Berlin Airlift Memories - Pilots, Aircrew & Berliners...

[Rauhbatz]

Greetings WIX'ers...

My daughter is doing a report on the Berlin Airlift for her 7th grade history project. She is looking for any memories of the Berlin Airlift from pilots, aircrew and Berliners to capture in her report.

[67N20]

I read a very good book about the airlift: "The Candy Bomber". Covers the story of Gail Halverson who started the dropping of candy to the children of Berlin. It's the best book I've read about the subject.

[JDK]

Great project! The essay I wrote inspired by Haiti's airlift this time last year (with substantial WIX help!) might have a few nuggets. The Berlin material's mostly in the latter part.

http://vintageaeroplanewriter.blogspot. ... m-sky.html

Although also very tangential, to the original question, the RAAF's Air Power Development Centre's book and CD on Operation Pelican may be of interest to some; details here.

http://airpower.airforce.gov.au/Publica ... CDROM.aspx

Now, where's our WIX Berlin airlifter?

Last edited by JDK on Mon Feb 07, 2011 12:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Zachary]

I'll be posting a link to a video interview with Candy Bomber Gail Halvorsen later this week.

[Airlift48]

Please contact me at Airlift48@aol.com

Visit our website for information and contact info..

www.spiritoffreedom.org

[Rauhbatz]

Thanks all for the quick response, links and info.

Kevin, will drop you a line shortly...tell Tim I said Hi and hope to see your gang at Andrews again this year...

[Dave Smith]

Watch The Big Lift on YouTube. Fiction of course but only the main stars were actors, most of the Americans in it being serving air force men. It gives a good idea of the operation and the ruinous state of Berlin in that era. Don't forget the major Brit involvement!

[BTromblay]

Hi,

My Grandfather was a Berlin Airlift pilot in C-54's. I never met him, so I can only pass on a story from a letter that he wrote to the family.

A quick back ground on him. His name was Major Clement W. Tromblay USAF. During World War 2 he was a B-24 Bomber pilot in China-Burma-India. In 1948 he was called up and went to fly in Germany, his rank was a Captain.

The story that I remember reading, was about flying in the narrow corridors between airfields in Berlin. On more than one occasion, the Russian would have there pilots, flying Mig's, play "chicken" with our pilots. The Mig pilots would fly head on, right at the cockpit, trying to get the C-54's to turn and violate the corridor airspace. In his letter, he said that on an occasion, the Russian pilots would even fire there guns, which you would see light up on there wings. But he would just continue flying his coarse, and not deviate.

I only have few pictures of him, while he was in the Berlin Airlift. I know he brought back a dog, named Dutch, that my Dad played with. In some of the pictures you can see the dog, which was a Boxer, in the cockpit. In total, he flew 254 mission and 2 Trans-Atlantic crossings in the Douglas C-54. He stayed in the Air Force for 30 years and retired as a Major. He flew many other types of airplanes and had many other adventures. The only picture I have on this computer is with his B-24 crew during World War 2. He is in the back row, standing, all the way to the left.

My Grandfather was the biggest inspiration for me to become a pilot, mechanic, airplane owner and restorer. I have a goal in my life to fly all of the planes that he did and I'm about half way there.



I hope this helps and good luck with your report.

Bill Tromblay

[Misterg97]

I'm sure many of you are aware of the large exhibit of the Berlin Airlift at the Air Force Museum. Here's one of the photos taken from their website covering the Airlift.

I usually spend some time in the exhibit every Friday during my volunteer shift.

[Zachary]

www.criticalpast.com has some nice videos about the Berlin Airlift. Here's a particularly good one: http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675 ... 54s_supply

[Jack Frost]

The Air Refueling Squadron I was in had a couple of Airlift vets as A/C's and I had the chance to talk about the Airlift with them, after lots of persuasion. They were also B-17 combat vets from WW II. A couple of stories still are in my old memory bank;

Flying a C-47 (over)loaded with coal in duffle bags and in the inbound corridor an engine failed and they were headed down. The crew chief and the co-pilot managed to kick out the load in 5 minutes that took the German loaders an hour to put on board. The rear cargo doors were removed to expedite loading. The co-pilot untied the bag tiedowns and kicked them back to the engineer who then kicked them out the open doorway. The flight from then on was uneventful.

Other story was about a C-82 which lost an engine in the outbound corridor. Policy was that the high brass who were completing a tour in Berlin could use empty space on aircraft to transport personal items out for shipment to the next duty station. Again the clamshell doors were removed from the C-82 for quicker loading, etc. In this case a Colonel was using the C-82 space to bring the old Mercedes he had "liberated" back to the states. The engineer went back, untied the tiedowns, started the engine and put it in gear and out it went! It was still a sweat to fly that C-82 on one engine even with the doors on but it got them home safely.

I've often thought about how the poor German farmers would react to bags of precious coal or a Mercedes falling out of the overcast. Must have been a unbelieving experience.

[Rauhbatz]

All....

Some very great and poingant stories...I'll forward this link to my daughter. Wish more kids could be that interested in things that pre-date the Ipod....

[Zachary]

Here is a link to a video interview with Gail Halvorsen that might be of interest: http://bcove.me/6438nrwi

Zack

[Rauhbatz]

Just a quick note that my daughter just about has her website completed for her Berlin Airlift project as part of National History Day. Thanks to all that provided the stories and pics. Love that one about the Mercedes coming out the back of the C-82!

I didn't know that much about this program till she started her project; it seems like a valuable endeavour for kids to learn about history....

www.nhd.org