60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift
June 30 will be the 60th anniversary of the start of the Berlin Airlift. In Pemberley Remembered, Rob McAllister's brother is a pilot flying as part of the Blockade. The book points out the heightened tensions between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union because of what was happening in the former capital of the Third Reich.
During World War II, the United States and Great Britain had been allies of the Soviet Union. It was never a comfortable fit because it was known that Josef Stalin was a murderous dictator. But as Winston Churchill put it, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” and, as long as the Soviets were fighting the Nazis, Stalin was his friend. After the war, Stalin wanted to dismantle German industry and ship it back to the Soviet Union. The Soviets believed that its 20 million dead gave it that right. The Western Allies, however, did not want to repeat the mistakes made at the end of World War I. The conditions of the armistice were so burdensome that they all but guaranteed that there would be another war. Great Britain and the United States wanted to see a democracy rise from the ashes of the Third Reich.
In mid June, 1948, the Soviet Union halted all traffic by water and land into or out of the Allied sectors of Berlin. The only remaining access routes into the city were three 20 mile wide air corridors across the Russian zone. The Soviets’ intention was to take over the three zones of Berlin not under their control. With no Allied traffic coming into Berlin to supply its inhabitants with basic necessities, the Soviet Union would be able to starve Berlin into submission.
On June 26, 1948, the Western Powers responded with the start of the Berlin Airlift. On that day, C-47 cargo planes flown by the United States Air Force carried 80 tons of food into Berlin, not nearly enough to provide the minimum daily requirements of 1,700 calories to Berlin’s population, but it would soon be joined by the U. S. Navy and the Royal Air Force. In short order, the United States responded to the Soviet’s blockade by making an open-ended commitment to the people of Berlin to supply them with calories and coal as long as they were willing to stand up to Soviet bullying.
Even with the arrival of the larger C-54 transports at the Rhein-Main Air Base in July, a complex delivery system would have to be put in place if “Operation Vittles.” was to succeed. At the end of July, General William H. Turner of the Military Air Transport Service took over the operation from Brigadier General Joseph Smith. Turner implemented changes which had an immediate impact and greatly increased the tonnage being delivered. Instrument flight rules would be in effect all all times regardless of visibility. In order to avoid accidents, each plane would have only once chance to land; if it missed, it would have to return to its base. All C-47s were replaced with C-54s which were larger and easier to unload. Snacks were handed out by beautiful frauleins to the pilots who remained in their cockpits, thus saving precious minutes. Eventually, the manpower needed to unload the planes was provided by the Germans, who were so efficient that they unloaded a C-54 laden with coal in five minutes and 45 seconds.
American flights were flown out of Tempelhof while the British flew out of Gatow, but with winter approaching, this would not be enough. A third airport was needed in the French sector. French General Jean Ganeval supervised the building of the third airport. When he realized that a Soviet-controlled radio tower was too close to the airport, he asked the Soviets to remove it. When they didn’t, Ganeval had it blown up.
Increased flights were possible because of the newly developed Ground Controlled Approach Radar which allowed all-weather operations. However, on November 28, 1948, a dense fog settled over most of Europe and lasted through December, greatly reducing the number of flights. After a challenging winter, tonnage increased as the weather improved in the spring. The Soviets finally “cried uncle” after 1,383 flights were made on Easter Sunday without a single accident, and on May 11, 1949, the blockade of Berlin was lifted.
When the last transports landed on September 30, 1949, more than two million tons of food and supplies had been delivered by the United States, Britain, and France, assisted by the Air Forces of Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, and with volunteers from Canada. All told, these countries flew 278,228 flights into the beleaguered city between June 1948 and September 1949. But there was a price. During the 14 months of the blockade, 101 fatalities occurred, 31 of whom were Americans.
This was an incredible achievement for all concerned. But for the British, who were still experiencing rationing and digging up unexploded bombs, and the French, who had suffered more than four years of occupation, it was nothing short of remarkable.
The Berlin Airlift was the beginning of a unique friendship between Germany and the United States. With the implementation of the Marshall Plan in 1947, Germany would rise from the ashes as a democray. In 1955, the three western sectors of Germany joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and would play an important role in the defense of Western Europe during the three decades of the Cold War.
