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

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[Kathy in Alaska]

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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]

LOL! I figured you wouldn’t sit back and relax much.
But it sounds like it was a good day. The best part ..... you didn’t have to get out on those icy roads.

[Kathy in Alaska]

From the article.....

Halvorsen will complete the drop in a World War II-era plane, the Lockheed PV-2 Harpoon bomber. The plane has its home at the Heber City Municipal Airport, though because of air shows it is seldom parked there. It is privately owned by Dave Hansen, who will fly the plane during the July 3 drop.

[luvie]

Yep, I was certainly relieved that she was going to be in town. She likes doing it....they were once her babies. :)

Sounds like the weather wasn’t awful anyway. Wind doesn’t help matters though! Hope you can enjoy the warmer days before the colder ones show back up!

Sorry your little galz are puny! Has your vet gotten a new partner that isn’t exactly gentle when he does surgery? That’s 3 out of 4 that had issues. Or maybe they caught something from other animals there. Hope they’re better soon!

Our son is on his way to OK to be with us at Dulcie’s service. He had a wreck between Jackson Hole and Cheyenne...NOT HURT...and it banged up 2 of his fenders. I won’t go into details, but suffice it to say he was distracted. Anyway, he has to take it to a dealership in Cheyenne, where he limped into for the night. I hope he can still make it in time for the Wed. morn. service. I’m so thankful he wasn’t injured!

He’ll probably trade the poor thing in for a newer one to finish the trip. They have been saving for a new one anyway, but this kind of forces the issue. He’s lived in Cheyenne before, so he’ll kind of know where to go to find what he wants.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Resourceful would be you.....you found a way to make it work with the only equipment you had. Good job!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Luv...our military made this good thing happen out of nothing!!

[luvie]

They sure did! No one is as inventive as our troops! :)

[radu]

No, the weather wasn’t too bad but it would have been nicer if the wind hadn’t been blowing. At least it was sunny after several cloudy days. Maybe it won’t be so windy tomorrow so our warm day this week will feel warm.

There’s apparently a tummy bug running through the ranks and it just hit Holli and Lorien harder. Others have gotten sick this weekend but just once, then they seemed ok. No one else stopped eating like those two did. I hope it isn’t something to do with their surgeries.
So far, so good with Holli. The baby food is staying down tonight. Lorien feels good enough to chase the laser dot, which I’ve been shooting around the room to burn some steam out of these critters. LOL!

Dang! Your heart must have skipped a beat or two when your son told you he’d been in a wreck. SO glad he wasn’t hurt! I hope it doesn’t take the dealership long to get him back on the road tomorrow.

[Mark17]

After I looked at it for a bit, I knew the gooney bird (we called it the gooney womper) was a tail dragger. That aircraft looks like it has a nose wheel.
We had two gooney wompers at Mountain Home. We hated it, because they did not have modern day IFF/SIF equipment, and were extremely hard to identify on radar. Then they were so slow, we could almost launch and recover F-4s before that aircraft made it back to base. It wasn’t the slowest aircraft I ever worked. That was the C-7 in Vietnam.

[luvie]

Well, lets hope the wind stays away so you can have a really pretty day to remember when the cold stuff hits again!

How yukky that the kitties are having upset tummies. I would imagine that Holli and Lorien were worse because the surgery had weakened their immune system somewhat.

Funny thing. I got this text out of the blue from my DIL asking me if I’d heard from David in the past hour. The idea flickered through my head, but then I asked hubby and HE’D gotten the call about the accident. Then for just a second...yes...my heart did skip a few beats! And he told me as quick as he could that David was not hurt. David said that the airbags didn’t even deploy.

I’ll be a wreck till he gets to OK!

[radu]

Just looked out the window and the wind isn’t blowing tonight. An opportunity to burn trash! It needs to be done. I planned to do it last night but there was too much of a breeze to do it safely.

It could be the surgery weakened the two of them but we’ve had a few other cats have trouble shaking tummy bugs. Holli is still keeping food down but Lorien just drank a little water and it came right back up. Since she got sick a day later than Holli, maybe she’ll feel better by tomorrow. Just have to wait and see.

It sounds like it wasn’t much of an accident since the airbags didn’t go off. Just enough to bang up the fenders. He was lucky! But it’s easy to imagine how much you’ll be on pins and needles until he reaches OK. That’s a looooooooong drive.

[luvie]

It’s a veeeerrrrrryyyyyyyy loooooooooooooong drive. LOL! And this is the first wreck he’s ever had. He was shaken up, and when I talked to him, he said he was going across the street to Outback to chill and calm down. LOL!

Guess you’d better take the opportunity to burn that trash! Then you don’t have to fool with it for a while.

[luvie]

Oh...looky what I overlooked!

WOOOOHOOOOOO!!

[radu]

I’m surprised he didn’t just fly down there. After the cost of repairs are considered with cost of gas, he might have come out paying less.
Just hope this is the last “excitement” of his trip.

Yep, gonna burn the trash tonight while it can be done. With all the dead leaves on the ground these days, don’t want to take a chance on starting a big fire.

[radu]

Glad you did. LOL

[luvie]

Well, he didn’t know he was going to have a wreck and he loves road trips. I also hope there is no more of this kind of excitement!

Ok...you burn and I’ll crash. I’m sleepy after having to get up before I was ready this morning. LOL!

See ya mañana!!

[E.G.C.]

A very pleasant good Monday morning to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your service to our country and thanks Star for this morning's thread.

How's it going for your this morning?

[radu]

Heck, no one knows they’re going to have a wreck. LOL! He’s lucky to have gotten this far in life without having one. Maybe this will be it for him.
He’d HAVE to enjoy road trips to want to make that drive. Whew!

Got a couple of things to do then I’ll head out to burn. It isn’t too cold tonight so it’ll be a good night for it. The fire will keep me warm while I’m doing it.

Good night and sleep well.

[radu]

Howdy, E.G.C.

Weather decent enough for you and Bo to enjoy your walks or has it gotten nippy enough to take the fun out of it?

[Kathy in Alaska]

Great picture, Bonemaker...thanks!!

Candy Bomber rededicates Frankfurt’s Berlin Airlift Memorial 11/22/16

[E.G.C.]

It’s warmed up some. Supposed to get even warmer today. :-D