AIR
POWER HISTORY FALL 98 BERLIN AIRLIFT OPERATION VITTLES USAF USN VR RAF C-54
YORK DC-3 DAKOTA LANCASTRIAN TUDOR HANDLEY PAGE HALTON R4D R5D FAIRCHILD C-82
PACKET
HISTORY OF THE BERLIN AIRLIFT
1948-1949
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Additional Information from
Internet Encyclopedia
The Berlin Blockade (24 June
1948 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold
War. During the multinational occupation of postWorld War II Germany, the
Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway, road, and canal access to the
sectors of Berlin under Western control. The Soviets offered to drop the
blockade if the Western Allies withdrew the newly introduced Deutsche Mark from
West Berlin.
The Western Allies organised the
Berlin Airlift (German: Berliner Luftbrücke, lit. "Berlin Air
Bridge") from 26 June 1948 to 30 September 1949 to carry supplies to the
people of West Berlin, a difficult feat given the size of the city and the population.
American and British air forces flew over Berlin more than 250,000 times,
dropping necessities such as fuel and food, with the original plan being to
lift 3,475 tons of supplies daily. By the spring of 1949, that number was often
met twofold, with the peak daily delivery totalling 12,941 tons. Among these,
was the work of the later concurrent Operation Little Vittles in which
candy-dropping aircraft dubbed "raisin bombers" generated much
goodwill among German children.
Having initially concluded there
was no way the airlift could work, the Soviets found its continued success an
increasing embarrassment. On 12 May 1949, the USSR lifted the blockade of West
Berlin, due to economic issues in East Berlin, although for a time the
Americans and British continued to supply the city by air as they were worried
that the Soviets would resume the blockade and were only trying to disrupt
western supply lines. The Berlin Airlift officially ended on 30 September 1949
after fifteen months. The US Air Force had delivered 1,783,573 tons (76.4% of
total) and the RAF 541,937 tons (23.3% of total),[nb 1] totalling 2,334,374
tons, nearly two-thirds of which was coal, on 278,228 flights to Berlin. In
addition Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African air crews assisted
the RAF during the blockade. The French also conducted flights, but only to
provide supplies for their military garrison.
American C-47 and C-54 transport
airplanes, together, flew over 92,000,000 miles (148,000,000 km) in the
process, almost the distance from Earth to the Sun. British transports,
including Handley Page Haltons and Short Sunderlands, flew as well. At the height
of the airlift, one plane reached West Berlin every thirty seconds.
Seventeen American and eight
British aircraft crashed during the operation. A total of 101 fatalities were
recorded as a result of the operation, including 40 Britons and 31 Americans,
mostly due to non-flying accidents.
The Berlin Blockade served to
highlight the competing ideological and economic visions for postwar Europe. It
played a major role in aligning West Berlin with the United States and Britain
as the major protecting powers, and in drawing West Germany into the NATO orbit
several years later in 1955.
Postwar division of Germany
The red area of Germany (above)
is Soviet controlled East Germany. German territory east of the Oder-Neisse
line (light beige) was ceded to Poland, while a portion of the easternmost
section of Germany East Prussia, Königsberg, was annexed by the USSR, as the
Kaliningrad Oblast.
From 17 July to 2 August 1945,
the victorious Allies reached the Potsdam Agreement on the fate of postwar
Europe, calling for the division of defeated Germany, west of the Oder-Neisse
line, into four temporary occupation zones each one controlled by one of the
four occupying Allied powers: the United States, the United Kingdom, France and
the Soviet Union (thus re-affirming principles laid out earlier by the Yalta
Conference). These zones were located roughly around the then-current locations
of the allied armies.[11] As the seat of the Allied Control Council, Berlin was
also divided into four occupation zones, despite the city's location, which was
fully located 100 miles (160 km) inside Soviet-controlled eastern Germany. The
United States, United Kingdom, and France controlled western portions of the
city, while Soviet troops controlled the eastern sector.
In the eastern zone, the Soviet
authorities forcibly unified the Communist Party of Germany and Social
Democratic Party (SPD) in the Socialist Unity Party ("SED"), claiming
at the time that it would not have a MarxistLeninist or Soviet orientation.
The SED leaders then called for the "establishment of an anti-fascist,
democratic regime, a parliamentary democratic republic" while the Soviet
Military Administration suppressed all other political activities.[13]
Factories, equipment, technicians, managers and skilled personnel were removed
to the Soviet Union.
In a June 1945 meeting, Stalin
informed German communist leaders that he expected to slowly undermine the
British position within their occupation zone, that the United States would
withdraw within a year or two and that nothing would then stand in the way of a
united Germany under communist control within the Soviet orbit.[15] Stalin and
other leaders told visiting Bulgarian and Yugoslavian delegations in early 1946
that Germany must be both Soviet and communist.
A further factor contributing to
the blockade was that there had never been a formal agreement guaranteeing rail
and road access to Berlin through the Soviet zone. At the end of the war,
western leaders had relied on Soviet goodwill to provide them with access.[16]
At that time, the western allies assumed that the Soviets' refusal to grant any
cargo access other than one rail line, limited to ten trains per day, was
temporary, but the Soviets refused expansion to the various additional routes
that were later proposed.
