(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
How The "Candy Bomber" Poked Stalin In The Eye; A Parable (Maybe?) For Our Times [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-01
The Background
This is a story within a story, not unlike the Russian Matryoshka dolls,of an episode that occurred during the 321 day siege (officially from23 June, 1948, to 12 May, 1949) of West Berlin.
For in this time, the Allies kept Berlin from being taken over by the Soviets, via "The Berlin Airlift" (or “Operation Vittles” as it was called by the US military, and “Plain Fare” by the UK military).
The question was simple: How do we keep the 2.4 million people of West Berlin from the clutches of the Soviets, when all links for the delivery of food, fuel, and electricity was cut off?
Who were the Allies in this time and place? Primarily, they were air crews from the USA, the UK, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
And although the Soviets officially ended the siege on 12 May, the Allies continued the airlift of supplies until 30 September, 1949, as they thought Stalin might restart the blockade.
Here is the cast of the main political figures, airmen, and logistics and planning personnel who made it happen, and succeed, against all odds.
They were: US President Harry Truman, UK PM Winston Churchill, Ernest Bevin (UK Foreign Secretary), General Lucius Clay (Governor of the US Sector, Berlin), General Sir Brian Robertson (Governor of the British Sector, Berlin), Colonel Frank Howley (Commander of the US Sector, Berlin), Brigadier Robert Hinde, (Deputy Director of the British Military Government, Berlin), Major General William H. Tunner (Commander of the Berlin Airlift, and US officer), General Curtis LeMay (C-in-C, US Air Force, Europe), Air Commodore Reginald Waite (RAF Air Section, Command Services Division), and George Kennan (US diplomat).
On the Soviet side, there was Joseph Stalin, and General Alexander Kotikov (Commandant of the Soviet Sector, Berlin).
There was a team of extremely capable – it seems they were Nazis – aircraft mechanics, to keep the planes flying; their Nazi background was overlooked, similar to what happened during "Operation Paperclip", where Nazi scientists and intelligence officers were taken to the US.
And finally, there were people of Berlin, who assisted with the(re)building and maintenance of airfields, and all ground operations.
This was an extremely dangerous time during the early post-WWII years, as Stalin wanted to bring all of Europe into his sphere of influence.
And the implementation of the Berlin Airlift was where the Allies realised, some faster than others, that West Berlin and its inhabitants had to be fought for, if there was going to be any chance of stopping Stalin from reaching his goal of European domination.
As General Sir Brian Robertson said "One foot wrong now and it’s World War Three."
Airfields were to be revamped or built from scratch, aircraft and aircrews needed to be found, and transport schedules to be drawn up and calibrated, along with the personnel for aircraft control, and the necessary radar and communications equipment.
Also, the organising of ground staff for loading and unloading the planes had to be carried out, plus food and drinks trucks to take refreshments and meals to the aircrews, as they were not allowed to leave their planes while unloading was carried out.
In the beginning, there were two airfields, one each in the British Sector (Gatow), and in the US Sector (Tempelhof). Later, another airfield was built, from scratch, in the French Sector (Tegel). (There was a radio station mast on the flight path to Tegel, and when the Soviets refused to remove it, the French destroyed it with several well-placed portions of dynamite. General Kotikov was not happy about that!)
On an average day, there was a need for a minimum of 4,500 tons of supplies.
This was made up as follows: basic food and medical requirements was at least 1,913 tons per day; and there was fuel: coal (approximately 2,500 tons per day), plus diesel, and petrol, all of which was needed to keep electricity stations operational, water supplies flowing,trains running, sewage treated, and trucks and cars on the road.
According to the initial calculations, there would need to be 1,800 flights per day, equating to one plane landing every 96 seconds.
The food was not great, by all accounts (in addition to flour, all air-lifted food was dried: dried milk, dried potatoes, dried meat, and similar offerings), but it filled stomachs.
(In regards to electricity, the Allies were lucky; there was an underground cable connecting the main power station in the Soviet Sector to a power station in the UK Sector, something the Russians never knew about. The Allies were aware, as they had the blue prints for all the services in Berlin, something the Soviets did not possess. The Soviets thought that 100% of the electricity from that UK Sector power station was generated there, but that was not the case!)
Looking at these numbers, I find it simply staggering.
However, where there is a will, there is a way. The airlift started slowly at first, and then the pace picked up as the teams became more proficient and experienced, as the air fleet was expanded, and as larger aircraft replaced smaller aircraft.
In order to make a show of what the Airlift was achieving, a “big day”was planned.
From mid-day, Easter Saturday (16 April), to mid-day, Easter Sunday (17 April), the Airlift delivered 12,941 tons of supplies, on 1,398 planes. There are 1,440 minutes in a 24 hour period, so that is one plane landing in West Berlin per minute.
By this time, the citizens of West Berlin were better fed than those in East Berlin!
Officially, the Berlin Airlift started on 26 June, 1948, and concluded on 12 May,1949.
