[Granville-Hough] 14 Feb 2009 - The Berlin Airlift

[Trustees and Executors for Granville W. Hough]

     One of the first tests of the Cold War was the Berlin Airlift.  
Recently, the US Army in its reminder to old soldiers of days gone by, 
/The Salute, /discussed the Berlin Airlift and the support role of the 
Army in that test of our will.  I remembered that we had a valid family 
hero in the midst of that action, my first cousin, then Air Force First 
Lieutenant Bland Richardson, who was in charge of aircraft maintenance 
at Tempelhof Air Drome in Berlin.  I asked Bland if he would give his 
recollections of those events, and he prepared his remarks in two parts. 
Here is the Army's big picture of the action.

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    The Berlin Airlift
    2009 marks the 61st anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.  When the 
Soviet Union tried to cut off and starve West Berlin, the United States 
and Great Britain countered with an airborn lifeline.  A constant stream 
of cargo planes flew a virtual conveyor belt of supplies into the 
beleaguered city as determined air crews and tireless Americans in 
uniform delivered all the products and equipment vital to keep a city alive.
    At the end of World War II, the former Allies of Great Britain, 
France, the United States, and the Soviet Union divided Germany into 
four occupied zones.  Berlin lay in the Soviet zone, but the other three 
countries controlled West Berlin.  A long narrow corridor connected the 
city with the Western zones, but on June 12, 1948, Joseph Stalin (of the 
Soviet Union) decided to force out the democratic powers by shutting 
down the autobahn access and halting all river and rail traffic into the 
city.
    The Western powers acted quickly.  General Lucius D. Clay, the 
Commander of the Office of Military Government, United States and the 
Military Governor of Germany, defied Stalin's blockade by flying cargo 
into the city.  An Armada of C-47s and C-54s took off from the Allied 
zones of Germany and headed into Berlin.
    In the American zone, planes flew from airports in Rhein-Main and 
Wiesbaden bound for Tempelhof Air Drome in Berlin.  Planes landed every 
three minutes, 24 hours a day, delivering coal, gasoline, milk, 
potatoes, flour and dried foods.  To save time. crews stayed in their 
planes after landing.  German girls brought meals to the cockpits and 
weathermen came onboard to brief pilots on conditions while the planes 
were unloaded.  Turnaround time for planes averaged 30 minutes.
    The sky train to Berlin was no pleasure ride for the crews.  They 
flew through fog, freezing rain, snow, turbulence and heavy clouds.  At 
times Russian Yak fighters flew dangerouslly close.  Out of 276,926 
flights, there were 24 crashes and 48 deaths.  To keep casualties down, 
the Western Allies pressed more airfields into service and built a new 
on in Berlin --in only three months.  The Americans and British were not 
alone in their endeavor as Berliners helped build new landing strips and 
unload planes.
    American pilots became heroes to the German people.  One pilot, Lt 
Gail S. Halvorsen, began dropping handkerchief  parachutes of candy to 
the children of Berlin during his landings. His small act became a 
sensation.  Americans began sending Halvorsen thousands of hand-knitted 
handkerchiefs, and candy companies sent him crates of sweets.  Soon, all 
the pilots parachuted treats to the kids, earning them the title "Candy 
Bombers."
    The U. S. Army had a special role in the Airlift.  Soldiers either 
provided or hired and then supervised the truckers, transporters, 
loaders and unloaders.  Army trucks and trains hauled supplies across 
Europe to airports in West Germany.  At Tempelhof, Army trucks began 
unloading planes before they came to a stop.  Cargo was then transported 
from the airport to the city's storage facilities for distribution.
    On May 12, 1949, fifteen months after it started, Stalin caved in to 
this display of technology, fortitude and tenacity.  He ended the 
blockade.  The Western Allies proved they would not back down when 
threatened, and the U. S. military forged a legacy of friendship with 
the people of Germany. 

(to be continued with Bland's remarks).

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From: "BLAND RICHARDSON" <blandz at msn.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:02:24 -0700

The Berlin Airlift

There are parts of the Berlin Airlift that previously has not been =
discussed because it has appeared to be insignificant.  But when the =
Berlin Airlift started I was a first Lineament in Berlin.  I carried an =
MOS of 4823 which is Aircraft Engineering Officer, but there I worked =
primarily as an Aircraft Maintenance officer.


