc. etc... As he's telling him about the Chowhound missions, the man starts crying. He was a kid at the time, but he was there and remembered when the planes dropped the crates of food in his town. My Grandfather talked about the church he flew by on the mission, and the man knew the church. We're pretty sure my Grandfather's missions were to this mans town. He kept saying "you saved my life".
Story always makes me teary-eyed