The Soviets also granted only
three air corridors for access to Berlin from Hamburg, Bückeburg, and
Frankfurt. In 1946 the Soviets stopped delivering agricultural goods from their
zone in eastern Germany, and the American commander, Lucius D. Clay, responded
by stopping shipments of dismantled industries from western Germany to the
Soviet Union. In response, the Soviets started a public relations campaign
against American policy and began to obstruct the administrative work of all
four zones of occupation.
Until the blockade began in
1948, the Truman Administration had not decided whether American forces should
remain in West Berlin after the establishment of a West German government,
planned for 1949.
Focus on Berlin and the
elections of 1946
Berlin quickly became the focal
point of both US and Soviet efforts to re-align Europe to their respective
visions. As Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov noted, "What
happens to Berlin, happens to Germany; what happens to Germany, happens to
Europe."[19] Berlin had suffered enormous damage; its prewar population of
4.3 million people was reduced to 2.8 million.
After harsh treatment, forced
emigration, political repression and the particularly harsh winter of
19451946, Germans in the Soviet-controlled zone were hostile to Soviet
endeavours.[15] Local elections in 1946 resulted in a massive anti-communist
protest vote, especially in the Soviet sector of Berlin.Berlin's citizens
overwhelmingly elected non-Communist members to its city government.
Political division
The US had secretly decided that
a unified and neutral Germany would inevitably fall under Soviet domination,
with Ambassador Walter Bedell Smith telling General Eisenhower that "in
spite of our announced position, we really do not want nor intend to accept
German unification on any terms that the Russians might agree to, even though
they seem to meet most of our requirements." American planners had
privately decided during the war that it would need a strong, allied Germany to
assist in the rebuilding of the West European economy.
To coordinate the economies of
the British and United States occupation zones, these were combined on 1
January 1947 into what was referred to as the Bizone[15] (renamed "the
Trizone" when France joined on 1 August 1948). After March 1946 the British
zonal advisory board (Zonenbeirat) was established, with representatives of the
states, the central offices, political parties, trade unions, and consumer
organisations. As indicated by its name, the zonal advisory board had no
legislative power, but was merely advisory. The Control Commission for Germany
British Element made all decisions with its legislative power. In reaction to
the Soviet and British advances, in October 1945 the Office of Military
Government, United States (OMGUS) encouraged the states in the US zone to form
a co-ordinating body, the so-called Länderrat (council of states), with the
power to legislate for the entire US zone. It created its own central bodies
(Ausschüsse or joint interstate committees) headed by a secretariat seated in Stuttgart.
While the British and Soviet central administrations were allied institutions,
these US zone committees were not OMGUS subdivisions, but instead were
autonomous bodies of German self-rule under OMGUS supervision.
Representatives of these three
governments, along with the Benelux nations, met twice in London (London
6-Power Conference) in the first half of 1948 to discuss the future of Germany,
going ahead despite Soviet threats to ignore any resulting decisions. Eventually
the London Agreement on German External Debts, also known as the London Debt
Agreement (German: Londoner Schuldenabkommen), was concluded. Under the London
Debts Agreement of 1953, the repayable amount was reduced by 50% to about 15
billion marks and stretched out over 30 years, and compared to the fast-growing
German economy were of minor impact.
In response to the announcement
of the first of these meetings, in late January 1948, the Soviets began
stopping British and American trains to Berlin to check passenger
identities.[24] As outlined in an announcement on 7 March 1948, all of the
governments present approved the extension of the Marshall Plan to Germany,
finalised the economic merger of the western occupation zones in Germany and
agreed upon the establishment of a federal system of government for them.
After a 9 March meeting between
Stalin and his military advisers, a secret memorandum was sent to Molotov on 12
March 1948, outlining a plan to force the policy of the western allies into
line with the wishes of the Soviet government by "regulating" access
to Berlin. The Allied Control Council (ACC) met for the last time on 20 March
1948, when Vasily Sokolovsky demanded to know the outcome of the London
Conference and, on being told by negotiators that they had not yet heard the
final results from their governments, he said, "I see no sense in
continuing this meeting, and I declare it adjourned."
The entire Soviet delegation
rose and walked out. Truman later noted, "For most of Germany, this act
merely formalised what had been an obvious fact for some time, namely, that the
four-power control machinery had become unworkable. For the city of Berlin,
however, this was an indication for a major crisis."
April Crisis and the Little Air
Lift
On 25 March 1948, the Soviets
issued orders restricting Western military and passenger traffic between the
American, British and French occupation zones and Berlin.[24] These new
measures began on 1 April along with an announcement that no cargo could leave
Berlin by rail without the permission of the Soviet commander. Each train and
truck was to be searched by the Soviet authorities.[24] On 2 April, General
Clay ordered a halt to all military trains and required that supplies to the
military garrison be transported by air, in what was dubbed the "Little
Lift."
