Jun 22, 12:22 PM EDT
Berlin Airlift a Cold War turning point
By DAVID RISING
Associated Press Writer
BERLIN (AP) -- On June 26, 1948, when the Berlin Airlift began, chances of success seemed slim and its significance was unclear. But it is now regarded as the first battle of the Cold War - one that marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union's European ambitions and to this day shapes the German view of the U.S. and Britain.
To Berliners, the planes represented an important signal of the resolve to stand up to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, whose troops had marched into Berlin three years earlier in a rampage of looting and rape.
The operation began after the Soviets blockaded West Berlin - an enclave inside Soviet-occupied eastern Germany - in an attempt to squeeze out the U.S., Britain and France.
Since this was a Cold War, neither side resorted to force, although 39 Britons, 31 Americans and at least five Germans were killed in accidents.
American, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and South African pilots flew some 278,000 flights to Berlin over a 15-month period, carrying about 2.3 million tons of food, coal, medicine and other supplies.
On the busiest day - April 16, 1949 - some 1,400 planes carried in nearly 13,000 tons over 24 hours - an average of one plane touching down every 62 seconds.
On the ground in Berlin, ex-Luftwaffe mechanics were enlisted to help maintain aircraft, and some 19,000 Berliners - almost half women - worked around the clock for three months to build Tegel Airport, providing a crucial relief for the British Gatow and American Tempelhof airfields.
The Soviets offered better rations to any West Berliner willing to register with the communist authorities - but only 20,000 went to the other side.
Gail Halvorsen, now 87, is probably the best known of the airlift pilots, thanks to an inadvertent propaganda coup. Early in the airlift, the man from Utah shared two sticks of gum with Berlin kids and saw others sniffing the wrappers just for a hint of the flavor.
Touched, he told the children to come back the next day, when he would drop them candy, using handkerchiefs as parachutes.
He started doing it regularly, using his own candy ration. Soon other pilots and crews joined in what would be dubbed "Operation Little Vittles."
On Aug. 19, 1948, an Associated Press story appeared under the headline "Lollipop Bomber Flies Over Berlin." A wave of candy and handkerchief donations followed.
Mercedes Wild was 7 in 1948, and at first was terrified of the roaring, low-flying planes. She remembers her exhilaration at seeing scores of tiny parachutes drifting down, carrying their precious cargo to children who hadn't seen such candy in years.
But despite her best efforts, Mercedes missed out on the bonanza, so she wrote to Halvorsen, her "chocolate uncle," asking him to drop something directly on her garden.
Halvorsen wrote back and enclosed a packet of candies and gum.
"For me the letter was most important," Wild said. "That the chocolate uncle, even though he might not fly over my house every day, wrote that he would be thinking of me."
Berlin Airlift a Cold War turning point
By DAVID RISING
Associated Press Writer
BERLIN (AP) -- On June 26, 1948, when the Berlin Airlift began, chances of success seemed slim and its significance was unclear. But it is now regarded as the first battle of the Cold War - one that marked the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union's European ambitions and to this day shapes the German view of the U.S. and Britain.
To Berliners, the planes represented an important signal of the resolve to stand up to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, whose troops had marched into Berlin three years earlier in a rampage of looting and rape.
The operation began after the Soviets blockaded West Berlin - an enclave inside Soviet-occupied eastern Germany - in an attempt to squeeze out the U.S., Britain and France.
Since this was a Cold War, neither side resorted to force, although 39 Britons, 31 Americans and at least five Germans were killed in accidents.
American, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and South African pilots flew some 278,000 flights to Berlin over a 15-month period, carrying about 2.3 million tons of food, coal, medicine and other supplies.
On the busiest day - April 16, 1949 - some 1,400 planes carried in nearly 13,000 tons over 24 hours - an average of one plane touching down every 62 seconds.
On the ground in Berlin, ex-Luftwaffe mechanics were enlisted to help maintain aircraft, and some 19,000 Berliners - almost half women - worked around the clock for three months to build Tegel Airport, providing a crucial relief for the British Gatow and American Tempelhof airfields.
The Soviets offered better rations to any West Berliner willing to register with the communist authorities - but only 20,000 went to the other side.
Gail Halvorsen, now 87, is probably the best known of the airlift pilots, thanks to an inadvertent propaganda coup. Early in the airlift, the man from Utah shared two sticks of gum with Berlin kids and saw others sniffing the wrappers just for a hint of the flavor.
Touched, he told the children to come back the next day, when he would drop them candy, using handkerchiefs as parachutes.
He started doing it regularly, using his own candy ration. Soon other pilots and crews joined in what would be dubbed "Operation Little Vittles."
On Aug. 19, 1948, an Associated Press story appeared under the headline "Lollipop Bomber Flies Over Berlin." A wave of candy and handkerchief donations followed.
Mercedes Wild was 7 in 1948, and at first was terrified of the roaring, low-flying planes. She remembers her exhilaration at seeing scores of tiny parachutes drifting down, carrying their precious cargo to children who hadn't seen such candy in years.
But despite her best efforts, Mercedes missed out on the bonanza, so she wrote to Halvorsen, her "chocolate uncle," asking him to drop something directly on her garden.
Halvorsen wrote back and enclosed a packet of candies and gum.
"For me the letter was most important," Wild said. "That the chocolate uncle, even though he might not fly over my house every day, wrote that he would be thinking of me."
