Heather van Wieringen and Joop Stevens of Waverley were in a famished Holland and Bill Hall, of South Dunedin, was in the vanguard of Operation Manna in the dying days of World War 2.
Mr Hall's mission was to drop sacks of food to the starving Dutch.
Among the recipients were hundreds of thousands of children like Heather (then 6) and Joop (9).
"They [the aircrew] will always hold a special place in our hearts," Mrs van Wieringen (70) said yesterday.
The cruel, cold "winter of hunger" and German occupation had laid waste to the Netherlands, and the Allies negotiated with German officers to drop relief food.
Mr Hall (87), a wireless operator-gunner, remembers his entire Royal Air Force squadron volunteering and then flying in under 50 feet (16m) to deny flak batteries the time to aim.
Propellers clipped the sea, wind mills and chimneys were dodged and one plane returned with a chicken coop in its engine air intake.
"It was a marvellous experience to see the people on the ground smiling and waving handkerchiefs and tea towels," Mr Hall said.
The Lancaster was hit beneath the rear turret on that first flight.
Returning to England involved a nerve-wracking struggle to contain the fire.
The relief effort from April 29 to May 8, 1945, is credited with saving thousands and has an important place in Dutch history.
Mr Hall represented New Zealand at the 50th anniversary in 1995 in the Netherlands and was showered with hospitality and gifts, including a memento biscuit.
He, Mrs van Wieringen and Mr Stevens were brought together by Isobel Veitch, of Andersons Bay, who discovered common ground.
Meeting Mr Hall brought appreciative tears to Mrs van Wieringen's eyes as well as a flood of memories: the lines of skin-and-bone people begging for food at the door of her family's country cottage, the German officer waving a gun at her head, and food being requisitioned.
She has never forgotten the planes or her first heavenly taste of a biscuit.
Mr Stevens (73) lived in town and remembers supping sugar beet syrup and munching bread made from beet pulp.
The arrival of the aircraft lifted spirits.
"It was a special sort of feeling, of liberation, of change."Two other Dunedin men, Neville Selwood and Don McKenzie, also flew in Operation Manna and Mr Hall is now arranging a get-together.
"That will be so wonderful," Mrs van Wieringen said.
A mild day is expected in Otago for Anzac Day.