The Soviets eased their
restrictions on Allied military trains on 10 April 1948, but continued
periodically to interrupt rail and road traffic during the next 75 days, while
the United States continued supplying its military forces by using cargo
aircraft.[27] Some 20 flights a day continued through June, building up stocks
of food against future Soviet actions,[28] so that by the time the blockade
began at the end of June, at least 18 days' supply per major food type, and in
some types, much more, had been stockpiled that provided time to build up the
ensuing airlift.
At the same time, Soviet
military aircraft began to violate West Berlin airspace and would harass, or
what the military called "buzz", flights in and out of West
Berlin.[30] On 5 April, a Soviet Air Force Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter collided with
a British European Airways Vickers Viking 1B airliner near RAF Gatow airfield,
killing all aboard both aircraft. Later dubbed the Gatow air disaster, this
event exacerbated tensions between the Soviets and the other allied powers
Internal Soviet reports in April
stated that "Our control and restrictive measures have dealt a strong blow
to the prestige of the Americans and British in Germany" and that the
Americans have "admitted" that the idea of an airlift would be too
expensive.
On 9 April, Soviet officials
demanded that American military personnel maintaining communication equipment
in the Eastern zone must withdraw, thus preventing the use of navigation
beacons to mark air routes. On 20 April, the Soviets demanded that all barges
obtain clearance before entering the Soviet zone.
Currency crisis
Creation of an economically
stable western Germany required reform of the unstable Reichsmark German
currency introduced after the 1920s German inflation. The Soviets continued the
debasing of the Reichsmark, which had undergone severe inflation during the
war, by excessive printing, resulting in many Germans using cigarettes as a de
facto currency or for bartering.[36][37] The Soviets opposed western plans for
a reform. They interpreted the new currency as an unjustified, unilateral
decision, and responded by cutting all land links between West Berlin and West
Germany. The Soviets believed that the only currency that should be allowed to
circulate was the currency that they issued themselves.
Anticipating the introduction of
a new currency by the other countries in the non-Soviet zones, the Soviet Union
in May 1948 directed its military to introduce its own new currency and to
permit only the Soviet currency to be used in their sector of Berlin if the
other countries brought in a different currency there.[36] On 18 June the
United States, Britain and France announced that on 21 June the Deutsche Mark
would be introduced, but the Soviets refused to permit its use as legal tender
in Berlin. The Allies had already transported 250,000,000 Deutsche marks into
the city and it quickly became the standard currency in all four sectors.
Stalin looked to force the Western nations to abandon Berlin.
The day after the 18 June 1948
announcement of the new Deutsche Mark, Soviet guards halted all passenger
trains and traffic on the autobahn to Berlin, delayed Western and German
freight shipments and required that all water transport secure special Soviet
permission.[36] On 21 June, the day the Deutsche Mark was introduced, the
Soviet military halted a United States military supply train to Berlin and sent
it back to western Germany. On 22 June, the Soviets announced that they would
introduce the East German mark in their zone.
That same day, a Soviet
representative told the other three occupying powers that "We are warning
both you and the population of Berlin that we shall apply economic and
administrative sanctions that will lead to the circulation in Berlin
exclusively of the currency of the Soviet occupation zone."[39] The
Soviets launched a massive propaganda campaign condemning Britain, the United
States and France by radio, newspaper and loudspeaker.[39] The Soviets
conducted well-advertised military maneuvers just outside the city. Rumors of a
potential occupation by Soviet troops spread quickly. German communists
demonstrated, rioted and attacked pro-West German leaders attending meetings
for the municipal government in the Soviet sector.
On 24 June, the Soviets severed
land and water connections between the non-Soviet zones and Berlin.[39] That
same day, they halted all rail and barge traffic in and out of Berlin.[39] The
West answered by introducing a counter-blockade, stopping all rail traffic into
East Germany from the British and US zones. Over the following months, this
counter-blockade would have a damaging impact on East Germany, as the drying up
of coal and steel shipments seriously hindered industrial development in the
Soviet zone.[40][41] On 25 June, the Soviets stopped supplying food to the
civilian population in the non-Soviet sectors of Berlin.[39] Motor traffic from
Berlin to the western zones was permitted, but this required a 23-kilometre (14
mi) detour to a ferry crossing because of alleged "repairs" to a
bridge.[39] They also cut off the electricity relied on by Berlin, using their
control over the generating plants in the Soviet zone.
Surface traffic from non-Soviet
zones to Berlin was blockaded, leaving open only the air corridors.[39] The
Soviets rejected arguments that the occupation rights in the non-Soviet sectors
of Berlin and the use of the supply routes during the previous three years had
given Britain, France and the United States a legal claim to use of the
highways, tunnels, railroads, and canals. Relying on Soviet goodwill after the
war, Britain, France, and the United States had never negotiated an agreement
with the Soviets to guarantee these land-based rights of access to Berlin
through the Soviet zone.
