FReeper Canteen ~ The Berlin Airlift Part 3: Operation Little Vittles ~ 11 December 2017

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In The World ~~ | StarCMC and The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do!

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.

Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!

~ Hall of Heroes ~

The Berlin Airlift
Part 3:  Operation Little Vittles
All info and photos from this website.

Link to Part 1
Link to Part 2

           

"DER SCHOKOLADEN FLIEGER"
 

OPERATION LITTLE VITTLES
 

40K JPEG	General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force is shown presenting the 1948 Cheney Award to 1st Lieutenant Gail S. Halvorsen, USAF, former Berlin Airlift pilot and originator of Operation Little Vittles while his wife, second from left, looks on.
U.S. Air Force Photograph Negative Number A-35720 AC National Air and Space Archives Videodisc Number 3B-38771

One of the most poignant stories of the Berlin Airlift was that of one 1^st Lt. Gail S. Halvorsen.  Halvorsen was somewhat of an ammeter moviemaker, and on July 17, he decided that on one of his off days, he would hitch a ride as a passenger on a C-54 and visit the City he was saving.  Once at Tempelhof, Halvorsen walked to the end of the runway to film some aircraft landings when he noticed a group of children near the fence watching the planes, too.  He went over to them.  They asked questions about the aircraft, the cargo, how fast it was going and things like that.  During this conversation he noticed that these children, unlike others he had encountered in Europe as a Ferry command Pilot during the War, did not ask him for any candy or gum, like others always had.  This struck him funny, and he knew that they were too proud to beg for such things.  Some having been born during wartime had not even heard of treats like that.  He made a fateful decision at that moment which was to become one of the symbols of the airlift.  He reached into his pocket and found that he had only two sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint Gum.  He remarked that if they did not fight over it, he would drop some candy to them if they were there the next day.  They agreed, took the sticks of gum and divided it amongst themselves, some happy to get only a piece of the wrapper.  Before he left them, a child asked him how they would know it was him flying over.  He replied, "I'll wiggle my wings." 
True to his word, the very next day, on approach to Berlin, he rocked the airplane and dropped some chocolate bars attached to a handkerchief parachute to the children waiting below.  Every day, the number of children would increase and he made several more drops.  Soon there was a stack of mail in Base Ops addressed to "Uncle Wiggly Wings', "The Chocolate Uncle" and "The Chocolate Flier". 
Halvorsen didn't tell anyone about what he was doing for fear he'd get in trouble.  Then, he was called into his commander and asked what he was doing.  He replied 'Flying, Sir."  His commander asked again, and received the same response.  He then pulled out a newspaper with a picture of Halvorsen's plane and tiny parachutes trailing behind.  Apparently, a newspaper reporter narrowly escaped being hit on the head with a chocolate bar.  His commander wasn't happy about it, but General Tunner though it was just the kind of gesture that the operation needed.  It was dubbed "Operation Little Vittles".  It continued, and many C-54 pilots participated.  Candy and parachutes were assembled and sent from Chicopee Falls, MA to assist in the gesture.  In the end, over three tons of candy was dropped over Berlin, some even in the Soviet sector.  For this simple kindhearted gesture, Halvorsen became the most recognized pilot of the Berlin Airlift. 

THE EASTER PARADE
 

By April 1949, airlift operations were going rather smoothly, and General Tunner wanted to break up the monotony.  He liked the idea of a big event that would show the capabilities of his command, as well as give everyone a big morale boost.  He wanted to set a record.  In order to do that, much planning was necessary, and it was decided that on Easter Sunday, the only cargo was to be coal.  In fact general Tunner wanted to shatter all previous tonnage records set so far.  Secretly, coal was stockpiled for the event.  Maintenance schedules were altered so that the maximum number of planes was available.  Everyone put in extra effort for this special event.  From 12:00PM April 15, to 12:00PM April 16, 1949, crews worked overtime to deliver more tonnage than had ever been delivered in a 24 hour period.  When it was over, 12,941 tons of coal had been delivered as a result of 1,383 flights without a single accident.  As a matter of fact, as a result, the daily tonnage also increased from 6,729 tons a day before the Easter Parade, to 8,893 tons per day, an unexpected benefit.  This was the straw that broke the camel's back. 

THE END OF THE BLOCKADE
 

On May 12, 1949, the Soviets capitulated.  The blockade was over.  It was decided to continue supplying Berlin by air in addition to the land routes in order to build up a sufficient supply of goods.  The Airlift officially ended on Sept. 30, 1949, fifteen months after its meager beginnings in June of '48.  In total, the US delivered 1,783,572.7 tons, while 541,936.9 tons were delivered by the British totaling 2.3 Million tons from 277, 569 total flights to Berlin.  C-47's and C-54's alone traveled over 92 million miles in order to do so.  These were astounding figures, considering that in the beginning it seemed impossible to even try.  Nevertheless, even the greatest operation is not without risk.  A total of 101 fatalities were recorded as a result of the operation, including 31 Americans, mostly due to crashes. 

The end of the blockade was unexpected; however, as bigger plans were made and bigger planes were set to replace the existing fleet of C-54's.  The USAF had already used a C-74 "Globemaster" and one Boeing YC-97A "Stratofreighter" in the airlift, testing the feasibility of heavy-lift transports and their use in a continued operation.  The Douglas C-124 "Globemaster II" was coming and the plan was to use C-97's and 124's to continue the operation without as many flights.  Fortunately, that was not necessary. 