The first question is:   Why did the Russians close the Zone?


When the separation of Germany was started after WWII and the occupation =
was decided upon there were four parts-Russian, British, French and U.S. =
 The Russian part of Germany was called Zones.  It included Berlin.  The =
Russian territory stretched all the way back to Moscow.  The rest of =
Germany was divided into three Zones--British, French and American, but =
did not include any part of Berlin.  Berlin, you might say, was isolated =
in the Russian Zone Based on the four powers agreement, Berlin was =
divided into four Sectors.  The Russian Sector included the largest part =
of Berlin which was extended all the way back to Moscow.  The US, =
British, and French sector included the rest of Germany.  They all three =
made up approximately as much as the Russian sector of Berlin. =20


Why were the Russians so concerned about our behavior in Berlin?


First it was because all the professional people such as lawyers, =
doctors, teachers, etc. could escape from the Russian zone of Berlin and =
the Russian sector into the American sector of Berlin.  Since the =
American and British were rebuilding their sectors of Berlin then all =
the professional people wanted to come there plus the fact they could =
escape through the U.S. Sector into the U. S. Zone and to any part of =
the world that they had visas to go.  This was a thorn in the Russian's =
side but was not openly discussed. =20


Second was money.  The Russians had printed their own money for their =
Russian Zone including Berlin and they printed all they wanted when ever =
they wanted.  This was a thorn in the U. S., British and French side.  =
So the U. S. under the cover of darkness, so to speak, printed over two =
million dollars worth of allied marks, different from the Russians and =
started paying their troops and others in Berlin.  This meant that the =
Russians could not counterfeit money anymore to pay their troops.  This =
made Stalin furious.  Now already there was friction between the allies =
U.S. British and French and the Russians and the sectors of Berlin.  The =
Russians reacted to this first by closing the railroad, second closing =
the water way, and finally the Autobahn. This of course made it =
impossible for goods to be brought to the allied zones to feed, clothe =
and bring fuel to the three and =BD million Berliners now. =20


Why did we have the three air corridors?


We had the three air corridors because of the Potsdam agreement when we =
wanted to fly none military aircraft to Berlin.  The Russians gave us in =
writing permission for us to have three corridors, which were 20 miles =
wide, to get into Berlin.  This required that we would sign documents =
because they did not want us flying at will and finding out what they =
were doing in the Russian Zone.  They did not realize that ultimately =
this would work against them.  So in short, we only had permission to go =
to Berlin on three separate corridors, each twenty miles wide. =
Therefore, when they closed the autobahn we could not get coal, food and =
so forth into Berlin.  General Clay who was in charge of the Berlin =
group called General LaMay and asked, "Can we airlift coal and food into =
Berlin by air?  General La May, who was commander of the air forces in =
Europe, replied, "We can fly anything to Berlin".  General Clay =
approached President Truman about using tanks to escort supply vehicles =
to Berlin.  The Congress felt that it wasn't worth taking a chance on =
starting a war with Russia since they still had thousand of troops in =
the area and we had very few.  Therefore, we called out all of the =
C-47s, popularly called gooney birds, and moved the air planes, pilots, =
dependants, tools and equipment to Frankfurt.  Although, Nelda my wife =
and Lynda my child were moved to Frankfurt, I was left at the base in =
charge of maintenance for the Berlin end of the Airlift.


The reason all dependants were moved out was so that food would not be =
required to be flown into them.  I was left with about a dozen enlisted =
men and twenty Germans.  Now the Germans were thoroughly trained on C-47 =
since they had maintained them during the war when the German air lines =
Lusitania was in operation.  We did not knowingly use any maintenance =
personnel that maintained the German military air force. =20

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Here is the second 
part of Cousin Bland's view of the Airlift, for which I thank him. When 
he and his children were in charge of the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin 
Airlift last year at the Air Force Academy, Bland states they were 
treated like Royalty.

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*Berlin** Airlift II*

The Berlin airlift lasted from the June 24, 1948 to May 11, 1949. It was 
one of the first international crises of the cold war. In the first part 
of the airlift I talked about those who were left for the maintenance 
operation. This did not include German nationals who unloaded the 
airplanes and those on the firefighting equipment.

