Transcripts For CSPAN3 Berlin Airlift 70th Anniversary 20240713

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming out. I am the executive director of the International Spy museum. Im excited to introduce this program, dawn of the cold war looking back at the berlin blockade and airlift, 70 years after the last american flight. We will commemorate the berlin airlift this evening. First, i want to recognize our cosponsors for this event, deutschlandar, and the allied museum in berlin, where our Vice President , our very own exhibitions and programs Vice President is on the Advisory Board. I would like to thank you for your support and coordination in organizing this event this evening. At the moment, i would like to introduce the director of the allied museum in berlin. He is in charge, currently, of managing the reinvention process for the allied museum, which will move from its Current Location in southwest berlin to a hangar at the former airport building in berlin, temple hawk. Hawk, a huge complex built in the nazi era. His academic career brought him to washington, d. C. He was a Research Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial museum, working on his phd project on the restitution of jewish property in germany. His latest publication, in 2016, dealt with the memorialization of democracy, the history of democracy in museums, and memorial sites across germany. Without further ado, i would like to welcome the doctor. Please. Its a tough [applause] one. Hello. Can i move this up . I think its i have i think i have to move it up a bit. It is nice to be back. Thanks that you all came. Thanks, chris, for this nice introduction, and thanks to your team to host us here in this magnificent building. Being in charge of reinventing a museum, i really understand what you have achieved here. So, congratulations. And ourdeep honor Advisory Board will be with us once we create the new museum and its a deep honor we have anna on our Advisory Board. She will be with us once we create our new museum. Im very grateful that ralph is with us. He is a real airlift veteran. It is amazing to have you tonight. Thank you for coming. I will introduce you shortly. Our event today is part of the campaign of the Foreign Office of germany. The museum in berlin has also aned and exhibits and exit mission on the berlin airlift. It traveled through seattle, chicago, houston, atlanta. Thanks to the Foreign Ministry for its support of the event today, and the traveling exhibit in, and the reception afterwards. Also, thanks to the good institute, which was our closest partner in making this happen. To put it briefly, the berlin airlift is a central part of our exhibition, our permanent exhibition in berlin. We have a huge airplane in front, which shows the originality of that event. The museum has an expertise of expertise on it for about 25 years. What is the allied museum . Some people say, what is the allied museum . This is a name that has to be explained 25 years after the withdrawal of the troops of the allied forces from berlin. Our museum was founded two years after the withdrawal as a gesture of gratitude from german people towards the allied troops to Great Britain, france and the u. S. These three countries are members of our museum, so we are a Real International museum. They sort of steer us in a way. Despite what happens in international relations, at the museum, people come together. We still live today the friendship. I think history has this potential to tell a positive story and say, thats what we have. You can never steal it from us. Our museum is in charge to show the myriads of the western germans as a whole. Our first exhibition was in 1994. Today, our permanent exhibition focuses on how enemies became friends. You would think, what about the russians . They also were allies. There is a museum in east itlin, at the beginning, and became a soda museum in charge well First Showing the german war in the soviet union, but that is the place where the soviets have their spotlight. Its really a process or result of the cold war. We will see how it comes together one day. Our museum is facing several challenges. Chris was saying. And to face these challenges, to become relevant, we really have to change places, and we really want to show our big objects in that huge airport, one of the hangers. Hangars. Its a big project, and you have to see, is this story we are telling tonight central to the german culture . It is part of the memorial culture in berlin, but in germany, we focus on the nazi past, the past of the gdr. But, to tell the positive stories like the airlift, it has to find its way in the memory of the country. , which we would country, which we would like to do with the museum. So thats what i want to say. Let me introduce you to the guests tonight. First is the associate professor of history and International Affairs at the George Washington university here in washington, d. C. She is the author of a new book, after berlin wall, which has just been published this week. Congratulations. Her previous work includes the prizewinning work, driving soviets up the wall. That was also published to wide acclaim in german translation. Board, soember of our we already owe her a lot. She reinvented the museum. She has appeared on cnn, the history channel, the science channel, the bbc, and deutsche lynn radio. Radio. Schland it is nice you are with us. We have a scholar of our museum and curator of the allied museum, and our expert on the berlin airlift. He has published several articles on this topic and participated in countless discussions. He gave several lectures on the airlift, the last in italy. In 2010, he edited one of his many publications on the berlin airlift. He is one of the founding curators of our museum, and created several exhibitions. He was in charge of creating the traveling exhibition i just mentioned, and i can tell you its a really hard job. When something is broken, he had to manage it from germany. Through his longlasting experience, he knows several veterans. He got in contact with ralph and he said, yes, im coming. [laughter] dr. Lillteicher we are especially honored have you here. You are in your 90s, if i may say that. Some hints on ralph. Ralph joined the u. S. Army air force soon after he graduated high school in nashua, new hampshire, in june of 1946. He became a c54 mechanic and was referred to the 520th group to work as a transport aircraft. On the 26th of july, 1948, he was selected for 90 days near frankfurt. He performed 12 hour shifts outside maintenance work, a very hard job. Near the end of october, 1948, he was assigned to flying status as a c54 Flight Engineer, sitting in the actual plane and caring for its functionality between the pilot and copilot. If you have ever been in such a historic airplane, it is not like a plane today. It is really a challenge. This brought him to fly between halls airport on a regular basis. He was at age 21 during these days. Today, he is active in the berlin airlift veterans association, and he is going to meet his friends in wichita tomorrow. The floor is now