The Berlin Air Lift: Berlin Children

Figure 1.-- Berlin's children did not understand the issues involved, but they soon became deeply invested in the Air Lift. Many Germans were uncertain about the Americans at first--not knowig if they woukd stand up to the Soviets over the long term. The Air Lift changed the minds of many Germans, making Germany a staunch ally in the Cold War. Once candy started falling from the skies, there were no doubts among Berlin's children. The press caption here read, "Santa Claus is a Big Operator: Christmas in blockaded Berlin will be a happy occasion for some 10,000 German children, thnks to the efforts of five airlift pilots flying with the 313th Troop Carrier Group at Fassburg, RAF Airfield in northern Germany. Back in October the pilots conceived 'Operation Santa Clause' and it's now in full swing. Realizing they would need help, they wrote the editors of their himetown newspapers, and the editors devoted much space to the cmpign. The result was overwhelming. Thousands upon thousands of parcels containing food, clothing nd toys rrived for the project, and many more needy German children will have a really Merry Chritmas! As is usual with children, paper is strewn about as the packages are opened and their contents revealed." The photograph was dated December 16, 1948.

Berlin's children did not understand the issues involved, but they soon became deeply invested in the Air Lift. Many Germans were uncertin about the americans at first. The Air Lift changed the minds of many Germans, making the Germany a staunch ally in the Cold War. Once candy started falling from the skies, there were no doubts among Berlin's children. All kids love planes. And from the beginning they were facinted by the extrodiary activity of plane after plane landing attracted enormpis attention, especialy in the summer when the Air Lift began, We see crowds of children gathering to watch the drama unfolding before them. And if that was not attraction enough, an Ameican pilot who began chatting with the children gathering around the air port began dropping candy out the windows of his plane in little parachitte bundles for the candy starved children as he landed. He becme known as Uncle Chocolate or the Cndy Bomber. Other pilots began doing the same. You can imagine the reaction of children who had very little access to candy. Very few German children had ever tasted chocolate, especially the younger ones. Crowds around the airports grew. And then the pilots began planning Christmas parties with gifts and candy, launching Opertion Santa Clause. Most Berlin children stayed in Berlin throughoit the blockade. Some children in poor health were evcuated to make sure they got an especially good diet.

Airport Activity

Air ports in the 1940s compared with today were not as busy as modern airports. Air travel was still a fairly rare matter. Peple and even more so goods traveled by rail. This was especially true of realitively low value goods like food and coal. Supplying a major city like Berlin had never even been considered, let alone attempted before. A major hrdle was assemling the ir craft needed. The mext issue was the phsical capacity of the Berlin airports. This had to be carefully coergraphed so that planes lnded, were unloaded, and took off with very narrow windows to maximize the capacity of the airports. It meant a beehive of activity with an extrodinary number of flights landing and taking off around the clock with only a narrow window between each flight. Modern airports are located at some distance from city centers. Mny are milesoutside the city. Berlin's air ports were smck in the middle of the city. The children did not understand the issues involved, but they love planes. nd they were fcinted by the extrodiary activity of plane after plane landing attracted enormpis attention, especialy in the summer ehen the Air Lift began, We see crowds of children gathering to watch the drama unfolding before them.

Uncle Chocolate: Lt. Halvorsen

Many of the American pilots was struck by the Berlin children who still lived in desperate conditions after the War. The children had little on no candy and many did not even know what chocolate was. The children of course had little idea of the larger issues involved, but were caught up in the episode when one of the pilots began dropping candy and gum in little parachutes when he reached Berlin. Lt. Gail Halvorsen was so struck with the friendliness of the Berlin children that he wanted to do something for them. He decided on his own to start his own operation which he n amed it 'Operation Little Vittles'. Lt. Halvorsen practically bought out all the candy available on his base made little parachutes out of strips of cloth. At first Lt. Halvorsen's buddies gave up their candy rations as well as their handkerchiefs. After the effort was carried in the American media, the American Confectioners Association began providing candy. They sent tons of candy and gum to Westover AFB for processing. School children in Chicopee Massachusetts made parachutes, and tied on candy and sent the finished product to Lt. Halvorsen at Rhine Main AFB. The American flyers air dropped candy all over the city. They also dropped candy for children in East Berlin until the Soviets calling it a provocatin demanded that they stop. Lt. Halvorsen by January 1949 had air dropped more than 250,000 parachutes loaded with candy on the city of Berlin. When the crowds of children around te airports became too large the safety of the children were of concern. The crews began dropping the candy in areas around the city where they saw children playing. They also sent candy to children in schools and hospitals. The Berlin children began calling him Uncle Chocolate as well as Uncle Wiggly Wings, The Schokoladen Flieger, Uncle Wackelfluger, the Cookie Bomber, and the Raisin Bomber. One German reader tells us hat Rosinenbomber (Raisen Bomber) is the term most commonly used today. That rather surprised me. As a boy, I was not overly impressed by raisens. Chocolate was a very different matter. Berlin children wrote with directions as to how to how the American pilots could hit their homes! When one little girl repeately failed to get candy, Lt. Halvorsen personally arrived at her house with a personal hand candy delivery.

