The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift & America's Finest Hour - WWII History Book for Aviation Enthusiasts & Cold War Scholars

The Candy Bombers: The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America’s Finest HourThis is a marvelous telling of the Berlin Airlift and the events leading up to it. It is one of those history books that comes to life, telling intimate details about one event after another – what people were thinking, feeling, and saying. Reading about the hardships in Berlin, and then the triumph when the Soviets lifted the blockade, you can get emotional. You might think, how can the author know all of those details? But there are diaries, letters, and newspaper stories from the time. A masterful author can put it all together.From the title, you might think that this is a light, fun story about men dropping candy to children in Berlin during the airlift. It is a lot more than that. It starts with a hundred pages of developing the main characters of the story, mostly going back to World War II but sometimes diving back a couple more decades. And it tells, in excruciating detail, the complete destruction of Germany by the end of the war. For years after the war, there was rampant disease, hunger, crime, and slow rebuilding. I would have thought that the U.S. would have sent more food to Germany. But there were a lot of hard feelings towards Germany. The following paragraphs summarize the book.Lucius Clay was a West Point graduate who was terribly disappointed to never have a combat command in either World War I or World War II. He did something much more valuable – he was in charge of military procurement in WWII. He was known to be a tyrant, demanding that factories convert to munitions production. He would be the head of the military government for the American zone of Germany. Gail “Hal” Halvorsen was a pilot who flew transports. He grew up on a farm in northern Utah and found a way to become a pilot. He would be the first to drop candy. During WWII James Forrestal was Secretary of the Navy. He visited Iwo Jima at the height of the battle and came away a changed man, shocked by the carnage. He became the first Secretary of Defense. With help from George Kennan, he would be one of the first to sound the alarm of Soviet expansion across central Europe. Forrestal, and especially Kennan, were the driving force that produced the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. Colonel Frank Howley would be the head of the American occupation government in Berlin.Most Americans, including Franklin Roosevelt and most people in government, believed that the Allies had been too easy on Germany after WWI, and they were determined to be tough on them after WWII. Americans were also determined to transform Germany into a democracy, not an easy task. Roosevelt and Clay went wrong in their belief that a postwar world order could be fashioned with cooperation with the Soviet Union. The Soviets immediately went about their Stalinist tactics, kidnapping people in Berlin who didn’t agree with them, never to be seen again. When Howley first attempted to enter Berlin, the Soviets severely limited the number of officers and men who were allowed to enter. When Ernst Reuter was elected mayor of Berlin with 82% of the vote, the Soviets vetoed his election. Clay, wanting to get along with the Soviets, sided with them. Colonel Howley was unstrained in is disagreements with Clay, a four star general. Just when Howley was about to quit and return to civilian life, Clay promoted him from deputy commandant to commandant of Berlin.A few years ago I toured Prague as part of a river cruise. The guide told us that Czechoslovakia was the only European country that did not have Communism forced on them, they voted for Communism in an election. That was not quite right. Czechoslovakia was supposed to have an election in May, 1946. The communists were not popular and were a small minority. But they were able to gain control of the police, and then the police did what Communist police do. On March 10, 1948, Jan Masaryck’s dead body was found in the streets of Prague. He was the foreign minister of Czechoslavakia. (p 159, 190.) The Communists controlled the country before the election ever occurred.Henry Wallace was Roosevelt’s vice president in his third term. He was very liberal (not far from being a Communist) and Harry Truman was nominated vice president for the fourth term after a hard fight. Wallace was then commerce secretary and he advocated for accommodating, or appeasing, the Soviets. Wallace gave a speech attacking the administration’s policy of opposing the Soviets, and Truman fired him. The fight continued with Wallace out of office. Relations between the Soviets and the West deteriorated continually in the years after the war, and started coming to a head in 1948. In late June there were two important events. On June 25th, the Republican Convention nominated Dewey after a hard fight with Robert Taft. It was widely assumed that Dewey would be the next president. The same day, the Soviets shut down rail, river, and autobahn access to Berlin. Clay wanted to put together an armed convoy, run through the road blocks, and resupply Berlin by the Autobahn. France and some American officials wanted to withdraw from Berlin. The Soviet Army was huge, and the American, French, and British armies had shrunk down to almost nothing. The third option was to do neither of the other two. Stay in Berlin, but do not send supplies down the Autobahn. General Omar Bradley summarized the options: “get out, fight, or try to stand on quicksand.” The key cabinet members and generals hashed over the options and it