yours. Thanks, ralph. [applause] thank you, its wonderful to be here. I am honored to be here, particularly with mr. Ralph dion. Very happy, as always, to be with my colleagues in the allied museum in berlin. Im going to set the historical background for you, to understand what we are talking about tonight, before we have the high point of the evening with mr. Dion. What was this berlin airlift from 1948 to 1949 . What was going on in berlin at the time . Why was berlin the center of the world, the center of the cold war . Well, at the end of world war ii, the u. S. , soviet union, Great Britain, and france decided that their treatment of germany after world war i hadnt worked so well. Germany rose up again and started world war ii. This time, they decided they needed boots on the ground in germany, which they hadnt done after world war i. They established four occupation zones in germany. These were not meant to be permanent. Germany was not meant to be divided. This was to keep germany defeated and figure out what would come next. Not only was the country as a whole divided into four occupation zones, but the capital, berlin, was also divided into four sectors. The country was run by the allied control council with four military governors from each of the four powers. But, there was a deep contradiction embedded in the original plans, which said that germany must be treated as a whole. Everybody had to treat their zone of germany the same. On the other hand, each zonal commander could make his own decisions. So, you know what happened there. The cold war began. They had different views about what sort of political system, what sort of economic system, what sort of education system, what sort of newspapers, cultural events should happen in their parts of germany and berlin. They often could not agree. So, berlin was run by these four military commanders. The key thing to understand is the geography of berlin. Berlin, the city, was 110 miles deep inside of the soviet occupation zone. Hence, for the u. S. , britain, and france to get from their own zones of germany to their sectors of berlin, they had to get across 110 miles of the soviet occupation zone. Thats where our dramatic story begins. Germany, after world war ii, and the capital city was in ruins, particularly the cities, which had been bombed by the allies. Of course, germany had invaded and occupied many countries. No country suffered more than the soviet union under Joseph Stalin, which lost 27 million people. They fought the brunt of the war for the first three years on their own. So, you can imagine how stalin felt about germany at the end of world war ii. His policy was very much one of revenge and to definitely keep germany week. He also sought to take as much as much as he could, in terms of reparations, from his own germany and berlin. Reparations, from his own germany and berlin. President harry truman increasingly was worried about soviet communist power in germany and eastern europe, worried about the Economic Situation in germany and europe, and increasingly feeling that we needed to be concerned with the soviets more than the germans. Winston churchill felt the same way, coming to the u. S. In 1946 and giving his famous speech in fulton, missouri where he coined the term iron curtain, saying there is an iron curtain in western europe with communism and lack of freedom on one side and democracy and freedom on the other side. Britain played an important role. The british zone of germany was primarily industrial. Britain was suffering after world war ii. In addition to trying to pick themselves up again and get their own economy going, they also had to be feeding the germans in their zone of germany because there wasnt much agricultural land. Pretty quickly, Prime Minister atlee and foreign minister bevins felt they needed to let the germans, in their zone, start creating their industries again so they could produce goods for export and make money to get the food to feed themselves, instead of british taxpayers doing that. As the cold war developed, secretary of state marshall visited Joseph Stalin in the spring of 1947 in moscow, in the kremlin, to talk about germany and the state of europe. Marshall left those meetings with stalin very worried, saying stalin said he wasnt worried about the dire situation in europe. They should be patient. Marshall thought he was waiting for things to get so bad in europe that they would all vote for communists. Marshall didnt want that to happen. He came back to the u. S. And talked to president truman about helping germany and europe recover from world war ii with massive Marshall Plan aid. Ultimately, 12 billion given to 16 countries to help them recover. Now, we come to what would begin the crisis in berlin. In order for the german zones to be able to recover and profit from Marshall Plan aid, they needed to get rid of the old currency and institute the new deutsche mark, so the currency would be worth something and the economy could be stabilized. The soviets said this isnt allowed. You cant introduce your own currency. We are supposed to be treating our germany the same. We said you havent been treating yours the same. You are sponsoring the communist party, taking things out of your zone, you are not following the rules either. Stalin was also cognizant that the west had become so suspicious of what he was up to that the west was beginning to plan for the creation of a separate west german state. To stop that, stalin decided to blockade the land and water routes to berlin. It was the brits with bevin and general lucius clay in the United States who decided to respond to stalins blockade of berlin with an airlift. No one thought this was going to work, to be able to supply the 2. 5 million west berliners who were surrounded by the soviet communist zone, to supply 2. 5 million berliners from the air with food, the winter, with books for schools, clothes and food, everything coal in the winter, books for schools, clothes and furniture, everything you can imagine. No one thought this would work. But, increasingly, it showed it was going to work. The berliners, under their mayor, came together in a mass demonstration on september 9, 1948. 