The Berlin Airlift: Survival, Strategy, and Air Transport Capability ...

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Thank goodness for all of the various responders who have provided assistance after Sandy.

Supplies and expertise are being brought to areas on the U.S. east coast in response to Sandy?s destruction and disruption.

Among them are Aerobridge: an organization that matches general aviation pilots with donations that need to be delivered.

By November 5, more than 40,000 pounds of supplies had been flown in.

Guatemalan Hurricane Stan Supply Operation

This started me thinking of several things as I last hung my old pilot?s cap back on the wall.

I remembered when I was involved in an airlift. It was much, much smaller than anything like the Berlin airlift, but important to the people involved.

I was living in Guatemala, and one of the far-too-common tropical storms blasted in to cause havoc. This one?s name: Hurricane Stan.

The steep, unstable mountainsides in the highlands of that country don?t handle lots of rain in a short time and melt down onto roads and towns. Not only does this cut off many areas from supplies, but it can bury entire towns as it did on that occasion.

Cockpit shot of an Aerobridge flight inbound for Long Island

Getting Supplies In

The only way to get supplies to those people is to fill up small aircraft with food, water, medical supplies, and other needed provisions and drop them into whatever landing options are available.

I got to the airport, talked with the other pilots to see what was needed, and took over loading operations.

It?s helpful to have a pilot load an aircraft due to weight and balance issues, so I was given 40 police trainees and told to keep the supplies coming as various medium ? and small aircraft pulled up.

We kept the flow of materials going, and none of the airplanes reported any problems with loads.
My part in this was minimal but provided an opportunity to help and see such an operation in full swing.

In times of need, pilots have, and will continue to, provided much needed assistance. From mercy medical flights to providing supplies, private, commercial, and military pilots are pretty useful.

The Berlin Situation

Early in the morning of June 24, 1948, all of the electricity in Berlin?s Allied sector was cut off and its railroad and road connections stopped.

Joseph Stalin had given the order to put a stranglehold on this portion of Germany. Only three, twenty-mile-wide air corridors were available to link this portion of the city to the world.

Airlift assistance began immediately, and by September of that year, enormous tonnage of provisions reached the city thanks to the efforts of American, British, Canadian, New Zealander, and South African flight crews and their support.

In November, 1948, the Russian military threatened to force down western aircraft if they veered from the corridors but, by March 1949, a total of 45,683 tons of supplies per week were being flown into Berlin.

Early efforts included Dakotas and Avro Yorks flying out of a far-from-ideal airfield named Wunsdorf. It was mostly grass with two concrete runways.

Hundreds of sorties flew out of this base every day. This led to air traffic control issues and strict solutions.

Aircraft departing Runway 09 were required to climb for two minutes at 145 knots and stay below 1,000 feet, turn toward Walsrode, fly toward that town at 3,500 feet at 160 knots, change direction toward Egestorf, then Restorf, then Fronau Beacon.

After contacting Gatow, they were to drop below 2,000 feet before reaching Tegel.

Pushed to the Limits

This kind of strenuous flying, along with fog, fatigue, strains on aircraft and aircrews pushed the operation to its limits.

The Soviets didn?t make things any easier. Documents indicate that Soviet harassment during the airlift included, among other things, 14 incidents of air-to-air fire, 36 incidents of bombing, 54 incidents of flak, 55 incidents of ground fire, 82 incidents of radio interference, and 96 incidents of ?close flying?.

Berliners struggled on through difficult situations with minimal supplies while aircrews worked to help them.

In The Berlin Airlift: The Salvation of a City, Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell present the many plans and incidents that were a part of the story of successful survival.

Many Germans smuggled supplies through on their own as well. Potsdammerplatz became the center of the black market, supplying almost anything to anyone with money.

With only a few hours of electricity and up to 75% cuts in gas for stoves, they had to cook, eat, and save their food in planned and clever ways.

?One of the most valuable items in a Berlin household was the Thermos flask. Hot drinks could then be enjoyed for several hours, even after the electricity had been turned back off again.?

Pushed to the Limits

The book gives great insights into many aspects of the event. A few are included below.

?The Berlin population had complex food needs. A prime example is what remained of the city?s Jewish population. They needed kosher meat brought in instead of simply tinned meat. Diabetics were not forgotten: they were provided, after three months of pleading, with saccharine. In the run-up to Christmas the authorities spent a good deal of time and effort making sure that every Berlin child would at least get some chocolate to eat over the festive period.?

?Getting around the city was a major problem. There were virtually no private cars, and due to electricity and petrol shortages public transport was rare. Businesses and factories only operated during the four hours in which they were allotted electricity. There was nothing to light the street so people walked home in the dark after work.?

C-54 landing at Tempelhof

Operations Grew

Avro Yorks, C-47s, C-54s, Sunderland Flying Boats, ships, cars, and many other vehicles participated in the operations.

Not all supplies arrived on runways. For instance, the RAF brought supplies to the port at Hamburg with British vessels meant for such work as air/sea rescue and loaded them onto the Sunderland flying boats. From there, supplies were flown to lakes in West Berlin.

All of the aircraft were doing jobs they, basically, weren?t designed to do, and this took its toll.
They were flying virtually non-stop at maximum loads.

Loads included many items, and some weren?t planned for in the aircraft design. Being packed coal, for instance, meant coal getting into everything and affecting systems. Obviously, it was tough on the crews as well.

Even the runways were cracking up under the heavy loads and had to be repaired.
After 328 days, Russia announced its intention to end the blockade.

The Berlin Airlift: The Salvation of a City points out discrepancies between American and British numbers regarding the total tons of items flown into Berlin, but it appears to have been about 2,000,000 tons of supplies and over 200,000 flights.

Planning, logistics, and a lot of blood and sweat by U.S. and British aircrews and support personnel made possible this help to the many Berliners struggling ingeniously to survive.

If such a need occurs in the future, my guess is that pilots, emergency responders and others will rise to the occasion once again just as organizations like Aerobridge has.

Personal Note

And, on a personal note, I was surprised to run across this little bit of information in the Airlift book: a man named Colonel Henry Dorr was commanding officer at Templehof.

The Berlin Airlift: The Salvation of a City by Pelican Publishing is a useful, new take on the subject. It?s not a quick read, but it?s an interesting one.

If you?d like to see an old British short on their seaplanes in the airlift, try YouTube.

It?s a little lighthearted/melodramatic but full of great shots including inside the cockpit, engine loss, and landing on rough seas.

Also, you can view outtakes from the 1948 documentary ?Operation Vittles.? I found this video interesting because it showed much of what was going on daily at a variety of locations.

? Mark Dorr, All Rights Reserved
References & Image Credits:

1. Pelican Pub
2. AOPA.org
3. Leatherneck.com
4. Wikipedia
5. Pelican Pub
6.7.8. Wikipedia.org
7. Wikipedia.org
8. Wikipedia.org
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade
10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFH2OZD-TcU
11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BArglk1jLE

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Mark Dorr grew up the son of a treasure hunter. His experiences and education led to working internationally in a variety of unique and amazing situations. MarkDorr has 52 post(s) at Top Secret Writers

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Source: http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2012/11/the-berlin-airlift-survival-strategy-and-air-transport-capability/

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