Coincidence: all the talk of celebrating the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, then you open a book on Germany and out falls a cutting on the airlift by a man from the late, lamented Irish Press. He was writing as the end was coming, recalling his entry into Berlin the previous year on an American plane carrying coal. As a recognised correspondent, he asked the Press Office in Frankfurt (American zone) for transport and was sent out to the Rhine-Main airport. He reported to the officer in charge, showed his credentials and was asked when he wanted to go. Answer: "Now". He was told to take the second plane in line outside - all so apparently casual - but quick.
The planes left every three minutes. He was wearing a tweed suit and a light anorak. "Will it be cold?" he asked the pilot. The answer, not entirely in jest was: "You'll be too scared to notice". For Russian fighters sometimes "buzzed" the C47s or whatever the plane was. Once our man was in the air, he could see the plane that had taken off just before them, ahead and slightly above. "Behind us and slightly lower would be the next flight, and so on". And it wasn't a question of "we should be in Berlin about 4.40 p.m". Flying time was strictly 87 minutes. So it came about that on the 88th minute a lorry was backing up to the plane in Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, and unloading of the coal began.
Twenty minutes later, the plane was off again for Frankfurt. The crew made two round trips in each 12hour spell of duty. Berlin was occupied by the four Allies: Russia, Britain, United States and France. But Berlin was situated in the heart of the Soviet zone of Germany. And when the Russians put on the heat and closed off all road and rail communications from the west, there was only one alternative.
Not many believed that Berlin could be supplied with coal for its power-stations and food for its people by air alone. But it was. Things were tight, but the two million population of the western sectors of Berlin came through. Our correspondent told us: "I wrote most of my articles by candlelight". The airlift began on June 26th, 1948 and ended on May 12th, 1949. It is a big story and books have been written about it. The political implications were that a German State could be declared in the West, while Eastern Germany remained for a long time in the Soviet sphere.