300,000 people came. Mayor reuter announced, we cannot be bartered, we cannot be negotiated, we berliners. We cannot be sold out to the soviets. Whoever would surrender the city, whoever would surrender the people of berlin would surrender himself. That showed how the morale of the west berliners was to fight this blockade. The u. S. Called it operation vittles. The brits called it operation plainfare. The germans called it the air bridge. Again, to remind you, deep inside the soviet zone, these planes were flying in three air corridors from west germany from the western zones of germany to the western sectors of her lynn. Berlin. Here are some amazing numbers to tell you what went on. At the beginning of the airlift, they were delivering 5000 tons a day. By the end of the airlift. A year later, it was 8000 tons per day. On easter sunday, 1949, there were 13,000 tons of supplies brought to berlin. A total of over 278,000 air drops. And, u. S. Crews with people like ralph dion flew over 189,000 flights to help the west berliners. At the height of the airlift, one plane landed every 45 seconds at temple hawk airport. Here you see the three airports in the western sectors. Temple hawk was in the american sector, the main airport, where our allied museum is hoping to move. You see the british sector, gatow, to the left. During the airlift, a third airport, tegel, was built, the built. The airport still used as the main airport in the western part of berlin. It was built during this airlift. One of the most beloved parts of the airlift for children, some people in particular, a pilot became known as the candy bomber. He dropped little parachutes of candy down to kids, who would write to him and give him their address. They would say please, next time, could you fly over my street . I did not get any candy last time. Chancellor Angela Merkel honored him in 2008 on the 60th anniversary of the airlift. I know ralph is going to see him tomorrow in kansas at their reunion for the airlift. Here, outside of tempelhof airport, is the monument to the airlift showing the three air corridors. Stalin finally realized he had failed in what he wanted, and on may 12, after almost a year, he stopped the blockade. The allies continued the airlift, up until september 30. So, the anniversary will be next week, because they wanted to really have stockpiles of goods in west berlin, in case the soviets did it again. It was a massive failure. It was one of the biggest Foreign Policy failures stalin ever made. He got the exact opposite of what he set out to do. While the airlift was going on, nato was founded. The nato, founded right here in washington, d. C. , and a separate state of west germany, a democratic capitalist state, was founded in may of 1949. Two of the things stalin wanted to most forestall, separate west german state and a western military alliance. Instead, he provoked, by this blockade, which so brilliantly was countered by the american and british airlift. I will close with this final slide that the berliners, ever since then, have felt a strong solidarity to the United States. After september 11, 2001, when we suffered the terrorist attacks, tens of thousands of berliners went out on the street in solidarity with the u. S. , mourning for our loss, and saying they would stand with us the way we stood with them during the berlin blockade and airlift. Thank you very much. [applause] good evening. Im glad we can be guests of the new International Spy museum. Museum, this new, fascinating location in washington today. Some of you might ask yourselves, why is the topic of the berlin airlift presented in the spy museum . First of all, as was explained, this was the beginning of the cold war. Second, i would like to emphasize there is a connection between the history of the berlin airlift and the espionage and reconnaissance. I will explain this connection for a minute before i start my lecture. During the year 1945, the four powers produced a huge amount of agreements. One of them was a result of a soviet wish for an air agreement because they wanted to prevent uncontrolled air traffic over there zone. In november, they were talking about a treaty concerning the creation of the system of air corridors to be used in the flights and respective zones of occupation in germany. In 1946, this 14 page agreement was signed. The agreement established installation of three air corridors from the western zone to and from berlin. The corridors were limited in length, width, and height. They were physical corridors. You see a flightline here, and the corridors. One is from the north, from the big airfields in the american zone, and the other two lead into the british zone. This is the way the american and british were entering the city by air. The americans started to operate planes with good longrange cameras on those corridor flights. This reconnaissance operation continued during the berlin airlift, and did not only continue, but was getting bigger. First of all, the threat of a war in 1948 was bigger than in 1946, and they wanted to know what was going on in the soviet zone. Second, it was much easier to fill in the reconnaissance planes and the flight routine of the airlift. In a daily bunch of approximately 500 planes inside the corridor to berlin, you would not notice there was a single plane taking photos and not even landing in berlin. The corridors remained, and also those reconnaissance flights over the gdr territory continued weekly for more than 40 years until germanys unification in 1990. As you can see, there is a connection between the berlin airlift and our location this evening. Back to the main subject, the berlin airlift. And, the 15 to 20 minutes is just enough to tell you the basics. Some of the subjects hope was touching on already. Restart the life of berlin and the currency reform. We were restarting the daily life of berlin from 1945 onwards. Especially in the first couple of months, they did that very successfully together. Restart the life of berlin and the currency reform. The four occupation powers, Great Britain, the United States, france, and the soviet union, restarting the daily life in berlin from 1945 onwards. Especially in the first couple of months, they did that very successfully together. But starting in 1946, how to deal with germany drifted apart. Despite many minor problems, the countries at home was a big problem. There had been a huge amount of money lost, there was a lack of acceptance for the currency, and then a flourishing black market made reform a matter of urgency. Finally, they could not agree on a four power combined agreement reform in the summer of 1948. As a result of currency reform in the western zone of germany, the soviet union started the blockade of berlin. Thats because they didnt want the new currency in berlin. Between june 19 and june 29, 1948, the soviet blocked all routes by land, rail, and waterway between west berlin and the three western zones. On the 24th of june, all land traffic and electric supply was cut off. Here is the photo, the lorries queuing at the border. It doesnt matter what the load is, it could be fresh food or whatever. They were just standing there, couldnt get any further, and that was blocking off all land traffic. Only the air corridors, on which the powers agreed, were unaffected by this blockade. Because the interception of an allied airplane in a corridor would be the reason for a war and because the air corridors, believe it or not, was the only agreement the soviets ever signed, how the allies should get to their sectors in berlin. No agreement on the rail, land, and the air agreement was the only thing they signed. They didnt want to breach that assignment. The air corridors were not affected by the blockade. The western powers were in a position to provide food and goods to their own military personal in the blockaded city, but that would not solve the much bigger problem. How should they feed more than 2 million west berliners . The three western powers began in airlift