The Mighty Eighth - Army Air Corps in Europe in WWII
In the earliest and darkest days of the Second World War in Europe when Britain stood alone against the greatest threat to modern European civilization, Prime Minister Winston Churchill looked to the neutral United States for the food, fuel and war materiel that it would need in order to survive. This was only possible because both Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt recognized the enormity of the menace created by Adolph Hitler’s Third Reich. In his famous “Arsenal of Democracy” speech, in which the President committed the industrial might of the United States to defeating fascism in Europe, Roosevelt educated the nation as to the perils America faced if Britain should fall to the German onslaught. But Churchill and Roosevelt wanted more from the American people than bread and bullets. Both leaders felt that the future of the free world depended upon the defeat of the Nazis in Europe. Although sympathetic to Britain’s fight against Germany, Americans had no desire to send its young men to fight in another of Europe’s wars.
Ironically, it was Adolph Hitler who was the answer to Churchill’s prayers. On December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States even though it had no treaty obligations with the Empire of Japan. With that declaration, America was in the fight, and Roosevelt adopted a “Europe first” policy.
The first opportunity to engage the enemy came from the air. In June 1942, the first of a tidal wave of heavy bombers arrived in England. Over the months, B-17 Flying Fortresses and the B-24 Liberators, along with fighters and medium bombers, would occupy 100 newly-built airfields in East Anglia and Hertfordshire. With the British bombing German targets at night, the plan of the Eighth Air Force was to execute daylight precision bombing raids from 25,000 to 30,000 feet. Armed with the Norden bombsight, the Americans were confident that they could drop “the pickle right into the pickle barrel.”
The earliest missions were against targets in France and the Low Countries where fighter planes were able to protect the bombers. The raids on marshalling yards, submarine pens, and airdromes gave the pilots an opportunity to fly in formation; the navigator, bomber, and radio operator a chance to test their skills in combat; and the five gunners of the Forts and Liberators their shot at taking on German Messerschmitt and Focke Wulf fighters.
Even with shallow penetration to cross-channel targets, casualties began to mount. From the beginning, it became obvious that there were so many ways to die when you flew for the Eighth Air Force. Planes exploded on the runway for no apparent reason or collided in the fog during assembly. They crashed on takeoff or were shot out of the sky, sometimes by gunners from their own squadron. They went down in the channel and crashed on landing. Flak, fighters, and fog all killed. And this was before the bomb groups had executed one mission against a target inside Germany, but that was about to change.
On January 27, 1943, when the curtains were drawn back in the briefing rooms of American bases across East Anglia, the target for the day was the shipyards at Vegesack outside the city of Bremen. It would be the Mighty Eighth’s first raid into Germany. After a prolonged silence, the men began to cheer. They were finally taking the fight to the enemy on his own turf. Unfortunately, when the bombers arrived over Vegesack, the target was completely covered by low clouds. A decision was made to go on to the secondary target at Wilhelmshaven where the shipyards and docks were bombed. The damage inflicted was slight, but this mission was the thin end of the wedge.
In the early days of deep penetration into Germany, the American and British fighters could not protect the bombers all the way to the target because of fuel limitations. Once the escort withdrew, German fighters descended on the exposed squadrons of planes, and it was only by maintaining tight group formations with maximum fire power that the bombers were able to survive wave after wave of hundreds of fighters. The vulnerability of the bomb groups was seen on August 17, 1943 on a mission to destroy a ball bearing factory in Schweinfurt. Thirty-six of 230 B-17s following a group attacking Regensburg did not return to their bases. A second mission to the same target saw even greater losses. On October 14, 1943, “Black Thursday,” 291 B-17s left their airfields in England; 60 of the ten-man ships did not return. Such losses were unsustainable, and it was not until the P-51 Mustangs with their drop fuel tanks and expanded range of operation arrived in significant numbers in England were deep-penetration raids resumed.
The effectiveness of daylight precision bombing is still being debated. What is not subject to debate is the bravery of the men of the Eighth Air Force who did all that was asked of them and more. According to the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum website, “The Eighth Air Force suffered half of the U.S Army Air Force casualties in World War II (47,000 plus casualties with more than 26,000 deaths). The Eighth’s personnel also earned 17 Medals of Honor, 220 Distinguished Service Crosses, 850 Silver Stars, and 7,000 Purple Hearts.”
