Operation Vittles: Stories from the Berlin Airlift

By Renita Menyhert

After World War II and before the Korean War, the fi rst battle of the Cold War was fought. Not with machine guns, fi eld artillery, and tanks, but astuteness, wit, courage, and dedication. Although the Berlin Airlift lasted just under a year
and is over 60 years old, the fact is this monumental effort by the Americans, British, French, and West Berliners saved a city, West Germany and undoubtedly the rest of Europe from Communism. I trust these stories about their extraordinary
accomplishment will entice us all to stop and realize the signifi cance of the Berlin Airlift. I pray this book gives them all the honor and glory they so richly deserve.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469143927

Renita Menyhert

COL. Renita Menyhert, USA, is a retired military feature writer and broadcaster who has contributed to worldwide publications such as Soldier’s Magazine. Menyhert also served as a broadcast journalist for the Armed Forces Network both in the Far East and Europe. Her specialty is human interest features covering soldiers in peacetime and conflicts ranging from World War II to the current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Menyhert has earned a total of 16 broadcast and journalism awards which include two First Place Thomas Jefferson awards for broadcasting and print journalism from the Department of Defense.

Book preview

Operation Vittles

Stories from the Berlin Airlift

Renita Menyhert

Copyright © 2012 by Renita Menyhert.

Library of Congress Control Number:          2011963612

ISBN:                      Hardcover                      978-1-4691-4391-0

                                 Softcover                      978-1-4691-4390-3

                                 Ebook                            978-1-4691-4392-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

108822

Contents

Legend Comes To Life In Spirit

Young Berliner Survives Berlin Blockade

Navy To The Rescue For

Berlin Blockade

Ingenious Plan Wins First Cold War Battle

Airlift Leads To Special Friendship

Goodbye Alaska, Hello Berlin

‘Candy Bomber’ Becomes Hero For Young Berliners

Soldier is ‘Red Hot and Blockaded’

‘Bunny’ Visits Berlin, Forces End To Blockade

Lift Laffs Provides Comic Relief To Berlin Airlift Operation

Legend Comes To Life In Spirit

The Air Force can deliver anything.

Gen. Curtis Lemay’s, Commander of the USAF, Europe, 1948, answer to Gen. Lucius Clay, Commander of the U.S. occupation zone in Germany, when asked if the Air Force could fly in coal.

Timothy Chopp was only 6-years-old when he happened to see a

picture of a Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport plane. While not particularly impressive looking like jets and bombers, the aircraft still made a lasting impression on the youth.

It was the C-54’s history that caught my attention, grinned Chopp, President of the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation (BAHF). This simply built, but sturdy plane represented the greatest humanitarian event in the 20th century. It was the key to winning the first battle of the Cold War.

As Chopp grew older, so did his fascination of the C-54. But it was painful to learn not everyone shared his enthuiasm or even knew about the extraordinary contribution made by the aircraft just three years after World War II (WWII) ended. Although he wasn’t sure how, Chopp knew his life’s mission was to somehow change all that.

Serving in Vietnam as an aircraft mechanic and later becoming a corporate pilot, afforded Chopp the opportunity to experience air shows. Watching spectators tour airplanes became Chopp’s inspiration to use historical aircraft to teach about legendary events. He had no doubt the Douglas C-54 would make an excellent setting for the story of the Berlin Airlift. Also affectionately known as Operation Vittles.

The end of WWII found Germany a divided country between the United States, Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. Berlin was also divided into four sectors. However, the conquered city was located 110 miles in the Soviet zone. The Allies and German citizens were dependent upon the Russians for all supplies including food and coal for heat. And so far, so good.

But when the Allies joined their sectors and introduced their own currency in June 1948, the Soviet Union conceived the Berlin Blockade to force the Allies from West Berlin.

Ground routes had never been negotiated for transportation from West to East Germany, but the air was a different story. The Potsdam conference in July 1945 provided three twenty-mile wide air corridors from West Germany for access to West Berlin.

But what plane could supply an estimated 1,534 tons of flour and wheat, cereal, fat, meat and fish, dehydrated potatoes, sugar, coffee, milk, whole milk for children, fresh yeast for baking, dehydrated vegetables, salt and cheese for over two and a half million people? Not to mention the three thousand tons of coal and gasoline to keep the city heated and powered.

Chopp’s dream materialized in 1988 when he formed the BAHF and located a C-54, the aircraft described as the Berlin Airlift workhorse. Manufactured in 1945, the plane was first used by the Army Air Corps for transport operations. The C-54 later served the Navy as well as Marines for the same purpose. After retiring from military use, the aircraft went to Canada and delivered auto parts between Toronto and Detroit for the next 12 years. It continued to be used in that capacity until Chopp transformed it to educate today’s generations about the Berlin Airlift.

I was going to call it, ‘The Spirit of America, but a good friend countered it with ‘The Spirit of Freedom,’ and it stuck," said Chopp.

On the outside, Freedom has been painted to