Berlin Remembers Airlift with Exhibition

Sixty years ago this week, the Soviet Union’s attempt to starve West Berlin into submission met with a logistical masterpiece known as the Berlin Airlift. Jack Bennett, who died in 2001 in that city, made the first flight of the airlift in a DC-4 loaded with potatoes. The Soviets gave up their blockade after 15 months during which time 278,000 flights had delivered 2.3 million tons of food and fuel. Berlin’s Allied Museum opened an exhibition this week featuring photos and film extracts of the freedom flights.

Helmut Trotnow, director of Berlin's Allied Museum said, “There was no light at the end of the tunnel, but the airlift brought this light. If it hadn't been for the success of the airlift, history would have looked very different. It really is a turning point.” The exhibition covers more than just the fliers. He also said, “Berliners only saw the pilots, but we want to show all the other people involved in making the airlift work.”

During the airlift, a plane landed at Templehof Airport every 90 seconds. Ted Mohr, an 84-year old who in 1948 worked as a clerk for Lucius Clay, the military governor for the US zone in Germany, told Reuters, “It was quite a sight to watch those planes come in. My wife and I brought our chairs up to the roof of our building and watched. That was our evening entertainment.” Ironically, Berlin will be closing Templehof Airport this year and replacing it with a bigger one farther out.

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung noted at a memorial ceremony in Frankfurt (where most of the planes took off), “The Airlift turned foes into friends, and occupiers became helpers.” Some 80 pilots, British and American, died during the airlift, which “was a great success. But it also required sacrifice. We must honor the memory of those who lost their lives so that the free part of Berlin could survive, in liberty.”

Joining the Minister was US Air Force Colonel Gail Halvorsen (ret), who opened the exhibition yesterday. Agence France Presse said of him, “Halvorsen became an instant celebrity during those dark days in West Berlin when, on an aid delivery flight, he dropped tiny bundles of sweets with handkerchief parachutes for children waiting below. Fans nicknamed him ‘the candy bomber’ and ‘Uncle Wiggly Wings’ for the way he manoeuvred his plane so the youngsters below would know to look out for incoming chewing gum and chocolate bars.” By January 1949, he had dropped more than 250,000 parachutes of candy and gum on the children of Berlin. There has never been a better propaganda effort than that.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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