In the early days of the war, German Field Marshal Herman Goering was quoted as saying that, "If Allied planes ever bomb Berlin, you can call me Meyer." As the tide turned in favor of the Allies, Goering watched as waves of Fortresses and Liberators, escorted by P-51 Mustangs, dropped their bomb loads on the capital of the Third Reich. The sight caused the Field Marshall to remark in despair, "When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up." So sayeth Mr. Meyer.
bomb groups had executed one mission against a target inside Germany, but that was about to change.
The Army Air Corps in Europe
PRINCE AND THE AUTHOR - THE PRINCE REGENT AND JANE AUSTEN
In 1811, the British Parliament passed “The Regency Act” which transferred power from George III to his son, the Prince of Wales. This legislation was necessary because the king was believed to be mad as a result of a recurring malady that was later identified as porphyria. The Act declared that until such time as the monarch regained his wits the Prince of Wales would rule Britain and its expanding empire. Unfortunately for the king, but fortunately for his son, George III never did recover and spent his remaining nine years in seclusion at WindsorCastle.
While the Prince of Wales had been waiting in the wings for his father to either die or to be found insane, the future George IV had been busy accumulating enormous debts, acquiring expensive mistresses, launching elaborate building projects and eating and drinking to excess. By the time of his ascendancy, the Prince had established himself as a mainstay of the tabloid press and a favorite of caricaturists who portrayed him as an elegantly dressed stuffed sausage.
When not planning or attending balls and fetes or being fitted for a new uniform to display his elaborate collection of unearned military decorations, the Prince did have his quiet moments. At the end of a long day of self-indulgence, he would kick back with a good book, and one of his favorite authors was a writer who identified herself in her first novel, Sense & Sensibility, as “A Lady,” and in her second novel, Pride & Prejudice, as “The Author of Sense & Sensibility,” but who was to become known to posterity as Jane Austen.
One of Jane’s most ardent supporters was her brother Henry. Despite being cautioned by his sister that she did not want her identity known, Henry could not help but brag about his younger sister’s success, especially when the very popular Pride & Prejudice went into its third printing. It was Henry, from his sickbed, who successfully negotiated her agreement with John Murray, Lord Byron’s publisher, for her fourth novel, Emma. After an agreement had been secured with Murray, Jane went up to London to see if she could expedite the printing of her book. During her stay, she was contacted by Rev. James Stanier Clarke, the Regent’s librarian. His Royal Highness had learned that Jane was in town from his physician who also happened to be her brother Henry’s doctor.
Rev. Stanier invited Jane to tour Carlton House, the Regent’s opulent London residence. Putting aside her “hatred” for the Prince because of his debauchery and ill treatment of his wife, Princess Caroline, Jane accepted the invitation. During her tour, Stanier told Miss Austen that the Prince had a set of her novels in each of his many residences and that, “by permission of His Royal Highness,” she was “at liberty to dedicate any future novel to him.” Jane immediately recognized the commercial value of such a dedication, but she also used this information to get her printer off the dime. Once acquainted with the Prince Regent’s interest, Jane had her proofsheets.
On December 23, 1815, the Morning Chronicle announced that “Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes by the Author of ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ Etc., Etc.” was now available. The dedication as written by Jane, “Dedicated by permission to HRH The Prince Regent,” was embellished by the publisher, and in unctuous prose worthy of Mr. Collins, the wording as it appeared that December morning read: “To His Royal Highness, The Prince Regent. This work is, by his Royal Highness’s permission, most respectfully dedicated by His Royal Highness’s dutiful and obedient humble servant, The Author.”
Did the Prince Regent’s notice of Jane Austen’s writings have any effect on the success of Emma? It is impossible to know. What we do know is that Emma sold more copies in its first run than any of her three previous novels.
Emma was the last novel to be published in Jane’s lifetime. The woman who has given the world Pride & Prejudice remained unknown to the general public until a year after her death in 1817 when her brother Henry wrote a biographical preface to Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Known or unknown, Jane Austen’s legacy is a body of work that has delighted hundreds of thousands of readers from all walks of life and at least one prince.