to berlin to supply the inhabitants. It was an ambitious plan never before attempted on such a scale. It was unclear whether it would work. Of course, there had been other plans. General clay, the military governor of germany, had the idea to break the blockades with an armored convoy. This idea was rejected by washington because of a high risk of an armed confrontation with the soviets that could lead into a new war. When the british had an idea that a combined Anglo American air fleet would be able to supply most of the people in west berlin, that was the only option they could try. Now, the airlift starts. On june 28th, the First American and british aircraft landed in an airfield with goods for the people of berlin. Many other things, many other flights followed, but nobody could predict how long the blockade would last. For that reason, the western powers initially planned to supply the city into the winter. The aim, in the first weeks, was 4500 tonsghly 4500 of goods to the city. It was climbing up more and more. In this picture, from the airfield, you can see german workers unloading sacks from a c54. Most people think food was the most important fight. That is not true. People need food to survive, but a city needs energy to survive. So, more than 60 of the overall tonnage of the berlin airlift was coal. They were able to receive 12 kilograms of coal on a ration card, but not for each month. 12 kilograms of coal for the whole winter of 19481949. The rest was used to create energy for berlin industries, so they could survive and produce goods for at least two or three hours per day. In late summer, 1948, a u. S. , wasal, william h. Turner appointed to head the combat airlift task force, the Anglo American air fleet, which had a headquarters in germany. He was a logistic genius behind the operation and perfected the airlift. The American Military governor of germany, clay, insured the necessary Political Support of the u. S. President , harry s truman, and he continually requested more and larger aircraft to use in the berlin airlift, and truman approved of them. The British Royal air force not only involved most of their military transferred aircrafts, but the British Government also hired and paid for planes from 23 private Charter Companies to fly goods to berlin. The former enemy that sent rockets to Great Britain just four years before was now supplied by former western enemies. The part of the French Forces was basically the construction of the urgently needed third airport in the french sector. It was completed in november 1948. Some 19,000 workers built it in record time, just taking three months. With their c54 transport plane, the u. S. Airport provided the largest air fleet for the operation. More than 400 planes were involved in the operation. The amount of cargo flown into berlin, as well as other parts of berlin, was increasing every month. Only november 1948 was difficult because of heavy fog. The winter of 19481949 was not as cold as the soviets might have hoped. Here, you can see one of general turners ideas. Is that a laser pointer . No, its not. Anyway. So, this is i mentioned the air corridor, and it is a physical corridor. It was turners idea that he split this corridor and five levels. Each level, just 500 from the next level. A plane, in the middle, on a day like today, could easily spot the plane in front of him or above him because they were flying so tight. The next idea turner had was a pilot was not able to land on the first attempt because of weather, and could not say let me land somewhere there in between. He has to fly back with his plane and full load to his base. As the pilot, you do that once or twice, and then you know hes coming back with a full plane again. Thank you for that. Pilots did their best to land the plane on the first attempt. The airlift functioned well in spring of 1949, bringing in a record amount of tonnage on the 15th to 16th of april, in a period of 24 hours, approximately 30,000 tons were delivered. More goods were flown into the sea on that day than had arrived before the blockade by road, rail, and air together. Furthermore, the allies were able to land 1396 planes within this 24 hour period. This is an average of one plane every 62 seconds over a period of 24 hours. An incredible and outstanding record. This was a unique demonstration of the allies capability. This impressive number was broadcasted by the Media Worldwide and demonstrated the power of the logistic ability of the Anglo American air fleet. The continuing positive reporting and the growing reputation of the western powers were certainly part of the reason for the lifting of the soviet blockade on may 12, 1949. Despite the end of the blockade, for a couple of reasons, the airlift continued for another four months into late summer, 1949. On the 30th of september, 1949, the last u. S. Plane of operation of vittles landed in berlin. Next week, we have the 70th anniversary of the last airlift flight to berlin. What remains are impressive numbers. 2. 1 metric tons. By the way, that is another problem in the literature,. Explaining this, you always have different figures. For example, metric ton. We have three partners involved. You have the americans, the british, and the germans. The germans are counting tons in metric tons. The british are counting tons in long tons. The americans are counting tons in short tons. So which ton are you talking about now . The Anglo American air fleet decided to count american short tons. That makes it different to the german metric ton. Whys one of the reasons different literature, different tonnage turns up. They transported that in 270,000 flights to berlin, and 67 was flown in by the americans. The remaining 24 , by the british. Also, 166,000 people were flown out of the city during the airlift. The tragic death that occurred during the 15 month airlift must also be acknowledged. 39 british, 31 american. And, at 39 british, 31 american, and at least eight germans also lost their lives in accidents. Their names are engraved at a memorial in berlin. Here, we see a picture, and you will see a picture when this monument was unveiled. There is a ceremony every year to honor those who lost their lives during the airlift. The berlin airlift changed the relationship between the western powers and west berlin. Just a few years after world war ii, the one time enemies had mastered the political crisis by intensive cooperation. The population of berlin now experienced the occupied powers Occupying Powers as protecting powers. You know this photo from the poster downstairs. This is an 11yearold handing over a bunch of flowers to a pilot. You might not notice, on first claims, she has no shoes. Thats how it was. Not every girl or boy on the berlin streets in 1948 had shoes. At the museum, 60 years after this picture was taken, we found both. We found her. She was living in switzerland. And we found him, obviously one of the members of the airlift association. We brought them together after 60 years and that was a remarkable moment when they met for the first time 60 years after this picture was