seemed that the only one was to get out. On Sunday, June 28, Forrestal, Lovett, and Royall met with Truman. In chaotic fashion, they presented the situation and the options. Then Truman cut them off and said “We are going to stay. Period.” B-29s, known for dropping atomic bombs, were sent to Germany and England. In the following days, several cargo aircraft delivered some food to Berlin, but not nearly what was needed. There were 2 large C-54s in Europe, and more were sent, one piloted by Hal Halvorsen. Bradley asked LeMay if B-29s could haul coal, which was needed to produce electricity for the Western sectors of Berlin. The runway at Tempelhof was too short for a B-29, so they tried dropping the coal into a sports stadium. It was judged a failure.In July Clay continued to advocate, to his Pentagon superiors, an armed convoy. This worried them, and they asked him to come back to Washington to talk. When Clay got to the Pentagon, he asked them to send 250 C-54s to Germany. Forrestal and Bradley and the rest of the Pentagon leaders said no. Clay gave the pitch to Truman, who told him he would get the C-54s.General William “Bill” Tunner led the WWII airlift over the “hump” from India to China. He was demanding and tough and very successful in that airlift. In 1948 he was working at the Pentagon. He knew about the fledgling Berlin Airlift and thought surely he would be asked to run it. Finally the call came. He took about 20 officers who had been with him in India and went to Germany. They flew to Tempelhof and made a list of what was being done wrong, which was about everything. They devised a way to fix all the problems. The pilots would no longer fly like cowboys, racing to get to Tempelhof first. There would be a procession of airplanes arriving at Tempelhof every three minutes. When they passed a certain checkpoint, they would announce their arrival and airplanes would adjust their speed to maintain the 3 minute interval. When they landed, crews would be organized to quickly offload the cargo. Pilots would not be allowed to leave the flight line to get a snack. There would be a food truck for that. To keep the pilots happy, Tunner arranged to have the most beautiful women in Berlin staff the food trucks.Flying into Tempelhof, Halversen had noticed children who gathered to watch the planes. One day he walked the distance to where they were and talked to them. They were great kids. When he left, he thought he should give them some chewing gum. He only had two sticks. There were lots more than 2 kids. He tore the gum in half and gave half a stick to four kids. They loved it and were grateful. He told them he would drop some candy from his plane. They would know it was him because he would wiggle his wings. He had to explain what that meant. Back at his base, he pondered how to get it done. He made little parachutes out of handkerchiefs and twine. He talked his copilot and navigator into tossing them out as they went over the kids. They didn’t like the idea, they thought they would get into trouble, knowing how strict General Tunner was. They did this several times, and the number of kids grew and word got around. A newspaper reporter went to watch and report on it. A candy bar about hit him. He wrote down the tail number of Halversen’s aircraft and published it in the newspaper. Next, Halversen was summoned to General Tunner’s office. Halversen was terribly afraid, but it turned out that Tunner could see the value in encouraging the kids this way, and told Halversen to keep doing it. Candy was rationed, so Halversen’s crew was limited in how much he could get. Other crews donated their ration of candy, and he had plenty. Someone gave him some fabric for more parachutes. One day he got permission to fly around the western sector of Berlin dropping candy.In August the Soviets turned up efforts to stage a coup in Berlin. They got control of half of the police force. The communist police arrested the democratic police whenever they got a chance. They put pressure on the mayor, who left town. The Soviets announced that Berliners in the western sectors could have Soviet ration cards in exchange for their western ration cards – a switch of their loyalty. Not many took the offer.In September the Soviets announced that they would be conducting air maneuvers that would go through the air corridors to Berlin. Fighters buzzed the cargo planes, sometimes firing their guns. Communist controlled police attacked Berlin City Hall and took some democratic police prisoner. On September 8 there was a rally with 300,000 West Berliners at the Reichstag, to protest the attack on City Hall. A television network invited Halversen to come to New York to be interviewed on the Candid Microphone show, and General Tunner sent him, advising him to not get a big head. Halversen did a wonderful job on the interview and was invited to do interviews with other networks. America fell in love with him and he got all kinds of donations from candy companies. The runway at Tempelhof was not made to withstand the heavy traffic. The departure runway was sod. The arrival runway was pierced steel planks over crushed rubble. (In Vietnam, we landed C-130s on several runways in the Mekong delta made of PSP – Pierced Steel Planks.) The planks were coming apart. Crews of 225 women were hired to rush in and patch the holes between planks after each landing. A new airport was started at Tegel. Bricks from bombed out buildings were pulverized and made into concrete. Large earth moving machines were needed, but could not be carried by air. A man was found who knew how to cut up large machines so that the smaller pieces could be airlifted, and then put them back together.In