At the time, West Berlin had an
estimated 36 days worth of food, and 45 days worth of coal. Militarily, the
Americans and British were greatly outnumbered because of the postwar scaling
back of their armies. The United States, like other Western countries, had
disbanded most of its troops and was largely inferior in the European
theatre.[42] The entire United States Army had been reduced to 552,000 men by
February 1948.[43] Military forces in the western sectors of Berlin numbered
only 8,973 Americans, 7,606 British and 6,100 French.[44] Of the 98,000
American troops in West Germany in March 1948, only 31,000 were combat forces,
and only one reserve division was immediately available in the United
States.[45] Soviet military forces in the Soviet sector that surrounded Berlin
totaled 1.5 million.[46] The two United States regiments in Berlin could have
provided little resistance against a Soviet attack.[47] Because of the
imbalance, US war plans were based on using hundreds of atomic bombs, but only
about 50 Fat Man-specification bombs, the only version available to the US
military, existed in mid-1948. In March 1948, only 35 "Silverplate"
atomic-capable Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombersjust over half of the 65
Silverplate specification B-29 aircraft built through the end of 1947and a few
trained flight and assembly crews were available. Three B-29 groups arrived in
Europe in July and August 1948. Despite the intention to signal the threat of
the West's ability to retaliate with nuclear weapons if necessary, the Soviets
possibly knew that none of the bombers were atomic-capable. The first
Silverplate bombers only arrived in Europe near the end of the crisis in April
1949.
General Lucius D. Clay, in
charge of the US Occupation Zone in Germany, summed up the reasons for not
retreating in a cable on June 13, 1948, to Washington, D.C.:
There is no practicability in
maintaining our position in Berlin and it must not be evaluated on that basis
We are convinced that our remaining in Berlin is essential to our prestige in
Germany and in Europe. Whether for good or bad, it has become a symbol of the
American intent.
Believing that Britain, France,
and the United States had little option other than to acquiesce, the Soviet
Military Administration in Germany celebrated the beginning of the
blockade.[51] General Clay felt that the Soviets were bluffing about Berlin since
they would not want to be viewed as starting a Third World War. He believed
that Stalin did not want a war and that Soviet actions were aimed at exerting
military and political pressure on the West to obtain concessions, relying on
the West's prudence and unwillingness to provoke a war.[44] General Curtis
LeMay, commander of United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), reportedly
favored an aggressive response to the blockade, in which his B-29s with fighter
escort would approach Soviet air bases while ground troops attempted to reach
Berlin; Washington vetoed the plan.
Decision for an airlift
Although the ground routes had
never been negotiated, the same was not true of the air. On 30 November 1945,
it had been agreed in writing that there would be three twenty-mile-wide air
corridors providing free access to Berlin.[52] Additionally, unlike a force of
tanks and trucks, the Soviets could not claim that cargo aircraft were a
military threat.
The airlift option critically
depended on scale and effectiveness. If the supplies could not be flown in fast
enough, Soviet help would eventually be needed to prevent starvation. Clay was
told to take advice from General LeMay to see if an airlift was possible.
"We can haul anything," LeMay responded, after initially taken aback
by the inquiry, "Can you haul coal?"
When American forces consulted
Britain's Royal Air Force about a possible joint airlift, they learned the RAF
was already running an airlift in support of British troops in Berlin. General
Clay's counterpart, General Sir Brian Robertson, was ready with some concrete
numbers. During the Little Lift in April 1948, British Air Commodore Reginald
Waite had calculated the resources required to support the entire city.
Based on a minimum daily ration
of 1,990 kilocalories (July 1948),[54] the American military government set a
total of daily supplies needed at 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of
cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated
potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5
tons of whole milk for children, 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking, 144 tons of
dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese. In all, 1,534
tons were required each day to sustain the over two million people of Berlin.
Additionally, for heat and power, 3,475 tons of coal, diesel and petrol were
also required daily.
Carrying all this in would not
be easy. The postwar demobilisation left the US forces in Europe with only two
groups of C-47 Skytrain transports (the military version of the Douglas DC-3,
which the British called the "Dakota"), nominally 96 aircraft, each
of which could carry about 3.5 tons of cargo. LeMay believed that "with an
all-out effort" of 100 daily round trips these would be able to haul about
300 tons of supplies a day.[58] The RAF was somewhat better prepared, since it
had already moved some aircraft into the German area, and they expected to be
able to supply about 400 tons a day.
This was not nearly enough to
move the 5,000 tons a day that would be needed, but these numbers could be
increased as new aircraft arrived from the United Kingdom, the United States,
and France. The RAF would be relied on to increase its numbers quickly. It
could fly additional aircraft in from Britain in a single hop, bringing the RAF
fleet to about 150 Dakotas and 40 of the larger Avro Yorks with a 10-ton
payload.
With this fleet, the British
contribution was expected to rise to 750 tons a day in the short term, albeit
at the cost of suspending all air traffic except for the airlift to Berlin.[58]
For a longer-term operation, the US would have to add additional aircraft as
soon as possible, and those would have to be as large as possible while still
able to fly into the Berlin airports. Only one aircraft type was suitable, the
four-engined C-54 Skymaster and its US Navy equivalent, the R5D, of which the
US military had approximately 565, with 268 Air Force and Navy Skymasters in
MATS, 168 in the troop carrier groups, and 80 Navy R5Ds in miscellaneous
commands. Planners calculated that including C-54s already ordered to Germany
and drawing on those flying with civilian carriers, 447 Skymasters could be
available for an "extreme emergency".
