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| An iconic image of one of the "Candy Bombers" approaching Tempelhof Airport during the Berlin Airlift. |
In Europe, World War II came to an end with the capitulation
of Germany in May 1945. The city of
Berlin was to be occupied by the allied forces of Great Britain, France, the
USA, and the Soviet Union – my own service was part of this occupation, as a
matter of fact. Tempelhof Airport was
located in the American sector of Berlin, so even though the Soviets had
occupied it at first, by July 1945 it had been turned over to the American
forces.
Most of the new construction had survived the war; there is
speculation that it might have been spared by some prospective plan to use it
once the war was over. However, there was significant clean up that had to be
done, and the runways, which were originally designed as grass, were no longer
state of the art. The American occupants
worked with a German labor force to rebuild the airport, and there were special
negotiations to provide air access to the city and to the rebuilt airport –
these arrangements may be the subject of a future post, since they resulted in
the air corridors and a special air traffic control committee.
The business of occupying the city and Germany as a whole
was complex, and there were often conflicts between the national interests of
the occupying forces. As these escalated
into the Cold War, eventually the Soviet Union made a show of power under the
context of the implementation of a new unified German currency and established
the blockade of Berlin in June 1948. All
land routes to the city from the west were shut down, and electricity shut off.
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| Aircraft on the tarmac at Tempelhof during the Airlift. |
The blockade lasted until May 1949 – if the intention was to
persuade the allies to leave Berlin to the Soviets, it was not successful, in
large part because of the Berlin Airlift, the organized response to the
blockade. The airlift, coined “Operation
Vittles” by the Americans and “Operation Plainfare” by the British, involved
frequent flights to and from the city to provision the citizens and the
occupying forces with all they needed to sustain themselves. In all, there were nearly 280,000 flights to
and from the city’s airports, as reported by Heeb in her document – and some of
them actually transported “Made in Berlin” goods back for distribution to
German and world markets.
Among the reasons for Tempelhof’s central role in the
airlift, again referencing Heeb’s thesis, were the airport’s size and excellent
connections to the city – both by highways and rail lines, as well as the large
apron areas, which were partially covered.
Nevertheless, Tempelhof’s capacity was augmented by a newly built
airport, Tegel, in the French occupied sector, and by seaplanes and additional
transports in the British sector on the Wannsea and at Gatow airport. During April 1949, the month before the
blockade was lifted, air traffic at Templehof peaked with 1,000 daily takeoffs
and landings.
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| One of the "veteran aircraft" of the Berlin Airlift, at Tempelhof, 1995. |
The logistics challenges of the airlift were a major victory
for the Allies in Berlin. It was
certainly a cultural benchmark for me and my Air Force colleagues who lived at
the airport – there was rarely a day during my nearly five years there that I
wasn’t somehow reminded of this great feat, whether it was because I walked by
the Platz der Luftbrucke memorial on my way to the U-bahn, or because I was out
on a run near the C-54 Candy Bomber parked near the softball fields to the east
of the main buildings.
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| Platz der Luftbrucke, the Berlin Airlift memorial, in front of Tempelhof Airport, approximately 1995. |
Heeb closes out her discussion of the airlift with a note
about how the event began to transform the German view of the Allied forces
from occupiers to protectors, and not only that, but rebuilders. My experience in Berlin reflected this
goodwill, I was almost always treated with respect and friendliness everywhere
I went – this may have been because I would typically begin interactions with a
German greeting, quickly followed by a move to English as my ineptitude with
the language soon became clear.
My next post will cover some of the major events of the
ensuing days of the Cold War, including my time there in the 1980’s. In the meantime, here’s a link again to the
Heeb thesis I’ve been using for background information on this series of posts:
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