Stalin brought it to a halt when he saw how successful it was, that the Allies were determined to not stop, and the embarrassment of the success of the Airlift, as the Allies published the daily transportation figures as a part of their larger propaganda war.
The Incident
Not an incident as such, but a human to human understanding, and an outreach that touched hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions.
During a day off at Tempelhof Airfield in July of 1948, while filming the planes taking off and landing, USAF Lieutenant (later promoted to Colonel) Gail Halvorsen was standing next to the perimeter fence, chatting with the children standing there. In broken English, they told him that they liked to watch the planes flying into and out of the airfield.
Looking at them, he realised just how little they had, and since they did not ask for sweets, he gave the two pieces of chewing gum that remained in his pockets; the children, he said, were so happy with so little, that he told them he would deliver more for them the next day, when he would be flying into Tempelhof.
When asked how they would know it was him, he told them that he would wiggle his wings.
That night, he asked his co-pilot and engineer for their candy rations,and with his, made up little parachutes with the candy attached.
Flying into Tempelhof the next day, he wiggled the wings of his plane, and threw the parachutes out of the rear door; by asking other pilots for their candy rations, he was able to repeat these gum and chocolate“deliveries” for the next few days.
After a week, he started to receive bundles, then sacks, of letters from the children, addressed to “Onkel Wackelflügel” (Uncle Waggle Wings), and to “Der Schokoladen-flieger” (The Chocolate Flyer); many of these letters had drawings of aircraft, with little parachutes carrying candy, being dropped from those aircraft.
As this was a military operation, and the dropping of candy to children was not authorised, Lieutenant Halvorsen was summoned to explain himself, but instead of being chastised, he was praised, and encouraged to continue. Which he did.
Halvorsen collected gum, chocolate, and sweets not only from other air crews, but also from people in his hometown in Utah, and from around the US; candy makers also became suppliers for the candy drops.
Aircrews from the entire squadron were now also “candy postmen” to the children of West Berlin.
Eventually, through word of mouth among the children, youngsters in East Berlin got hear about the candy being delivered by American pilots, on little parachutes, and that is when things really started to get interesting.
“When Halvorsen began receiving begging letters from children in East Berlin, Tunner realised he was onto something big. He now encouraged Halvorsen to drop sweets into the Soviet sector as well, aware that it would enrage General Kotikov. The Soviet Military Administration was indeed furious at such a simple yet successful stunt and issued a blistering complaint to the State Department in Washington, slamming the sweet drops as ‘a capitalist trick … [and] a military operation to alienate the minds of these young people against our system’.” (Chapter19, (“Checkmate”), “Checkmate In Berlin”.)
Of the two “deliveries”, it is hard to decide which had the greater impact.
Both gave West Berliners hope that the Allies would keep their word, and not abandon them.
The children became adults, and they never forgot the deliveries of sweets from USAF pilots, while bringing food and fuel to their besieged city.
The Allies never wavered in their resolve, once it had been decided upon,to keep Stalin at bay, and to keep democracy alive.
As we know, and as mentioned above, Stalin blinked, the siege of West Berlin was lifted, and food and fuel deliveries resumed along the train and road corridor from West Germany to the island that was the city of Berlin, in the middle of East Germany.
As a side note, the Berlin tactical recognition flash that was sown onto the sleeves of the tunics of all Allied service personnel in West Berlin was based on the idea of West Berlin being surrounded by the Soviets, or the “Reds”.
This illustration is based on the description in Giles Milton’s book, and photos found in military paraphernalia websites. (Chapter 16,(The Perfect Siege”) “Checkmate In Berlin”.)
This tale is based primarily on the following book:
“Checkmate In Berlin” by Giles Milton.
As I am sure you have guessed, I am thinking that the situation related to then and now has flipped 180 degrees. I was reading this book, and watching what happened to President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office this week, I was horrified that the US has slipped so far from what it did in the early days of the Cold War. And I now see that there are distinct similarities between the US, and East Berlin.
Trump is behaving like those in East Berlin, who were working with Stalin, but I am not sure how the US can get out of this mess, but I think that with a bit of luck, serendipity, and humour, you can do it. Someone will pick up on something and run with it. And that will be the beginning of the end for Trump and company. Because one thing that Trump and his cronies lack is a sense of humour, which is absolutely what the Bolsheviks lacked. And this is something that the Bolsheviks still lack.
As I am currently living in east Africa, due to the time difference, I will not be able to reply to any comments in a timely manner, but I will do my best.
Other places for information:
"Uncle Wiggly Wings" (The Story Of Colonel Halvorsen and the Berlin Airlift) (2020 NHD Documentary) (10 minutes)
Berlin Airlift - The Story Of A Great Achievement (1949) (10 minutes)
The Greatest Airlift in History: Berlin 1948 - RARE FOOTAGE (44minutes)
Gail Halvorsen (Wikipedia)
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/1/2307261/-How-The-Candy-Bomber-Poked-Stalin-In-The-Eye-A-Parable-Maybe-For-Our-Times?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