Given the feasibility assessment
made by the British, an airlift appeared to be the best course of action. One
remaining concern was the population of Berlin. Clay called in Ernst Reuter,
the mayor-elect of Berlin, accompanied by his aide, Willy Brandt. Clay told
Reuter:
Look, I am ready to try an
airlift. I can't guarantee it will work. I am sure that even at its best,
people are going to be cold and people are going to be hungry. And if the
people of Berlin won't stand that, it will fail. And I don't want to go into this
unless I have your assurance that the people will be heavily in approval.
Reuter, although skeptical,
assured Clay that Berlin would make all the necessary sacrifices and that the
Berliners would support his actions.
General Albert Wedemeyer, the US
Army chief of plans and operations, was in Europe on an inspection tour when
the crisis broke out. He had been the commander of the US China Burma India
Theater in 194445 and he had a detailed knowledge of the previously largest
airliftthe World War II American airlift from India over the Hump of the
Himalayas to China. His endorsement of the airlift option gave it a major
boost. The British and Americans agreed to start a joint operation without
delay; the US action was dubbed "Operation Vittles", while the
British action was called "Operation Plainfare". The Australian
contribution to the airlift, begun in September 1948, was designated
"Operation Pelican".
The British asked Canada to
contribute planes and crews. It refused, primarily on the grounds that the
operation risked war and Canada had not been consulted.
Airlift begins
On 24 June 1948 LeMay appointed
Brigadier General Joseph Smith, headquarters commandant for USAFE at Camp
Lindsey, as the provisional task force commander of the airlift. Smith had been
chief of staff in LeMay's B-29 command in India during World War II and had no
airlift experience.[citation needed] On 25 June 1948, Clay gave the order to
launch Operation Vittles. The next day, 32 C-47s lifted off for Berlin hauling
80 tons of cargo, including milk, flour and medicine. The first British
aircraft flew on 28 June. At that time, the airlift was expected to last three
weeks.
On 27 June, Clay cabled William
Draper with an estimate of the current situation:
I have already arranged for our
maximum airlift to start on Monday [June 28]. For a sustained effort, we can
use seventy Dakotas [C-47s]. The number which the British can make available is
not yet known, although General Robertson is somewhat doubtful of their ability
to make this number available. Our two Berlin airports can handle in the
neighborhood of fifty additional airplanes per day. These would have to be
C-47s, C-54s or planes with similar landing characteristics, as our airports
cannot take larger planes. LeMay is urging two C-54 groups. With this airlift,
we should be able to bring in 600 or 700 tons a day. While 2,000 tons a day is
required in normal foods, 600 tons a day (utilizing dried foods to the maximum
extent) will substantially increase the morale of the German people and will
unquestionably seriously disturb the Soviet blockade. To accomplish this, it is
urgent that we be given approximately 50 additional transport planes to arrive
in Germany at the earliest practicable date, and each day's delay will of
course decrease our ability to sustain our position in Berlin. Crews would be
needed to permit maximum operation of these planes.
Lucius D. Clay, June 1948[50]
By 1 July, the system was
getting under way. C-54s were starting to arrive in quantity, and Rhein-Main
Air Base became exclusively a C-54 hub, while Wiesbaden retained a mix of C-54s
and C-47s. Aircraft flew northeast through the American air corridor into
Tempelhof Airport, then returned due west flying out on through the British air
corridor. After reaching the British Zone, they turned south to return to their
bases.
The British ran a similar
system, flying southeast from several airports in the Hamburg area through
their second corridor into RAF Gatow in the British Sector, and then also
returning out on the center corridor, turning for home or landing at Hanover. However,
unlike the Americans, the British also ran some round-trips, using their
southeast corridor. To save time many flights didn't land in Berlin, instead
air dropping material, such as coal, into the airfields. On 6 July the Yorks
and Dakotas were joined by Short Sunderland flying boats. Flying from
Finkenwerder on the Elbe near Hamburg to the Havel river next to Gatow, their
corrosion-resistant hulls suited them to the particular task of delivering
baking powder and other salt into the city.[64] The Royal Australian Air Force
also contributed to the British effort.
Accommodating the large number
of flights to Berlin of dissimilar aircraft with widely varying flight
characteristics required close co-ordination. Smith and his staff developed a
complex timetable for flights called the "block system": three eight-hour
shifts of a C-54 section to Berlin followed by a C-47 section. Aircraft were
scheduled to take off every four minutes, flying 1,000 feet (300 m) higher than
the flight in front. This pattern began at 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and was
repeated five times. This system of stacked inbound serials was later dubbed
"the ladder".
