[CondoleezzaProtege]

Remember the Berlin Airlift? (Excerpt)

by: William Lambers

It was seventy years ago this summer when West Berlin faced starvation from a blockade by the Soviet Union. America's heroic response to that crisis gives us hope to feed the hungry in conflict zones across the globe today.

Imagine if the roads, rails and waterways into your hometown were suddenly cut off by enemy troops. No supplies could move in under such a blockade. Soon there would be no food, gas, medicine, or anything else you need for daily life. You would have an emergency within days.

This is the situation West Berlin faced during the summer of 1948. As the part of Berlin under American control after World War II, it was also deep in the Soviet Union's occupied area of East Germany. So it was relatively easy for the Soviets to cut off access to West Berlin in an effort to take charge during the Cold War power struggle.

The 2 million people in West Berlin might starve to death if America could not bring in regular supplies. General Lucius Clay wrote “it was one of the most ruthless efforts in modern times to use mass starvation for political coercion.”

War might erupt over any confrontation with the Soviet blockade. West Berlin was at risk of falling to the Soviets.

The U.S. Air Force came to the rescue. The massive Berlin Airlift began in the summer of 1948 using planes to bypass the blockade and deliver life-saving aid to West Berliners.

An incredibly coordinated air operation of almost 300,000 flights brought in food, milk, fuel and other supplies West Berlin needed to survive. This required a massive scale up of air power.

As explained by General Clay, “Operation Vittles, as the pilots designated the airlift, grew steadily from the few outmoded planes we had in Germany to the fleet of giant flying transports which on the record day delivered almost 13,000 tons to our three airports.”

The airlift lasted for a year. This was a humanitarian marathon which the U.S. and its allies had the endurance. Eventually the Soviet Union ended the blockade. West Berlin was saved.

This was a crucial episode in the Cold War. The German people remembered who fed them in their time of need. It was America, the nation of hope and humanitarianism. One of the most striking images of the Berlin Airlift is U.S. pilot Gail Halvorsen dropping candy from his plane for the German children. The “candy bomber,” as he became known, symbolized the generous spirit of America.

[hinckley buzzard]

I recall how our brilliant president Clinton referred to this happy warrior during a speech as “she.”

[Shark24]

Beautiful tribute to a great American success story.

[SkyDancer]

EU human rights commission will put a stop to that - having kids being hit on the head with candy injuring them and those that didn’t get any would have their self esteem crushed - not counting cavities.

[Ezekiel]

Christmas in July!

One day in July, he was filming plane takeoffs and landings at Tempelhof, the main landing site for the airlift. While there, he saw about thirty children lined up behind one of the barbed-wire fences. He went to meet them and noticed that the children had nothing.

Halvorsen remembers: " I met about thirty children at the barbed wire fence that protected Tempelhof's huge area. They were excited and told me that 'when the weather gets so bad that you can't land, don't worry about us. We can get by on a little food, but if we lose our freedom, we may never get it back.'"[13]

Touched, Halvorsen reached into his pocket and took out two sticks of gum to give to the children. The kids broke it into little pieces and shared it; the ones who did not get any sniffed the wrappers.[1] Watching the children, so many of whom had absolutely nothing, Halvorsen regretted not having more to give them.[14]

Halvorsen recorded that he wanted to do more for the children, and so told them that the following day he would have enough gum for all of them, and he would drop it out of his plane. According to Halvorsen, one child asked "How will we know it is your plane?" to which Halvorsen responded that he would wiggle his wings, something he had done for his parents when he first got his pilot's license in 1941.[15]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen

[BBell]

Buffalo Airways in Yellowknife, Canada still uses one regularly for cargo. I'm not sure if it's a c-47 or c-46.

I watched a series called "Ice Pilots". Pretty good if like the old planes.

[SES1066]

The United States and its allies started airdropping packages filled with flour, milk, meat and even coal to the starving city.

The way this is written, one would be thinking that the airplanes flew over Berlin and parachuted the supplies without landing. Once again this is poor reporting and poor editing. The MSM wonders why we don't trust it, well not only are they proven to be biased but they can't report clearly either!

[JPJones]

“One of the most striking images of the Berlin Airlift is U.S. pilot Gail Halvorsen dropping candy from his plane for the German children. The “candy bomber,” as he became known, symbolized the generous spirit of America. “

And after 50 years of Cold War and a trillion dollars, what do we have to show for it?

The Germans hate us, vote for communists and buy oil and gas from Russia.

A colossal waste of time and resources on our part.

Instead of candy we should be sending them a bill.

[fungoking]

A couple of years ago he spoke at the veterans day assembly at the public high school I was teaching at. Great guy, connected with the kids, wore his flight suit from his active duty days.
The CO had called him in over unauthorized drops from his plane, he was in big trouble, the phone rang mid rant from the higher ups who recognized the propaganda value of the candy drops. He said he went from looking at a court martial to everyone drop candy in about 30 seconds.

[yarddog]

My Father got into trouble during WWII for giving, well trading candy to a German kid, for eggs.

His battalion commander Lt. Col. Scott happened to see it. He gave Daddy an oral reprimand. It seems eggs were somehow easy to sabotage.