At the beginning of the airlift the C-47s were able to haul 80 tons of 
cargo—medicine, milk, flour to Berlin a day. A little later as the 
airlift continued they were able to haul six to seven hundred tons a day 
while 2,000 tons per day is required in normal food. It was enough to 
boost the German morale. It was going to require more C-54s to deliver 
the tonnage so finally 500 C-54s were used. In order to accommodate the 
large number of flights to Berlin, it was required to establish regular 
maintenance time on the aircraft and cargo loading time. So finally 
aircraft were scheduled to take off every 3 minutes, fly 500 feet higher 
than the previous flight, and this pattern began at 5,000 ft and was 
repeated 5 times. The first week the airlift averaged 90 tons a day. By 
the end of the second week it averaged 1,000 tons a day.

On July 27, 1948 General Tunner, who was famous during World War II for 
flying the hump to China, took over the entire airlift operation. Tunner 
made the decision to remove all C-47s from the airlines as it took just 
as long to unload them (3 1/2 tons) as a C-54 which carried 10 tons. He 
ordered that pilots and crews could not leave their airplanes while 
being unloaded and set up a schedule for snack bar trucks to travel 
along the airplane to supply the crews with coffee snacks and so forth. 
By the end of July, after one month, the airlift was succeeding. By the 
end of July the operations flew more than 1,500 flights a day and 
delivered more than 4,500 tons of cargo enough to keep West Berlin 
supplied. By the end September all the C-47s were with drawn. And over 225
C-54s were devoted to the lift. Supplies improved to 5,000 tons a day. 
This turn of events was decidedly against the Soviets. As the tempo of 
the airlift grew, it became apparent that the Western powers might be 
able to pull off the impossible of supplying an entire city. By this 
time the Soviets offered free food to anyone that would cross into East 
Berlin and sign over their ration card. Few took them up on the offer.

By April 1949 “Airlift Operation” was running smoothly. Tunner took it 
on himself to say that the Easter Sunday airlift would break all 
records. From 12 p.m. April 15 to 12 p.m. April 16 crews worked around 
the clock. When it was over 12,941 tons of coal had been delivered, by 
1,383 flights. The daily tonnage had increased from 6,729 tons a day to 
8,893 tons a day. In total the airlift delivered 234, 476 tons in April. 
By April 21 a point was reached that the amount of supplies flown into 
the city acceded that previously brought in by railway. The Berlin 
airlift finally succeeded and appeared able to operate indefinitely. The 
continued success of the airlift humiliated the Soviets and the Easter 
Parade of 1949 was the last straw. On April 15, 1949 the Russian news 
agency expressed a willingness to lift the blockade.

There is a Berlin Airlift monument at Berlin-Templehof displaying the 
names of 39 British and 31 American pilots and air crewmen that lost 
their lives during the airlift. The Berlin-Templehof monument reads 
“/They Gave Their Lives for the Freedom of Berlin in Service for the 
Berlin Airlift 1948 and 49.”

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P. S. Cousin Bland Richardson has sent me these additive notes. The 
story should more properly be called the "Berlin Blockade," as that was 
what the Soviets forced upon us. When we successfully countered the 
blockade with the airlift, the Soviets took another tact. They built the 
Berlin Wall to keep their people in.

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PPS Barbara Roesch noted her earliest memories were in 1953 in the third 
grade in Japan when a schoolmate rode by on his bicycle yelling "Stalin 
is dead! Stalin is dead!!" She did not know who Stalin was but the 
picture of him in his coffin the next day in the newspaper was seared in 
her memory. I do apologize to those who are too young to remember these 
initial Cold War events of 1948 and 1949. What nearly everyone can 
remember is President Reagan saying: "Mr. Gorbachev, take down this 
wall!" and the subsequent removal of the Berlin wall and the eventual 
reunification of Germany. We can work back through them. Stalin wanted 
to keep his people in their respective countries. He instituted the 
Berlin Blockade. We successfully countered with the Airlift. He built 
the the wall. The wall lasted for a whole generation and was fairly 
effective in separating East Germany from the Western World./ /