During the first week, the
airlift averaged only ninety tons a day, but by the second week it reached
1,000 tons. This likely would have sufficed had the effort lasted only a few
weeks, as originally believed. The Communist press in East Berlin ridiculed the
project. It derisively referred to "the futile attempts of the Americans
to save face and to maintain their untenable position in Berlin."
Despite the excitement
engendered by glamorous publicity extolling the work (and over-work) of the
crews and the daily increase of tonnage levels, the airlift was not close to
being operated to its capability because USAFE was a tactical organisation without
any airlift expertise. Maintenance was barely adequate, crews were not being
efficiently used, transports stood idle and disused, necessary record-keeping
was scant, and ad hoc flight crews of publicity-seeking desk personnel were
disrupting a business-like atmosphere.[69] This was recognised by the United
States National Security Council at a meeting with Clay on 22 July 1948, when
it became clear that a long-term airlift was necessary. Wedemeyer immediately
recommended that the deputy commander for operations of the Military Air
Transport Service (MATS), Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner, command the operation.
When Wedemeyer had been the commander of US forces in China during World War
II, Tunner, as commander of the India-China Division of the Air Transport
Command, had reorganised the Hump airlift between India and China, doubling the
tonnage and hours flown. USAF Chief of Staff Hoyt S. Vandenberg endorsed the
recommendation.
Black Friday
On 28 July 1948, Tunner arrived
in Wiesbaden to take over the operation.[70] He revamped the entire airlift
operation, reaching an agreement with LeMay to form the Combined Air Lift Task
Force (CALTF) to control both the USAFE and RAF lift operations from a central
location, which went into effect in mid-October 1948. MATS immediately deployed
eight squadrons of C-54s72 aircraftto Wiesbaden and Rhein-Main Air Base to
reinforce the 54 already in operation, the first by 30 July and the remainder
by mid-August, and two-thirds of all C-54 aircrew worldwide began transferring
to Germany to allot three crews per aircraft
Two weeks after his arrival, on
13 August, Tunner decided to fly to Berlin to grant an award to Lt. Paul O.
Lykins, an airlift pilot who had made the most flights into Berlin up to that
time, a symbol of the entire effort to date. Cloud cover over Berlin dropped to
the height of the buildings, and heavy rain showers made radar visibility poor.
A C-54 crashed and burned at the end of the runway, and a second one landing
behind it burst its tires while trying to avoid it. A third transport ground
looped after mistakenly landing on a runway under construction. In accordance
with the standard procedures then in effect, all incoming transports including
Tunner's, arriving every three minutes, were stacked above Berlin by air
traffic control from 3,000 feet (910 m) to 12,000 feet (3,700 m) in bad
weather, creating an extreme risk of mid-air collision. Newly unloaded planes
were denied permission to take off to avoid that possibility and created a
backup on the ground. While no one was killed, Tunner was embarrassed that the
control tower at Tempelhof had lost control of the situation while the
commander of the airlift was circling overhead. Tunner radioed for all stacked
aircraft except his to be sent home immediately. This became known as
"Black Friday", and Tunner personally noted it was from that date
onward that the success of the airlift stemmed.
As a result of Black Friday,
Tunner instituted a number of new rules; instrument flight rules (IFR) would be
in effect at all times, regardless of actual visibility, and each sortie would
have only one chance to land in Berlin, returning to its air base if it missed
its approach, where it was slotted back into the flow. Stacking was completely
eliminated. With straight-in approaches, the planners found that in the time it
had taken to unstack and land nine aircraft, 30 aircraft could be landed,
bringing in 300 tons.[75] Accident rates and delays dropped immediately. Tunner
decided, as he had done during the Hump operation, to replace the C-47s in the
airlift with C-54s or larger aircraft when it was realised that it took just as
long to unload a 3.5-ton C-47 as a 10-ton C-54. One of the reasons for this was
the sloping cargo floor of the "taildragger" C-47s, which made truck
loading difficult. The tricycle geared C-54's cargo deck was level, so that a
truck could back up to it and offload cargo quickly. The change went into full
effect after 28 September 1948.
Having noticed on his first
inspection trip to Berlin on 31 July that there were long delays as the flight
crews returned to their aircraft after getting refreshments from the terminal,
Tunner banned aircrew from leaving their aircraft for any reason while in
Berlin. Instead, he equipped jeeps as mobile snack bars, handing out
refreshments to the crews at their aircraft while it was being unloaded.
Airlift pilot Gail Halvorsen later noted, "he put some beautiful German
Fräuleins in that snack bar. They knew we couldn't date them, we had no time.
So they were very friendly."[56] Operations officers handed pilots their
clearance slips and other information while they ate. With unloading beginning
as soon as engines were shut down on the ramp, turnaround before takeoff back
to Rhein-Main or Wiesbaden was reduced to thirty minutes.