taken. For the World Politics during this First Episode of the cold war, there was also a great blueprint. A serious conflict was not solved by bombs and machine guns. This crisis was solved by logistics and flying lorries. Transport planes like the c54, looking back at the operation, it is still fascinating. Perfect logistics, including the maintenance of the planes. Im happy that our special guest today, ralph deon, was not only flying inside the cockpit but also knows a lot about maintenance and the backbone of the operation. Ralph and i will now talk about his work in the airlift and i thank you for your attention for the moment. Thank you. [applause] all right, if you could please come up. Do you want to join us now . I will join you after. Please. Ralph, we already heard that you are joining at the age of 19, and after two years just a young guy. After two years in 1948, you were sent to frankfurt. Tell me about your feeling. You are young man, 21 years, and the war was just over three years and now you have to go to germany. Just out of high school almost. Living here in this country, being brought up was so different. It was gutted in germany, berlin. Buildings were bombed and it seemed like there were not many men around. It was real poverty, it was pitiful. In frankfurt, our outfit had a good barracks. It used to be ss barracks. We were welloff. Other veterans were in tents and mud. I cant complain. There was a gate around the barracks area. The old women would come to the gate begging to help with the laundry. We would give the laundry to the people there and they would take it home and bring it back faithfully. You depended on them and you could trust them. Good people. And they got paid in cigarettes. That was the money of that time. Cigarettes. People would walk around, they would pick up a butt and save it and put it in their pocket. It is difficult for a young man to see such a change. Were you smoking at the time . I very seldom smoked. You had another special currency. I would buy a couple of cartons of cigarettes and use them as currency. I went to paris with two cartons of cigarettes. [laughter] main problem is most of the veterans were smoking themselves. By the way, clay was a heavy smoker. You can see him smoking on virtually any picture. But if you are nonsmoking at the time, you usually had a good life in germany or are saving. I knew a gentleman who bought a new car just was cigarettes because he did not smoke. Here we see a picture of you. Do you remember when it was taken . I think that was in westover field during the wintertime. That was prior to the airlift. I was a corporal at that time . Two stripes. I got to be a sergeant. When it was time to reenlist, they said we will put you in for staff sergeant. You will stay here. I said the promise is not good enough. There was a g. I. Bill of rights at that time and i decided to go to college instead and get an education. Andtended Boston University took up business administration. And i felt that if i want to go back in as an officer, i had the education and i would do so. Wife in my third year of college. I got married. To ringd it is not good your kids around the country and all over the world. Let them stay home and have a normal upbringing. They are wonderful. They turned out great. That is a little side talk. That is what happened. [laughter] i mentioned maintenance being the backbone of the operation. Explain what the maintenance for ac 54 was during the berlin air left . Spark plugsne has that have to be replaced occasionally because they go bad. There were 144 spark plugs on the c 54. C54. So it kept us busy. The heavy loads of the aircraft landing after landing seared the tires. We had to change tires all the time. Maintenance, i think you had to inspect aircraft, open the engine cowling, climb a ladder, you did not have anything else. And at night with a flashlight get into the engine. Check to see if there is any leakage of fuel or oil, which is a fire hazard, and also check the wiring and piping for security. That is part of the inspection. They have a 25 hour inspection, a 50 hour and 100 hour. Planes are continually having to be taken out of service and serviced as fast as possible to get them back into action. And these Maintenance Services were done up to the beast the base until one hunter hours. Until 100 hours. They had to fly to britain. Ralph there was a change in the procedure. The local 25 hours were done at the home base in maine. There was another base near munich for a larger inspection. I got called in one day and they said youre going to be crew chief. You have to take aircraft to munich and they will. Huffen puffen like. [laughter] ralph i did stay there and i stayed up for 36 hours just make sure the inspection went well. After that was over, they told me i had to fill in the logbooks of all of the maintenance that had been performed. So i was tired but i had a photograph and all the paperwork. There was a lot to do, and then go back and start over again. There are a lot of stories. Work is good. When you are accomplishing something, you have a sense of a compliment. It is rewarding. The airlift is a highlight of my life. The American People were behind us and the air force and the british. It was great, great football game. You got to win. We kept up and we did. Thats great. And the pilots were relying on you, that you did the maintenance. Ralph and i had faith in the pilots, believe me. One of my flying was in fog during the winter. All the aircraft had to operate on instrument flight rules, not visual. They had to adhere to ifr. They had a gca approach they had to maintain all the plot time to keep the planes timed to turton certain altitude and certain distances apart. All the same airspeed. Thats why they standardized on the c54. The earlier planes the earlier planes traveled at different rates of speed and they cannot do it. They had to organize every thing. And after while on the ground maintaining, like here in the photo we can see you working on propeller. After while, you enter the cockpit yourself and you join a pilot and copilot. Ralph right after about two months of being a mechanic they needed more aircrews so they were pulling everybody. They said to me, youre going to be an air engineer. I said thats fine, what do you do . All you do is what the pilot tells you to dupe your youre do. Youre the third hand for the pilot. The pilot does the flying. The copilot does the navigational work. And the radio work. The Flight Engineer it sits in the middle, just like this. Pilot, copilot. And in front of the controls. The pilot will come into the landing and he will say lower the flap 50 degrees. You say yes sir, 50 degrees. Theyll say lower the landing gear. You say yes, lowering the landing gear. Open the cal flaps. You keep your eyes on the oil pressure, the oil temperature, the fuel quantity. Anything that has to do with the operation of the engines. It is a team, threeman team. You work together. We did not have the same crew on each flight. It just happened that you good call from flight and you might have a different engineer or