My LinkedIn friend Jim Rossi pointed out that this past Tuesday was the 70th anniversary of the start of the Berlin Airlift. It’s a vital piece of history I bet very few people under 30 years old have ever heard of. It shines even today, though, as an example of America at her very best.
In the United States today, schooling in history and civics has been driven by an educational elite who for at least two generations now have focused almost universally on the evil done by America. And yes, we’ve done evil – plenty of it. No nation hasn’t. On balance, I believe America is uniquely at the top of the heap of countries whose good deeds far outweigh the bad. But if you learn only about the wrongs; if you dismiss our founders and many core heroes and historical figures as “dead white men;” if you judge our notable leaders through our nearly 250 years against modern (and most often, radical left-wing modern) mores – then you indeed will find nothing at all to like about America.
That’s why I said in reply to Jim’s history post about the Berlin Airlift that it should be required subject matter for civics and history classes, as just one small counterbalance to the constant “educational” messaging of America as the world’s bad guy.
In the aftermath of WWII, Germany’s capital was divided among the victorious Allies – into four sectors controlled by the Soviet Union, France, Great Britain and the United States. Germany as a whole was divided into eastern and western segments, controlled by the USSR and the western Allies respectively. However, good will between the western powers and the Soviet Union quickly broke down. Less than a year after the war’s end, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous “Iron Curtain Speech” at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, decrying the Soviets’ ruthless expansionism.
On June 24, 1948, the Soviets blockaded the three western segments of Berlin in an attempt to convince the populace to reject the western powers and to force the remainder of the city into its zone of control. They cut off all road, rail and water access to the city.
The western Allies quickly formulated a plan to supply the city by air. The US launched “Operation Vittles” on June 26, and two days late the British launched “Operation Plainfare.” American, British and French airplanes ferried food, fuel and other essentials to Templehof, Gatow and Tegel airfields in West Berlin each and every day – 5,000 tons per day to start, and eventually reaching 8,000 tons per day as the operation became more efficient and effective.
While the people of West Berlin would never be quite comfortable during the airlift, the operation was successful enough to keep them fed and relatively warm, with rationing throughout. The Soviets finally lifted their blockade on May 12, 1949, though the western Allies continued the airlift until September to build up a supply stockpile in the event the blockade was resumed. By the end the Allied pilots had delivered nearly 2-1/2 million tons of supplies (coal, milk, dried potatoes, dried eggs, gasoline, and so on) to the beleaguered city, keeping about 2 million citizens supplied for almost a full year.
In a heart-warming side story, some pilots delivered even more. It all started with Gail Halvorsen, a C-54 transport pilot who met some kids watching the planes land at Templehof. After talking with them, he was leaving and realized how grateful and undemanding they were, and gave them a few pieces of gum from his pocket. They were so happy, he promised to drop them more candy later, telling them to watch for him wiggling his wings on the way in. He did so, tying gum and chocolate to handkerchief parachutes his crew pitched out of the airplane. It went so well he and his crew began dropping more and more, taken from their personal rations. And the few kids turned into bigger and bigger crowds of them.
Then the word got out. Halvorsen expected to get in big trouble. Instead his superiors urged him to continue. He did (“Operation Little Vittles”), getting more support from other air crews, and more publicity, until eventually the National Confectioner’s Association was providing candy, and volunteers in the US were tying the parachutes.
In the end, the Soviets failed in their efforts to oust their former Allies from Berlin. Sadly, the airlift came at the cost of 101 lives, mostly airmen whose planes crashed. The operation cemented the division of both the capital and the entire country into East and West halves, not to be reunited until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Back here in the good ol’ USA, and here in 2018, we cannot expect to succeed as a nation and a free people if our educational establishment continues to be allowed to force-feed our students a constant diet of only the negative about our nation. The Berlin Airlift should be mandatory content, along with many, many other episodes of American courage, generosity, inventiveness and sacrifice.
Sources:
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/berlin-airlift
https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-airlift
http://www.historynet.com/interview-with-gail-halvorsen-the-berlin-candy-bomber.htm
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/churchill-delivers-iron-curtain-speech