Michael O. Tunnell. Candy Bomber. The Story of the Berlin Airlift s Chocolate Pilot

Transcription

1 Michael O. Tunnell Candy Bomber The Story of the Berlin Airlift s Chocolate Pilot

2 To Gail M. O. T. Text copyright 2010 by Michael O. Tunnell Photographs copyright by individual copyright holders. See photo credits on page 107 for further details. While every effort has been made to obtain permissions from the copyright holders of the works herein, there may be cases where we have been unable to contact a copyright holder. The publisher will be happy to correct any omission in future printings. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Charlesbridge and colophon are registered trademarks of Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc. Published by Charlesbridge 85 Main Street Watertown, MA (617) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tunnell, Michael O. Candy bomber : the story of the Berlin Airlift s Chocolate Pilot / Michael O. Tunnell. p. cm. ISBN (reinforced for library use) ISBN (softcover) 1. Berlin (Germany) History Blockade, Juvenile literature. 2. Halvorsen, Gail S. Juvenile literature. 3. United States. Air Force. Military Airlift Command Biography Juvenile literature. 4. Air pilots, Military United States Biography Juvenile literature. I. Title. DD881.T ' dc22 [B] Printed in China (hc) (sc) Display type and text type set in MetroScript and Adobe Caslon Color separations by Jade Productions Printed and bound February 2010 by Jade Productions in ShenZhen, Guangdong, China Production supervision by Brian G. Walker Designed by Diane M. Earley Half title: Candy parachutes scatter from a Douglas C-54 Skymaster. Title page: German children wait on the rubble of war, hoping to spot candy-laden parachutes drifting in the wind.

3 Table of Contents Prologue...vii Chapter One: Bread from the Heavens...1 Chapter Two: Vhat Is Viggle?...13 Chapter Three: Operation Little Vittles...31 Chapter Four: From Little Things Come Big Things...41 Chapter Five: Dear Onkl of the Heaven...51 Chapter Six: Ties That Are Never Broken...69 Biographical Note...87 Historical Note...95 Author s Note Selected References Photo Credits Index...109

4 1 Bread from the Heavens Nine-year-old Peter Zimmerman searched the sky for airplanes. It was 1948, and Peter stood in his uncle s yard in West Berlin, Germany. There had been a time, three or four years earlier, when the droning of American and British bombers would have sent Peter running for cover. But World War II was over, and things had changed. Now the aircraft didn t frighten him. In fact, he longed to see a particular American plane one that would fly over and wiggle its wings. In the same city seven-year-old Mercedes Simon was amazed that her wartime enemies the Americans and the British were now her friends. She peered out the window of her apartment, watching US

5 2 Candy Bomber As World War II ended in 1945, the Soviet army left Berlin in ruins. Here Russian soldiers walk amid the wreckage of buildings damaged or completely demolished by bombs and artillery shells. Air Force planes swoop by to land at nearby Tempelhof Central Airport. The pounding of their mighty engines filled the air day and night. Like Peter, Mercedes was watching for a special plane one she hoped would fly closer, rocking its wings back and forth. West Berliners were excited to see the steady stream of great silver birds crowding their sky. Instead of bombers come to destroy, these aircraft were cargo planes that had come to save West Berliners from starvation. Each plane was filled with flour, potatoes, milk, meat, or medicine even coal to heat homes and generate electricity for the

6 Bread from the Heavens 3 city. Of course, there were hundreds of American and British military aviators flying into the city, but Peter and Mercedes were waiting for just one pilot. And they weren t the only ones. Every youngster in the city had an eye on the sky, waiting to spot Lt. Gail Halvorsen s plane. But why was this pilot, along with the others, flying food into West Berlin? And why was it coming in on airplanes at all? It would have been much more efficient to transport the food with trucks and railway cars. German civilians unload a sack of coal from a cargo plane. As the winter of approached, the precious fuel became as important as food.

7 4 Candy Bomber The Reichstag (left), the traditional seat of German government, is visible across this open area used by West Berliners to plant gardens. Though gardens helped provide some fresh produce, they could supply only a fraction of the food needed for the blockaded city dwellers to survive. The answers lie in what happened to Berlin when World War II ended in The Allied powers Great Britain, the United States, France, and the Soviet Union (Russia) defeated Germany and then divided it into four occupation zones. The Soviets took the northeastern part of the country, which included Berlin, the capital city. Although Britain, the United States, and France (the Western Allies) each occupied a zone, they still wanted a presence in Berlin even though it was located 110 miles (177 kilometers) inside the Soviet-controlled zone. Therefore, the Allied powers agreed to divide up the city: the eastern part of Berlin would go to the Soviets, and the western part would be split into three sectors, one each for the Western Allies.

8 Bread from the Heavens 5 Baltic Sea French sector British sector Russian sector American sector Berlin THE NETHERLANDS British zone West Berlin Berlin East Berlin POLAND Russian zone BELGIUM GERMANY LUX. CZECHOSLOVAKIA American zone French zone FRANCE AUSTRIA SWITZERLAND After World War II, the Allied powers divided Germany into four zones. They also split up Germany s capital city, Berlin. West Berlin went to France, Britain, and the United States, while East Berlin went to Russia. But Berlin lay deep in the Russian zone. When the Russians cut off land and water travel to the city, air transportation became the only way for the Western Allies to reach West Berlin.