Boeing C-97 "Stratofreighter" owned by the Foundation         Fairchild C-82 "Packet"                          Douglas C-74 "Globemaster"       

 

...continued and concluded next week....

 

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission!

[radu]

Cool how they did the “then and now” together.

What a horrendous day that was. There’s no way for people to even begin to imagine what it was like for those who were there.

[PROCON]

Hiya radu!

Nothing big here today, son was here last night and today I went over to visit the pups and the little guy is still too rambunctious. He got in trouble several times and was firmly placed in time out in his kennel by Robin. He mellowed out eventually and we played a bit.

Got gift cards for both my kids, daughter will be spending some time here at Christmas so looking forward to that.

How are things?

[radu]

Howdy, Kathy.

Have a good day? Relax or end up digging into projects? :-)

[Bonemaker]

I was stationed there in the 60's long after. But it was still fresh in everyones'minds. Almost a religious experience.

[radu]

Howdy there, PRO!

So the lil wild man is still having trouble behaving himself, is he? Poor guy is gonna spend half his life in “time out” if he doesn’t learn.

Cool that your daughter is going to be able to spend some time with y’all for Christmas. I know you’re looking forward to it, especially since she wasn’t there for Thanksgiving.

I went to visit Aunt Clara for a bit this afternoon and my poor brain is still trying to recover from it. LOL! VERY difficult to carry on a decent conversation with her any more.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Another candy drop over Orem in 2015

[radu]

This article about Gail Halvorsen was a cool find. Looks like he was still getting around quite well 2 years ago, and enjoying his flights over the years doing candy drops around Utah. It must be a thrill for him to fly in the old war birds.

I love the second pic at the site. That impish grin and twinkle in his eyes makes me guess he’s a real character.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu...lots and lots of ice still here. 34 at my house and supposed to keep rising til maybe 42 high tomorrow...and start raining here shortly. At least it’s not supposed to drop below freezing, but more rain coming.

How was your day? Are you good for a while for rain?

[Gay State Conservative]

Great story.It mentions Chicopee Falls,Massachusetts which would now be Westover Air Force base.My sister lives less than a mile from the end of Westover’s runway.C-5s fly low over her house on a daily basis.

[Mark17]

Ah yes, the Luft Brucke memorial. I was in Wiesbaden from 80 to 84, but I made it to Berlin a few times. All my life I had heard of Checkpoint Charlie, but I didn’t know about Checkpoint Alpha and Checkpoint Bravo.
When I saw Checkpoint Charlie, it was just a shack in the middle of the street. The sign was rather chilling. It said, You are leaving the American sector. Then we went into the belly of the beast, the showcase of Russian communism, East Berlin, in our spiffy Air Force uniforms. The East Berlin men were checking out the female Air Force women with us. 😊

[Mark17]

A Gooney Bird, I would assume?

[radu]

I checked the cams this afternoon and the streets looked mighty icy. I feel for ya. And now more rain coming that will add to the mess when the temps drop again. Yuck!

It was a decent day here. A tad warmer than yesterday with clear skies for a change. A stiff breeze kept it from feeling comfortable outside though. We can always use more rain but none in the forecast until next Sat., and that chance is low.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Snow and slush is, for sure, poor walking conditions.

Glad you had a nice dinner and got to shoot some video...right up your creative alley.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Great video, ExTex....we must never forget Pearl Harbor.

[left that other site]

I am used to real TV cameras that you wear on your shoulder (used to be a camera “man” for Cable TV), but these stupid iPhones are not the same. The zoom used two fingers and was very jerky, so to zoom in, I WALKED up to the subject, slowly, allowing the focus to adjust at the same speed. then, to dolly back, I walked backwards. Panning, close-ups, and fades were all done manually too, using my whole body as the lens.

I started with a close-up of a bunch of candles, then zoomed up to my BIL’s hands on the guitar, then panned over to get the cellist and my sister in a triangular three-shot, then zoomed in on the cellist, then , Sis, then BIL, back to the candles to fade out with the last notes of the song. Since we have no editing facilities, I had to do it all in one take.

I like the old equipment better. There is nothing better than a good old fashioned camera.

[luvie]

Thanks, galz, for another great portion of this heroic effort by our military to do good whenever possible.

What other country does that for their enemies! None!

[luvie]

Aweaome photo!

[luvie]

Howdy, radu!

I’m really late tonight. My friend who cat-sits came to pick up my key and since we haven’t had a chance to visit for quite a while, we talked until just a few minutes ago.

Hope you had a good day today! Was it warmer? All the kittehs doing fine. My friend has 9 cats and I used to think that was a lot. LOL! Little did I know!

[radu]

Howdy, LUV!

Good to hear your friend will be able to take care of the kittehs while you’re gone. You know they’ll be in good hands.
Sounds like y’all had a nice evening chatting away. :-)

Got everything ready to go?

It was a few degrees warmer today but didn’t feel like it due to wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid 50s, then back down to 30s the next couple of days. They’re calling for mid 50s again next weekend but we’ll believe it when we feel it.

Most kittehs are fine but Holli and Lorien might be going to the vet tomorrow. Holli started throwing up Fri. night and Lorien yesterday and they haven’t been eating since. I managed to finger-feed some baby food to Holli this evening and so far it’s stayed down. Didn’t try it with Lorien since she threw up just as I started doling out supper. We’ll see how things go the rest of the night.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Guest bathroom is now 95% complete...shower curtain is now up. A little more filing is sorted, and a little homework done. Early to bed tonight.