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The Berlin Airlift • Berlin airlift, 1948–49, supply of vital necessities to West Berlin by air transport primarily under U.S. control. It was initiated in response to a land and water blockade of the city that had been instituted by the Soviet Union in the hope that the Allies would be forced to abandon West Berlin.
Helping the Needy • The massive effort to supply the 2 million West Berliners with food and fuel for heating began in June, 1948, and lasted until Sept., 1949, although the Russians lifted the blockade in May of that year. Little girl bringing home bread in Berlin. Ironically, it is wrapped in a Soviet newspaper demanding an end to the Airlift!
Grateful Germans in West Berlin • During the around-the-clock airlift some 277,000 flights were made, many at 3-min intervals. By spring, 1949, an average of 8,000 tons was being flown in daily. More than 2 million tons of goods—of which coal accounted for about two thirds—were delivered.
In the last phase of the wall's development, the "death strip" between fence and concrete wall gave guards a clear shot at hundreds of would-be escapees from the East. East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November1961.
The Candy Man • Berlin Airlift pilots enjoyed their mission of flying into Germany to deliver food and supplies to the German people. It was a wonderful feeling to be delivering food and help, rather than delivering bombs.
During one mission, pilot Lieutenant Gale S. Halverson decided to tour around the area of Germany where he landed each week. During his tour, he met lots of children who came out to watch him take pictures of the sites. Unlike most children, they did not beg money or candy from him, but just stood and watched. In a flash, an idea came to him. "You kids wait until tomorrow and I will drop you some candy from my airplane."
The next day, Halverson kept his promise and dropped three small handkerchief parachutes of candy from the plane. He used the flare chute in the bottom of the plane. From that first idea grew a daily effort to drop candy from the sky to the German children.
The excited children wrote their thanks and began calling Lieutenant Halverson, "Uncle Sam" or "Captain America."
In the beginning of the candy drops, Halverson used his own weekly candy ration. Soon the other pilots and support staff started giving their candy and gum and their handkerchiefs. The project grew so big that his old army base also began to contribute candy and handkerchiefs. The city of Mobile, Alabama, formed a drive to request help.
See…Character does Count!!! • Soon, candy and handkerchiefs from around the country began arriving for the pilots to drop. One week, Lieutenant Halverson flew 368 pounds of candy and fifty pounds of handkerchiefs from America back with him in his C-54 airplane that he had brought to the states for maintenance work.