To maximise the utilisation of a
limited number of aircraft, Tunner altered the "ladder" to three
minutes and 500 feet (150 m) of separation, stacked from 4,000 feet (1,200 m)
to 6,000 feet (1,800 m).[66] Maintenance, particularly adherence to 25-hour,
200-hour, and 1,000-hour inspections, became the highest priority and further
maximised utilisation.[78] Tunner also shortened block times to six hours to
squeeze in another shift, making 1,440 (the number of minutes in a day)
landings in Berlin a daily goal.[nb 5] His purpose, illustrating his basic
philosophy of the airlift business, was to create a "conveyor belt"
approach to scheduling that could be sped up or slowed down as situations might
dictate. The most effective measure taken by Tunner, and the most initially
resisted until it demonstrated its efficiency, was creation of a single control
point in the CALTF for controlling all air movements into Berlin, rather than
each air force doing its own.
The Berliners themselves solved
the problem of the lack of manpower. Crews unloading and making airfield
repairs at the Berlin airports were made up almost entirely of local civilians,
who were given additional rations in return. As the crews increased in
experience, the times for unloading continued to fall, with a record set for
the unloading of an entire 10-ton shipment of coal from a C-54 in ten minutes,
later beaten when a twelve-man crew unloaded the same quantity in five minutes
and 45 seconds.
By the end of August 1948, after
two months, the airlift was succeeding; daily operations flew more than 1,500
flights a day and delivered more than 4,500 tons of cargo, enough to keep West
Berlin supplied. From January 1949 onwards, 225 C-54s (40% of USAF and USN
Skymasters worldwide) were devoted to the lift.[79][nb 6] Supplies improved to
5,000 tons a day.
"Operation Little
Vittles"
US Air Force pilot Gail
Halvorsen, who pioneered the idea of dropping candy bars and bubble gum with
handmade miniature parachutes, which later became known as "Operation
Little Vittles"
Gail Halvorsen, one of the many
airlift pilots, decided to use his off-time to fly into Berlin and make movies
with his hand-held camera. He arrived at Tempelhof on 17 July 1948 on one of
the C-54s and walked over to a crowd of children who had gathered at the end of
the runway to watch the aircraft. He introduced himself and they started to ask
him questions about the aircraft and their flights. As a goodwill gesture, he
handed out his only two sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint Gum. The children
quickly divided up the pieces as best they could, even passing around the
wrapper for others to smell. He was so impressed by their gratitude and that
they didn't fight over them, that he promised the next time he returned he
would drop off more. Before he left them, a child asked him how they would know
it was him flying over. He replied, "I'll wiggle my wings."
Soviet responses
The Soviets had an advantage in
conventional military forces, but were preoccupied with rebuilding their
war-torn economy and society. The US had a stronger navy and air force, and had
nuclear weapons. Neither side wanted a war; the Soviets did not disrupt the
airlift.
Initial reaction
Throughout the airlift, Soviet
and German communists subjected the hard-pressed West Berliners to sustained
psychological warfare.[84] In radio broadcasts, they relentlessly proclaimed
that all Berlin came under Soviet authority and predicted the imminent
abandonment of the city by the Western occupying powers.[84] The Soviets also
harassed members of the democratically elected citywide administration, which
had to conduct its business in the city hall located in the Soviet sector.
During the early months of the
airlift, the Soviets used various methods to harass allied aircraft. These
included buzzing by Soviet planes, obstructive parachute jumps within the
corridors, and shining searchlights to dazzle pilots at night. Although the
USAFE reported 733 separate harassing events, including flak, air-to-air fire,
rocketing, bombing, and explosions, this is now considered to be exaggerated.
None of these measures were effective.[85][86] Former RAF Dakota pilot Dick
Arscott described one "buzzing" incident. "Yaks (Soviet fighter
aircraft) used to come and buzz you and go over the top of you at about twenty
feet which can be off-putting. One day I was buzzed about three times. The
following day it started again and he came across twice and I got a bit fed up
with it. So when he came for the third time, I turned the aircraft into him and
it was a case of chicken, luckily he was the one who chickened out."
Three days later RIAS Radio
urged Berliners to protest against the actions of the communists. On 9
September 1948 a crowd of 500,000 people gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, next
to the ruined Reichstag in the British sector. The airlift was working so far,
but many West Berliners feared that the Allies would eventually discontinue it.
Then-SPD city councillor Ernst Reuter took the microphone and pleaded for his
city, "You peoples of the world, you people of America, of England, of
France, look on this city, and recognise that this city, this people, must not
be abandonedcannot be abandoned!"
The crowd surged towards the
Soviet-occupied sector and someone climbed up and ripped down the Soviet flag
flying from atop the Brandenburg Gate. Soviet military police (MPs) quickly
responded, resulting in the killing of one in the unruly crowd.[56] The tense
situation could have escalated further and ended up in more bloodshed, but a
British deputy provost then intervened and pointedly pushed the Soviet MPs back
with his swagger stick.[89] Never before this incident had so many Berliners
gathered in unity. The resonance worldwide was enormous, notably in the United
States, where a strong feeling of solidarity with Berliners reinforced a
general widespread determination not to abandon them.