differ pilot or copilot all the time. So you had to work together, teamwork did it. That is what made the difference. And there is one unusual thing you told me when we were talking as evening turned what when we were talking this evening. What would you estimate, how often did you fly to berlin. . Ralph i really do not know. I would to about 30 times. Because i flew to england for maintenance. I flew to the United States for maintenance. So theres a lot of different flights. I would think 30 or 40. I have 300 hours and they called me and and said, you have three hundred hours, youre going back to the field in massachusetts. I was having the time of my life. How may people are sitting in the cockpit of an airliner large airplane and see what is going on and when youre coming in for landing, you see everything. On one flight. There is a road that goes by the , thee house airport autobahn. I did not give it much thought. One day we were coming back from a ride and it is foggy. You see nothing out the window. So we are coming in for landing and the pilot is in contact with gca. Im looking at the altimeter, we are 500 feet. 400 feet. 300 feet. 100 feet. And zoom under the wings. We hit the runway. Gca says go around. Pilots is negative, we are on the ground and rolling. That was something. [laughter] even though you have been 30 times or more to berlin, you do not have the chance to stay in berlin for a few hours our day . Ralph no, i never saw berlin during the air left. We flew into berlin and begot of and we got out of the plane. We put the locks in the landing gear down and open the doors and the truck would come up and unload. We had to stay there. The general changed that. The pilots and crews you to go for coffee and to the cafeteria. No more, you stay with your plane. 15 minutes and youre out. It worked. Roughly 50 minutes with the time that a german unloading crew needed to unload a c54 with 10 tons of cargo. On the other hand, the german freuleins with doughnuts. Ralph yes they have a coffee and some beautiful girls who would serve coffee. Duty calls. [laughter] it is something, to sit in line, 10 or 12 large aircraft ahead of you, all vrooming, and you get that thundering feeling. I cannot forget it. I will never forget it. It was great. Sorry to diverge. [laughter] yes so if you would like to join us i think we are now open for questions. Either dealing with the lectures are the things ralph just told us. If there is a question, please go to the microphone. And i would love to ask went one too. Ralph dont be shy. Thanks very much for a terrific series of talks, and your service. The stories i have heard in the past have been that the berlin airlift landed in templehaus. And im surprised tonight to learn that it was landing at another. Ralph there were three airbases. It started with two airports us and temple hawk was the third. Why does temple hawk have the prominence over the other two . To be honest it was a myth that both planes [indiscernible] the fact that also a lot of the other, all the british planes and a lot of american planes let it also there. The idea behind templehoff was that it was in that town center and every berliner could see the planes come again. The other is so faraway that even today you would need by car up more than half an hour. At the time there were no berliners around to see what is happening there or the other airfields. So all three airfields had a lot of work to do with airlift. But this was the most prominent one because was actually in the town center. Ralph i have flown there in the day and was astonished to see how downtown it was. Thanks for the excellent nation. Explanation. We will have the benefit of hindsight, we can see the airlift was successful. At the time, when did it become apparent that this crazy idea was actually going to work . And was there any time where truman or clay thought that it was not going to work and we would have to abandon the idea . From my perspective, i would say after one fellow arrived and introduced the new things i mentioned, for my point of view that was the point where they knew it will work. Maybe from a pilots point of view, that was a different question. Ralph we did not get involved in the politics we were flying and that was the job. But you are working on the ground, working on the feeling is not going to work . Ralph we never had the feeling that was going to work. You just do your job and do your job. And he made it work. Ralph there was no sign of failure. If it was bad, you went. If it was good, you went. But you felt it was sustainable, you could go on like that and it was not a point where, we could only do another three months. Ralph it went on for six months and then three month after, they kept flying stefan in case the russians changed their mind. They kept flying stuff in and case the russians changed their mind. One point, we do not know about it those were flying, the president truman sent 90 b29s to england and let the russians know about it. These were atom bomb capable. But they do not have adam atom bombs in them, the russians did not know that. And that stayed there hand. Because there were times when the russian pilots were buzzing the aircraft. Ralph yes they were. Did you ever experience that . Ralph no. Not my flight. But the british elders had more problems. And the food was lousy. We had a mess hall and they had german people serving the food. And women taking care of the barracks area. We had it good. They had school they had school buses, military buses that would take us from frankfurt 10 miles to the airport. We shuttled back and forth from rhein main to frankfurt. We used to joke with the german drivers. One of the fellows would a hey driver, speed up, there is a dog peeing on the back wheel. [laughter] we ripped them. We had a good time. You have to have a sense of humor. To get through. Thank you for the presentation and for sharing your experiences. I have a question. How was the tremendous speed of logistics received by soviet intelligence . They do not inspect it, that was for sure. I think they were hoping that the winter would stop the berlin airlift. I mentioned that [[ was the major problem. Especially november. When a couple of days or weeks where the weather was very bad. That is it. It was not so cold. Fogg was the major problem. Ralph that helped a lot. Thats way that encircle the airplanes around anymore. If you missed the landing, you went back. That kept things going like a big chain. And i do not think russian intelligence, what can they do they noticed money planes were landing. It is in the newspaper every day what could they do. They noticed how many planes would land, it was in the newspaper. Absolutely. And it fueled this image of the west as helping, while the soviets had been taking things out of their zones, the americans and british are bringing things into their zones. In addition to saving the island million west berliners, it was a massive propaganda coup. And a real coup for the west, showing we were helping people. People who had just been our enemies. Really extraordinary. Ralph thats america. Which