Operation Little Vittles

On July 17, 1948 Gail Halvorsen the most famous pilot of the Berlin Airlift gave gum to the children and promised to return. The very next day he dropped chocolate bars for the kids. They knew it was him because he wiggled the airplane wings. The German kids gave Lt. Halvorsen many nicknames such as uncle wiggly wings, chocolate uncle, and chocolate flier.

Flying The Corridors

The pilots encountered many problems today, our main ones were the weather and troubles landing the planes because we had to dodge between buildings so we could land.

The soviets harassed us to disrupt our flights. In the time span of 1 year and 5 days there were 733 cases of harassment. They did things such as flying near other planes, the pilots would buzz, and they'd shoot close to the planes.

Life for the Berliners

Berliners chopped down all of the trees for fuel. They also ate grass and went through peoples garbage for any source of food. They thought it was worth suffering rather than being controlled by the soviets.

Black Friday

The weather on Black Friday was unbearable, there were tons of clouds and it was raining very hard which made it difficult to see. Another problem was one C-54 crashed and a second one destroyed its tires because it tried to stop so it wouldn’t hit the crashed C-54. As a result Tunner sent everyone back to their bases and created a new policy. The new policy was all planes had to travel the exact same speed, interval, and altitude to avoid crashes.


The c-54 is easier and faster to load. It takes the same time to unload 3-1/2 tons in a C-47 as it takes to unload 10-tons in a C-54. In the C-54 the floor is level and it's easy for a truck to back up into the cargo, however, the C-47 is slanted and that makes it much more difficult. Having the C-54's available to us makes all of the pilots much more time efficient.

Meager beginnings

Today, news came to us that the Soviets cut off all the supplies of electricity to West Berlin. In order to beat the blockade they had created, the U.S. government wanted to do an airlift to West Berlin. Some of these supplies that we're assigned to airlift are 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons of whole milk, 3 tons of yeast, 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt, and 10 tons of cheese. Coal and fuel will also be brought. This is going to be the largest portion of material that we will be bringing.

Prelude to Conflict

This is a picture of postwar Germany.

Our president attended the Berlin Conference where it was decided by representatives from France, Soviet Union, United States, and Great Britain, that Germany shall be broken into four parts. Each part shall be governed by the four leaders. Berlin itself will also be split into four equal parts, and the four countries will control those parts.

There are many differences between the United States and the soviets. Some of which are currency, German unification, Soviet war reparations, and ideology. Because of these differences tensions are rising. Because of the rising tensions the Soviets cut off all land and water access to Berlin.

General Lucius Clay's plan is to send an armed convoy through Soviet controlled Germany to break their blockade.

Berlin Airlift Diary

By: Shalane Hundt, Hannah Leary, and Morgan Knight