early October, nearly everyone in America thought that the election of Dewey was a sure thing. Truman hatched a scheme to send Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson to Moscow to negotiate with Stalin. Vinson thought it was a bad idea, so close to the election, but finally agreed. Truman did not mention it to his cabinet members, but he told some members of the press, swearing them to secrecy. The story was leaked and there was a furor. Vinson’s trip to Moscow was cancelled. Almost everyone thought that Truman was terribly stupid to try this, but Cherny speculates that it was all a ruse to keep Berlin in the front of everyone’s mind and show that Truman was doing everything possible to preserve peace as well as keep West Berlin free.On November 1 the fog rolled into Berlin and only 6 million pounds were delivered. On November 2, only 4 million pounds were delivered, and a cargo plane crashed trying to land at Tempelhof. People all over the city were startled by the silence, being accustomed to the constant sound of cargo planes landing and taking off. On the weekend before the election, Truman delivered a speech attacking Dewey and Republicans for colluding with the Soviets. As election results came in, Dewey started with a lead, then Truman overcame him and won. So much of the book tells about the campaign, I thought there would be more of a breakdown of the results – which swing states broke for Dewey, which for Truman.Westinghouse Electric Corporation invented strobe lights that flashed with the intensity of 50 million 60 watt light bulbs. They sent 42 of them to Berlin. (p 465)The suffering in Berlin was extreme. Each neighborhood had two hours of electricity. There was very little coal for heat. There wasn’t enough food. People started dying of starvation. The Soviet goal was to crush the spirit of the people, but they completely failed. Before the airlift, Berliners did not have good feelings towards the Americans and other occupying countries. And in polls, they favored economic security over freedom and democracy. The airlift changed all that, and the candy drops helped a lot to warm Berliners towards their occupiers. Years later they would look back fondly at the evenings they spent with neighbors.The week of Thanksgiving, the fog broke, and the C-54s made as many flights as possible. Pilots were served turkey from the mobile canteens.On November 30 the Soviets attempted to complete a coup. The assembled a convention and elected Fritz Ebert mayor of Berlin. Police barred acting mayor Friedensburg from entering City Hall. The fog returned, and only 10 planes landed that day.A mayoral election had been set for December 5. The Soviets did everything possible to suppress the vote. Propaganda said that any votes cast would be votes to divide Berlin. (perhaps true.) There were mobs to intimidate voters. But 86% of Berliners in the western sectors voted.There were two radio towers in the French sector that were a hazard to the Air Lift. The French gave the Soviets until December 16 to remove them. The Soviets ignored, so on December 16 the French took them down with dynamite.On December 24, Bob Hope and Irving Berlin and an entourage of Rockets and other entertainers visited Berlin. An American officer begged them to also visit the pilots at Tempelhof, and they consented.On December 31, the 100,000 airlift flight landed at the French airport. In January the C-54 pilots started being sent back to the U.S. On January 11 Halversen made his last flight to Berlin, and a few days later he was on his way to the U.S. He was in a tizzy because his girlfriend’s Christmas card said she was going overseas as a missionary. After one and a half months of giving speeches, he was with Alta again. They were engaged and were married on April 16 in Las Vegas.There were 225 C-54s in the air lift at the peak. 48 would be in the air at one time, delivering 16 million pounds in a day in good weather. In January the weather improved a lot and the air lift became routine. Clay was overruled on another decision, and requested to be retired. His return was set for May 15.On January 27 Stalin responded to questions from a reporter. He showed a willingness to find a way to end the blockade. Additional feelers were made at the United Nations.On March 18, the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was announced. On Good Friday, April 15, General Tunner unveiled Operation Easter, a maximum effort to set new records. 26 million pounds were delivered. A plane landed every 63 seconds. Ten days later the Russians indicated privately that the blockade would be lifted without conditions.In early 1948, James Forrestal, Secretary of Defense, was suffering from mental illness. He thought that Communists and Zionists were out to get him. Truman told him to resign, and it was set for March 28. Dr. William Meninger recommended that he be sent to the Meninger Clinic in Topeka. But the Administration would not have it. They could not let the world know that the Secretary of Defense was mentally ill. He was put in a room on the sixteenth floor of Bethesda Hospital on April 2. On May 22 at about 1:45 a.m. he went out the window to his death. The man who was keeping watch over him was out of the room for five minutes.On May 4, it was announced that the blockade would be lifted. Robert Taft and Henry Wallace both opposed the ratification of NATO. Wallace argued that NATO would turn Russia into a wild and cornered beast.On May 8, the four year anniversary of the fall of Hitler, the German Parliamentary Council approved a constitution establishing the Federal Republic of Germany.On May 15, half a million Berliners lined the streets as Clay made his way to Tempelhof for his trip to the U.S. He arrived in Washington D.C. to a hero’s welcome. Truman pinned a medal on him in the rose garden. He gave a speech to the House of Representatives and then to the Senate. He was given a big ticker tape parade in New York City. His home town of Marietta Georgia gave him a big welcome.Airlift flights continued through the end of September. There were 277,000 flights, delivering 4.6 billion pounds of food, coal, and other supplies. 