On this day in 1948 the Berlin Airlift began. It was a warm summer day but there was a cold winter ahead. The airlift kept 2 million people from freezing and starving to death.
People of Berlin watch food supplies arrive. Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons
Josef Stalin tried to take control of West Berlin by cutting off all transportation that would allow food and fuel into the city. He assumed the allies would not be able to provide for the people in their sectors.
Stalin was wrong. He couldn't control the airspace so the allies responded by flying in food, coal, manufacturing supplies - just about anything necessary to run a city.
Even chocolate!
It started with a few flights and grew into an efficient undertaking with planes coming and going constantly.
There were some accidents. People died in their attempts to deliver aid to the people of Berlin.
But millions lived as a result of the allies decision to deliver love, not hate, to their former enemies. It is one of my favorite stories from the 20th century.
And I think it was one of America's finer moments!
This monument at Templehof Airport commemorates the airlift. The three prongs reaching into the sky represent the three air routes traveled by the planes coming and going. Inscribed on the base are the names of pilots who lost their lives while giving aid.
Chuck and I visited Templehof last spring. It's a huge space that has been turned into a recreational park. I love that people can go there to relax every day. But I was glad that part of it had been left to age naturally.
I just read this exciting book, Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's Chocolate Pilotby Michael O. Tunnell
Remember The Berlin Airlift - that momentous event in 1948 and 1949 when America and its allies delivered tons of food, fuel, and coal to West Berliners because the Soviet Sector of Berlin cut off their supplies?
Sixteen months and nearly 277 thousand flights later the allies had delivered 2.3 million tons of supplies.
During that time, grateful Berlin children gathered at Templehof Airport to watch the flights come in. One day an American pilot, Gail Halvorsen engaged a group of 30 children in conversation and because they were so grateful for flour and powdered milk, he got an idea. Right then and there Halvorsen promised the children that very soon he would drop candy for them. He told them he'd wiggle his wings so they would know which plane was his.
Sure enough! On his next daylight flight, he dropped Hershey bars via 3 handkerchief parachutes.
The parachutes found their intended audience and one thing led to another so that by January of 1949, "Operation Little Vittles" was a busy enterprise with its own headquarters and plenty of community volunteers. It shipped eight hundred pounds of sweet supplies to Germany every other day. Businesses and individuals donated eighteen tons of candy and gum - also two thousand sheets, three thousand hankies, and eleven thousand yards of ribbons for parachutes!
Don't forget that just a few years earlier America was bombing the Germans, a fact that makes The Berlin Airlift and the Candy Bomber story that much sweeter! Halvorsen went out of his way to build relationships with the people of Berlin, especially the children. He responded to letters and requests from children who called him Uncle Wiggly Wings, The Chocolate Uncle, and The Chocolate Pilot.
Over the years, Halvorsen has reunited with Mercedes and other Berlin children, participated in commemorative candy drops, and even led the Berlin athletes into the stadium during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Somewhere along the way, ABC honored Halvorsen as their person of the week - hence this great clip. Watch it and be grateful. Because as Gail Halverson demonstrates, a little gratitude goes a long way!
