THEY called it Operation Manna because, almost literally, it was bread from heaven - an estimated 3.5 million Dutch rescued from the brink of starvation after surviving on nettles and tulip bulbs in five years of German occupation.

Exactly 60 years later - thanks to a Lottery grant - RAF Lancaster crew member Ron Davies-Evans is to relive the extraordinary mission in which he became a flour bomber instead.

"As the time gets nearer, I'm getting more and more excited," admits 83-year-old Ron, though nowhere near as excited as the desperate Dutch who saw hundreds of British and American aircraft approaching at 50ft.

In the ten days before VE Day on May 8, 1945, 11,000 tons of food were dropped in 3,100 RAF missions and 2,200 by the Americans - who named it Operation Chowhound instead. The Germans had agreed that anti-aircraft batteries would remain silent; to some surprise, they were as good as their word.

Hans Onderwater's 1985 history of the Operation admits that no-one knows how many lives were saved. "This is certain," the book adds, "just as the children of Israel being led out of the desert by Moses were saved by bread falling from heaven, so did the oppressed and starving Dutch receive aid at a moment when many had given up hope.

"The RAF policy makers could not have thought of a more appropriate name."

Ron Davies-Evans - subsequently Methodist local preacher, JP, leading football referee, broadcaster, writer and head of the British Railways Transport School in Darlington - had flown 29 Lancaster missions as navigator and air bomber when to Manna borne.

On the first, the plane caught fire and had to jettison its full load over the North Sea; on the fifth, they were shot down over Cologne but managed to land in France, earning the pilot the DFC.

Nothing had prepared him for those marvellous May days, dropping food canisters onto the racecourse in The Hague.

"There were women and girls on the flat roofs of the factories, waving flags and anything they could find, from 50 feet you could see the utter joy in their faces.

"Some of our blighters were flying at 60 or 70 feet so that instead of being strafed by anti-aircraft fire, we were being bombed by canisters of powdered egg and flour.

"We even used the barley sugar and chocolate we had as air rations, tied handkerchiefs round them as parachutes and dropped them out, too."

Dutch relief was so intense that thousands had to be warned to stay clear, for fear of being killed by a flying food parcel.

Even such relatively modest fare provided the biggest feast for five years. A chapter in the book is headed "A Santa Claus in May".

RON Davies-Evans, still immaculately on parade in three-piece suit, has been a preacher on the Darlington and Spennymoor Methodist circuits for 46 years - and is clearly someone who believes the bit about the meek inheriting the earth.

While less modest men might decorate the best parlour with them, the citations that tell the story of his life - RAF commission, war medals, Open University degree, long service awards from Church and Football Association, hang framed in the downstairs cloakroom.

There's one of Ken Dodd's tickling sticks, too, but that's another story.

He was a linesman in the 1960 Amateur Cup final at Wembley, instructed by the FA that he could have £3 13s 6d or a medal but not both. Not much of a feller for storing up treasures on earth, either, he took the medal.

Ron has also published several books of anecdotes and jokes, making £6,000 for charity.

With the two other surviving members of the seven-man Lancaster crew, he returns to The Hague for the 60th anniversary celebrations, when the whole town is expected to greet them.

Almost all the accommodation and travel costs - amid the rather more comfortable confines of KLM - have been met by a grant from the National Lottery's "Heroes Return" fund.

Ron is also to talk about his wartime experiences to pupils at Hummersknott school in Darlington. "People tend to think that it was just horrific things," he says. "Operation Manna was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my life."

* The Heroes Return Fund seeks to enable war veterans, their spouses and carers to return to the scene of their operations. Information and application forms are available on 0845 0000121. The deadline is March 31.