gets me to my question to you, you mentioned a few times your interactions with the germans. Can you tell us more about what that was like, to be a Young American in world war ii it has just ended and there you are. And youre meeting germans. What was that like . Ralph well, there was a bad feeling toward the germans come of course because of world war ii and so Many Americans had gotten killed. But can you imagine the pilot who had been bombing the germans, who had been shot at, go through all that. They are the ones who have a problem in converting the attitude. And they did. Ive a friend, Chuck Charles who flew 37 missions. He had to fly to help the berliners. And he is a great man. He did his duty. Is there anything else . Hi, thanks so much. This has been wonderful. As we are expensing a reboot of experiencing a reboot of the cold war and our relationship with russia is becoming increasingly sticky. This is an encouraging story. But i do nothing a lot of young do not think a lot of Young Americans know it. I do not know if young germans know more about it. What should america remember about this . What shouldnt we forget, especially as these issues are coming about again . Im not sure i get the question. Are there lessons for us now . Things that americans should take from your experience in the airlift, and remember now and not forget. Ralph absolutely. They say history repeats itself. If youre not careful, were going to repeat the bad parts of history. America was great in doing these things. They should maintain that friendship and relationship with germany, hand in hand. What you think about the last question . I think it is a wonderful question. I agree that u. S. German relations remain a cornerstone of the whole post world war ii era and the peace. Germany is now the main power in europe. And it is absolutely essential that the u. S. , for my perspective, that the u. S. And germany have a good relations in every way. So, looking back at this period of time when we helped them. And again with your german unification in 1990, the u. S. , soviet union, Great Britain and france, in 1990 after 40 years of division, those four powers had to agree to allow germany to be reunited. And because of world war ii, the soviets, the british and french were all rather skeptical about letting germany be reunited. It was only the americans to come the United States, with , whodent George H W Bush was pressing that it was ok that we can trust this germany. I think that is overwhelmingly proven to be the case. In the 29 years sense germany united, i think germans should be proud of what they have achieved. And americans and germans, i think we always have to remember that we have been very strong allies and should remain so now and in the future. Absolutely. Thank you for an interesting presentation. Two questions. Number one, what was the french involvement . Number two, about women, whether there any female pilots involved in the airlift . You mentioned you needed bodies, whether the women participated in the air lift . Ralph the french contributed. A they had at j52 aircraft. And his own. [indiscernible] and that was a key factor. We did little bit more. There was a russian radio tower close to the approach [indiscernible] one of the french officers went down there and the tower disappeared. [laughter] they came out and asked, what happened to the tower . They helped. [laughter] dont forget, all that coal was so important to go to berlin. That coal had come from french mines. It had to be mined. Had to be put on trains and transported to western germany. Then it has to be put on trucks and brought to the planes. So they contributed it and food had to be available for the people, and came from holland and the netherlands and france. So they all contributed. The main contribution was indeed building the badly needed airport in the french sector. And concerning women, it was built by as i said 19,000 workers. Roughly 40 of them were women. They were doing the hard work with a shovel and that is one point. The other, the french had indeed for aircraft but they were old chunkers with a load of three tons. In october, the Anglo American said to the french, please do us a favor and leave those four planes on the ground. [laughter] because they would not fit. I showed you the stream of those airplanes and they were too slow. They would not fit in there. So they kept them on the ground and they were working on the airport. The other important thing to say about france and all of this is that france was initially closer to the soviet attitude from the germans. Namely, revenge. As opposed to helping rebuild. Because of the occupation of france. So it was really the soviet blockade of berlin that finally, three years after the end of the war, persuaded the french that they should see the soviets as a greater threat than the germans. That was part of it. There was a political diplomatic feeling, the french were not initially fully behind this. The soviet blockade changed that. Good question. I would like to thank this evenings panelists. I enjoyed your presentation. I was wondering if one of you may speak to how these goods were distributed germans in berlin after they left the airport. There mustve been anime nor there must have been an enormous logistical undertaking. Who administered that and saw the goods got to people in need . That was the Berlin Senate preafter the freight landed, knowing are the allies were in that was the Berlin Senate. After the freight landed, knowing are the allies were in charge of all the stuff that went to the berlin population. The Berlin Senate had to make sure that the call went to the berlin industry or to the people, with the 12 kilogram on their ration card. That the stuff went to the bakeries, so bread can be done. So that was a task for the berlin managers. Ralph each family was entitled to one ration of coal per week. You had to be very careful. And it was cold. Very cold out. Of course this was before the berlin wall was built and there was some Free Movement between what was in berlin and west berlin. So the radio and newspapers were more freely distributed at the time that after the berlin wall. What did the inhabitants of the gdr know about this or think about this and how did it affect them . It is important to keep in mind, for most of the airlift, the two german states did not exist yet. It was still occupied it germany. It was only in may of 1949 that west germany was created. And in october of 1949, east germany was created. The misnamed german democratic republic. So they were not states. Everyone was fully aware of what was going on. For one thing, especially with temple half, hearing the planes sometimes seeing the planes, reading about it, on the radio, the u. S. Radio in the american sector, rias, was very influential, announcing what was going on, telling the story of this. So all of the berliners could listen on the radio. It had been an united city. It mostly still was a united city. People were moving around and you had families in different parts of it. That did not change until the berlin wall