48 American and British aircrew members died. The last candy drop was on September 15 at Moosburg Germany. In the years following the airlift, General LeMay took credit for everything that General Tunner had done, including things that LeMay had opposed at the time. General Tunner was forgotten by almost everyone. His work was the linchpin to the success of the airlift.Gail Halverson and Alta were married. He spent 30 years in the Air Force. They had five children and were married nearly 50 years, before Alta died in 1999. In 1998 a C-54 took him to Tempelhof for the 50 year celebration. Hundreds of old Berliners came to see him and give him gifts.My interest in this period of American History was sparked by watching an account of the Berlin Airlift on Public Television. Only a few highlights of this momentous event could fit into the limits of a 60 minute run time. This book admirably fills that gap.America has always been conflicted about its role on the world stage. Time and again, we have wanted desperately to withdraw from the unlimited troubles on the international scene and concern ourselves with exclusively domestic concerns. Time and again, events have conspired to compel this country to shoulder the burden of international leadership. Such a situation arose after the end of World War 2. The mightiest military force ever seen was rapidly depleted into almost total disarmament. Emerging signs of Soviet agression were ignored in a nation exhausted by war and determined not to again mount a global struggle in defense of our principles.This book illustrates how a few courageous men saw the hideous danger facing Western Civilization and were eventually able to rouse the forces of democracy to face down this challenge. The contributions of James Forrestal in this regard are well noted in this text. However, the great impact on American foreign policy of Winston Churchill's recognition of the Soviet menace are almost completely ignored in this account. How his famous "Iron Curtain Speech" could not merit inclusion in this account is a huge oversight, in my opinion.One of the distinctive traits of the American fighting man is his instinctive love of children. During World War 2, the huge number of our forces stationed in Britain in preparation for the Normandy Invasion were often involved in major efforts to aid or entertain the local children suffering the privations of rationing and the Blitz. That tendency was carried over after the war ended by our occupation troops in Germany. Their instinctive desire to give aid to the local populace was often blocked by hideously counterproductive directives promising dire consequences for any serviceman who provided any such assistance. The animus of our officials toward the German people only bred more distaste and resentment between the conquered and their new masters. The very mistakes the Germans made in their treatment of conquered peoples were repeated by the Western Allies, admittedly in a milder form.One topic covered in the television program was entirely ignored in the book. There were many romances between the occupation troops and the local young ladies. Perhaps this was not considered relevant by the author. However, these activities were entirely voluntary on both sides and were a sure sign that the perception of the occupying forces were growing far more favorable.This book describes how a few key figures in the American Occupation leadership were able to realize how misguided was their initial harsh agenda toward the German people. The formerly obscure transport pilot Gail Halvorsen instinctively recognized the dreadful plight of the children of Berlin and carried out his first few drops of candy in great fear of official reprisal for his initiative. Fortunatly, his superior General Tunner was able to realize the immense value of this activity and made tremendous accomodations to allow it to continue and grow. Eventually it dawned on our foreign policy leadership that the most efficient manner of defeating an enemy is to convert him to a friend and ally.Another area hardly mentioned in the book is the substantial contribution of the Royal Air Force toward the success of the Berlin Airlift. Approximately 30% of the total tonnage of the airlift was provided by their contribution to the effort.The legacy of the Berlin Airlift continues to influence American Foreign Policy. During the invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, our transport aircraft dropped emergency rations to devastated regions to help win local support for an American presence in the area.This book has a few strange concepts. The most glaring of them notes that in 1948 the Hell's Angels bicycle club was first organized. I can just visualize these bad boys entering a town pedaling away on their schwinn balloon tire bicycles.Reading this book made me aware of how narrow the margin of political victory for continuation of the airlift actually was. President Truman really demostrated how an uneducated man from Missouri was able to rise far beyond the paltry estimation of his contemporaries to become one of the greatest men who have occupied the White House.Good arrived in time and as expected