December elections
The city parliament, boycotted
by its SED members, then voted for its re-election on 5 December 1948, however,
inhibited in the eastern sector and defamed by the SED as a Spalterwahl
("divisive election"). The SED did not nominate any candidates for
this election and appealed to the electorate in the western sectors to boycott
the election, while the democratic parties ran for seats. The turnout amounted
to 86.3% of the western electorate with the SPD gaining 64.5% of the votes (=
76 seats), the CDU 19.4% (= 26 seats), and the Liberal-Demokratische Partei
(LDP, merged in the FDP in 1949) 16.1% (= 17 seats).
West Berlin's parliament
accounted for the de facto political partition of Berlin and replaced the
provisional constitution of Berlin by the Verfassung von Berlin (constitution
of Berlin), meant for all Berlin, with effect of 1 October 1950 and de facto restricted
to the western sectors only, also renaming city parliament (from
Stadtverordnetenversammlung von Groß-Berlin to Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin),
city government (from Magistrat von Groß-Berlin to Senate of Berlin), and head
of government (from Oberbürgermeister to Governing Mayor of Berlin).
Winter 1948 to spring 1949
Preparing for winter
Although the early estimates
were that about 4,000 to 5,000 tons per day would be needed to supply the city,
this was made in the context of summer weather, when the airlift was only
expected to last a few weeks. As the operation dragged on into autumn, the
situation changed considerably. The food requirements would remain the same
(around 1,500 tons), but the need for additional coal to heat the city
dramatically increased the total amount of cargo to be transported by an
additional 6,000 tons a day.
To maintain the airlift under
these conditions, the current system would have to be greatly expanded.
Aircraft were available, and the British started adding their larger Handley
Page Hastings in November, but maintaining the fleet proved to be a serious
problem. Tunner looked to the Germans once again, hiring (plentiful)
ex-Luftwaffe ground crews.
Far from ideal, with the
approach being over Berlin's apartment blocks, the runway nevertheless was a
major upgrade to the airport's capabilities. With it in place, the auxiliary
runway was upgraded from Marston Matting to asphalt between September and October
1948. A similar upgrade program was carried out by the British at Gatow during
the same period, also adding a second runway, using concrete.
The French Air Force, meanwhile,
had become involved in the First Indochina War, so it could only bring up a few
French built Junkers Ju 52s (known as A.A.C. 1 Toucan) to support its own
troops, and they were too small and slow to be of much help. However, France
agreed to build a complete, new and larger airport in its sector on the shores
of Lake Tegel. French military engineers, managing German construction crews,
were able to complete the construction in under 90 days. Because of a shortage
of heavy equipment, the first runway was mostly built by hand, by thousands of
labourers who worked day and night.
For the second runway at Tegel,
heavy equipment was needed to level the ground, equipment that was too large
and heavy to fly in on any existing cargo aircraft. The solution was to
dismantle large machines and then re-assemble them. Using the five largest
American C-82 Packet transports, it was possible to fly the machinery into West
Berlin. This not only helped to build the airfield, but also demonstrated that
the Soviet blockade could not keep anything out of Berlin. The Tegel airfield
was subsequently developed into Berlin Tegel Airport.
Easter parade
By April 1949, airlift
operations were running smoothly and Tunner wanted to shake up his command to
discourage complacency. He believed in the spirit of competition between units
and, coupled with the idea of a big event, felt that this would encourage them
to greater efforts. He decided that, on Easter Sunday, the airlift would break
all records. To do this, maximum efficiency was needed and so, to simplify
cargo-handling, only coal would be airlifted. Coal stockpiles were built up for
the effort and maintenance schedules were altered so that the maximum number of
aircraft were available.
From noon on 15 April to noon on
16 April 1949, crews worked around the clock. When it was over, 12,941 tons of
coal had been delivered in 1,383 flights, without a single accident. A welcome
side effect of the effort was that operations in general were boosted, and
tonnage increased from 6,729 tons to 8,893 tons per day thereafter. In total,
the airlift delivered 234,476 tons in April.
On 21 April, the tonnage of
supplies flown into the city exceeded that previously brought by rail.
End of the blockade
Near the start of the blockade,
the Western powers had established an embargo on exports from the entire
Eastern bloc, severely hampering the East German economy in particular.[93] The
embargo had been exacting a higher toll on the Soviets than the airlift was
costing the Western bloc, leading Stalin to recognize the futility of
continuing the blockade.
On 15 April 1949, the Soviet
news agency TASS reported a willingness by the Soviets to lift the blockade.
The next day, the US State Department stated that the "way appears
clear" for the blockade to end. Soon afterwards, the four powers began serious
negotiations, and a settlement was reached on Western terms. On 4 May 1949, the
Allies announced an agreement to end the blockade in eight days.
The Soviet blockade of Berlin
was lifted at one minute after midnight on 12 May 1949. A British convoy
immediately drove through to Berlin, and the first train from West Germany
reached Berlin at 5:32 a.m. Later that day, an enormous crowd celebrated the
end of the blockade. General Clay, whose retirement had been announced by US
President Truman on 3 May 1949, was saluted by 11,000 US soldiers and dozens of
aircraft. Once home, Clay received a ticker tape parade in New York City, was
invited to address the US Congress, and was honoured with a medal from
President Truman.