Christmas Parties

The Berlin Air Lift caputured the imagination of the American people as the soviet threat became better recognized. The Air Lift was reported in great detail in the newspapers. The pilots engaged in the Candy Bombing cane up with another idea for the children--Cgristmas parties. It was named Operation Santa Clause. They wrote their home town newspapers, churches, nd friends asking for donations of toys, candy, and clothing for the Berlin children. Soon huge numbers of parcels from America for the children were on the way to Berlin from all over America. The parties were held on various days before Chritmas. Here we see the children tearing into their presents (figure 1).

Berlin Schools

We are not sure what happened with he schools in West Berlin during the Airlift. We believe they stayed open, but have been able to find little information about the schools. The Allies sought to get the schools started as soon as possible after the War. In many areas of Germany the only majpr problem was finding non-NAZI teachers. In the cities the other major problem was the massive destruction resulting from the Allied strategic bombing campaign. Cities in the East were destroyed because the Germans created fotress cities and defended them tenaciously fom the advancing Red Army. This was not the case in the West, especially after the Allies crossed the Rhine. There were no major fights for the cities. Th German peopl were just happy that the War was over and it was the Allies and not the Soviets that had entered their city. Many cities had, however, been damaged by the strategic bombing campaign. And this included school of all types. Schools of course were not the targets, but given World War II technology, entire cities were essenially leveled. Many schools were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Ohers wre damaged, but able to be used on a temporary basis. We believe hat as soon as facilities could be sorted out that feeding programs were initiated. In the difficult conditions after the War, very little construction or major repairs were conducted. The school situation was especially difficult in Berlin because it had neen so heavily bombed by the Allies and further wrecked by the climatic fierce battle for the city in the final weels of the War (April 1945). As many schools did not have operaing heating systems. Operations during the winter were especially difficult. Many schools at first operated on a partial day basis, but by 1948 the schools were conducting loinger sessions even in Berlin.

Humanitarian Evacuations

There were huge shortahes in Germany following World War II. The worst were food and fuel shortahes. Germany wa not self sufficent in food to begin with. Thus it needed food unports to survive. During the war, this had meant that German occupation authorities seized food from occupied areas creating food shortahes there. NAZI authorities also evised The Hunger olan to kill unwanted people, most obviously Jews, but many other ethnic groups as well. After the war, ll of this ended. And the German people experiuenced the same food shortageshat they had inflected on ither. Occupation authorities obtained food from abriad, mostly america in rge Western zones and the siviet union in the Eastern Zone. While no one staeved, food rations were below what people wanted or that were optimal for a healty lifestyle. With the Soviet blockade, virtually all food deliverieswre cutt off. The same was true of coal, the principal fuel for generating electricity and for heating homes. Thus in the auttumn, Berlin authorities decided to evcuate some of the most vulnerable, sickly and under-nourished children as well as the vulnerable elderly. The Americans and British provided the planes neeed for the evacution. The plan was to evacuate some 8,000 people. But as the evacuations began the airlift began to kick in and deliveries steadily increased. The Allies demonstrated that they were able to deliver the food and fuel which Berlin needed by air. And maintained those deliveries even as the weather turned bad.

Soviet Propaganda

The Soviets were not pleased with the Airlift at first assuming that it could not possibly succeed. as it became clear that it would succeed, they had to find reasons to ctiticize it. As candy parachuttes egan drifting over to East Berlin, this was labeled a provocation. East German children were as candy starved as West German children. The candy was labeled as a capitalist plot. Of course it night be viewed as a cheap way of winning the affection of unsophisticated children. But it should be noted that the candy bombing was not the idea of the American Government or West German officials. it began as a compasionate act by a single American pilot which was then supported by voluntary giving by the Americn people. It was in fact at the child's level why the Soviet Union lost the Cold War. Socialist economics is inefficient. Socilism destroy'wealth. It is capitalism that creates wealth. America had the economoc capacity not only to produce and deliver food as well as candy--even by air. The Soviets because of their inefficent economy did not have that capacity even by rail, let alone by air. This was no different than the impact of West German TV and radio cmmercials informing consumer goods starved East Germans of the prosperity to be had in a capitalist economy.

Created: 5:33 AM 3/16/2016
Last updated: 3:47 AM 1/7/2018