5 Astonishing Facts About the Berlin Airlift
The Berlin Airlift, one of the most remarkable humanitarian and logistical operations in history, was a product of the brewing Cold War tensions in the aftermath of World War II. Germany was divided into four zones of occupation: three controlled by each of the Western Allied powers (the United States, the United Kingdom, and France) and a fourth controlled by the Soviet Union. The German capital city, Berlin, which lay inside the Soviet zone, was itself divided into four zones of occupation between the Western Allies and the Soviets.
It was almost inevitable, then, that war-ravaged Berlin would become a focal point of the burgeoning Cold War. Tensions reached a peak in March 1948, when the Allied powers decided to unite their occupation zones into a single economic unit and introduced a new currency, the Deutsche Mark, in West Germany.
The Soviets were not impressed. Joseph Stalin wanted Germany to remain weak and unthreatening, serving as a buffer between the Soviet Union and the West. He did not want to see the Allies help Germany rebuild its economy, nor did he want the U.S. supplying goods to Germany in what would be a sure sign to the communists that America’s capitalist economy was flourishing.
So, on June 24, the Soviets cut off all land access to West Berlin — which was located far within Soviet-controlled East Germany — in what became known as the Berlin Blockade. In response, the Allies launched the Berlin Airlift, ferrying supplies into the capital city by plane. Here are five facts about that historic feat, from the incredible logistics involved to the heartwarming efforts of the “candy bomber.”
West Berlin Needed At Least 4,500 Tons of Supplies Daily
With the land blockade in place, the only way the Allies could access Berlin was via three narrow, 20-mile-wide air corridors over East Germany into West Berlin. Allied planners calculated that in order to keep the more than 2 million inhabitants of West Berlin alive, the city required a minimum of 4,500 tons of supplies daily, including 1,534 tons of food and 3,475 tons of coal for electricity and heating. Without supplies, West Berlin only had enough food for 36 days, after which the citizens would begin to starve.
Many people, including the Soviets, thought supplying the city would be an impossible task, forcing the Allies to abandon West Berlin and leave it under communist control. But the Allies were undeterred. The airlift went ahead, and by the autumn of 1948, the Allies were delivering more than 5,000 tons of food, coal, and other supplies every day — a figure that grew to 8,893 tons per day by the end of April 1949.
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A Plane Landed Every 30 Seconds at the Height of the Airlift
For 18 months, American and British aircrews flew around-the-clock to supply West Berlin. Through careful coordination and innovative scheduling, they established a continuous stream of aircraft that landed in three-minute slots, 24 hours a day, in all but the very worst weather conditions. At the height of the Berlin Airlift, planes were landing at the city’s Tempelhof Airport as often as every 30 seconds. This was achieved despite the distraction techniques employed by the Soviets, who flew fighter planes in the area to intimidate the Allied pilots and used spotlights to hinder the approaching planes.
The “Candy Bomber” Dropped 23 Tons of Sweets on West Berlin
One of the most heartwarming stories of the Berlin Airlift centers around U.S. Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen. Halvorsen was touched when he met a group of German children at Tempelhof Airport, who, he recalled, said to him, “Don’t give up on us. If we lose our freedom, we’ll never get it back.” He gave the kids two sticks of gum, and after the encounter, he began dropping small parachutes from his plane carrying candy to the children of Berlin. He soon became known as “Uncle Wiggly Wings” among the German kids, because he'd wiggle the wings of his C-47s or C-54s aircraft to signal an imminent drop of chocolate.
As his generous exploits became more widely known, Halvorsen was dubbed the “candy bomber.” His simple act of kindness grew into a powerful symbol of American goodwill toward Germany, helping to transform the image of former enemies into trusted allies. His superiors encouraged Halvorsen and his fellow pilots to continue dropping candy. By the end of the Berlin Airlift, they had dropped more than 250,000 tiny parachutes carrying some 23 tons of candy to the children of West Berlin.
Nearly 10 Million Work Hours Went Into the Ground Construction Effort
While the air corridors were full of planes flying mission after mission, on the ground the activity was just as furious. It quickly became clear that Tempelhof Airport was not big enough for the task. U.S. Army engineers immediately began building two additional runways at Tempelhof, the first of which was in use within three months. Crews also built the entirely new Tegel Airport, complete with two runways, administrative facilities, a hangar, warehouse, and a control tower. (A 200-foot-tall Soviet radio tower originally stood, somewhat problematically, in the midst of the new airport, but French engineers promptly blew it up.)
According to Major General Norman Delbridge, who served as a U.S. Army engineer during the Berlin Airlift, there were 60,000 people, both Allied and German, working 24 hours a day on the construction project. “We had more women than men that did all of the earth moving,” he recalled, “and they moved the earth by hand.” Records from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimate that more than 9.8 million work hours went into the effort between military personnel and local Germans, with local Germans doing most of the work.
Allied Flights Carried 2.3 Million Tons of Supplies by the End of the Airlift
On May 12, 1949, knowing that the blockade had failed, the Soviets reopened the roads, canals, and railway routes into the western half of Berlin. The Allies, however, continued the airlift until September to stockpile supplies in Berlin just in case the blockade was reinstated. Over the entire course of the blockade, 277,804 Allied flights carried an astonishing 2.3 million tons of supplies by air into Berlin. The Berlin Airlift was a resounding success, keeping Berlin alive in what was — and remains — one of the largest humanitarian aid missions in history.