was built in 19 621, 1961. Completely different berlin crisis years later. The newspapers published in the communist zone of germany, i do not know what story they would have been telling, to spend this spin this in some sort of negative way. That would have been pretty hard to do. But they certainly would not have been reporting on it a lot. The way it would have dominated the press and the western zone. One factor or one aspect is that in the soviet zone, they offered east german ration cards for the western germans. So if the west german would go to east germany and register there, they would be supplied with a better ration card. But only less than 5 did that. So because of one fellow who is important for the morale of the berliners, he said we stay firm and do not register in the east together or to get a hundred grams of butter more. No, we stay in west berlin. And put our faith together with the others in the allies. That was one response from the east is that they were offering better ration cards in the east. If the west germans are going to the east and register in the east. Could i interject . We hear about the candy bomber. Not just the candy bomber. The results of his dropping candy to the children had an important effect. They are trying to decide to go with the russians or americans. The children came home with candy. The kids did not know what candy was. They did not know what chewing gum was. They come home and bring this candy and show it to their parents. The parents by saying they love the parents are saying they live children, they cant be that bad. It helped turn their attitude. It is amazing. Berliners remember that to this day, it was a foundational moment in establishing a close relationship with berlin and the west. Young status of one lieutenant dropping it out to the kids, he gets called the what areand he asks you doing . You are you doing . Youre dropping candy and youre supposed to be flying the airplane. The newspaper got a hold of it. When they found out about the results of what he was doing, he was commended. They started a program which was the dropping of candy. Other pilots and planes followed suit. The local towns, the kids were making parachutes. , theynfectionery industry sent thousands and thousands of pounds of candy. It was important. It is a good example of starting a relationship. In the United States, they asked for candy and sweets. Tons and tons of sweets and candy were collected here and shipped over to germany and dropped there. Museum, we have parachute a parachute done by an american family. The idea was that a german boy or german girl that is able to get the parachute will write to the family to create a relationship. That was a good idea. [laughter] so, if there are no more questions. Why. Can see ,f you have the energy now imagine what he was doing with the planes. [laughter] got a flight into temple house as a passenger. Kidsnted to speak to the who were watching the airplanes. He asked did you get a candy bar . , i didtle girl says no not know what airplane you were on. So, he says i will tell you what. When i come, i will wiggle my wings and youll know it is me. He was known as uncle wigley wings to the kids. Another child complained, he asked do you have any candy . He says no. She complained the plane was giving her chickens that couldnt lay eggs. That is another one. A little girl, she wrote him a letter complaining that the chickens are laying eggs because of the plane. Many years later, when she was an adult and had a husband, they met again. For a lifetime, up until now, they are. It lives on forever. I went to berlin on may 12 of this year, at the invitation of the mayor. I brought my son from california with me. I wanted him to see and respectce the love and and the memory of these people in berlin. They say berlin never forgets. And they still celebrate every year. We were invited in and we had who attended. They had a concert for us. Special h my god, a dinner. They treated us royally. Well, because of what you did. Because of what i did. We were about 20 at that restaurant. It is very quaint and old. Typically berlin. We all ate together and had a great time. Go, the vansime to i went downstairs to the sidewalk and check things out. This waitress comes flying down the stairs. Another waiter. She comes to me and says you are airlift man . I say yes. She hugs me. She said my grandmother, she told me when i was little girl american men come down from the air and they brought food to us and saved us. She always wanted to meet a veteran. She was so thrilled. Waiter, the other i said no. Goes back and gets the bill and brings it down. She takes it and looks at it, i pay. You how the common berliners feel. Thats the heart. It is wonderful. [applause] if you have more questions, outside. Eet ralph i see the photo here. [indiscernible] sounds, opene exhaust. I cant hear. Question is about the sounds and the smells. Have described it pretty well. You are a mechanic and you know. [laughter] these have thousands of horsepower. 18 to 20 inches. Thousands of horsepower, each. Were you wearing earplugs . No. No safety harnesses, no earplugs. You had to be incredible. Yep. What am i going to say . What is interesting . Sitting in this thing, get the engines running, it is time to go. They have four big engines and off you go, it is a thrill to take off. To hear the sound of those have threed then you or four little propellers. You have to wiggle the blade angles to get them synchronized. It is beautiful. It is a great feeling. [laughter] was a cold in the wintertime time in the plane . Yes. The windows are open. They have square windows. You would take them out and the air comes through. It is cold. You were supposed to walk out on the wings, when the plane is parked, they will pull up and the driver will get out and they will throw you a rope and you fill up thee up and tanks. It is great. You had a dipstick or a yardstick. Were likeo that and oh, yeah, youve got gas. [laughter] i had a buddy. We went to his Birthday Party yesterday. The british. T his job was to put out smudge plus. You ever see those smudge clubs plots at kerosene lamps. That was his job. It was important. His job is important. The person who carries and in berlin werucks, had a special session, a concert. During the concert, they stopped and called up three berliners. They were all gentlemen. They were those who had worked on the trucks and were unloading them. They gave them a medallion. They helped themselves and they helped us. I got one too. Up. Called me they gave me a nice medallion and i appreciated it. Great feelings for the americans. Lets keep it up. Yes. [laughter] we have a lovely reception planned. Announcer the u. S. Office of government after world war ii produced the short film hunger blockade. To tell the story of the berlin airlift from germanys perspective. Originally in german, this englishlanguage version was produced for distribution to audiences in europe. The word love the western sectors went into its first week. Necessitated by the cold shortage, machines and the men who run them stood idle