Banquet Thursday October 10, 2019 The Mayflower Hotel, Connecticut Avenue, Washington, D.C. Honoring the 70th Anniversary of the RAF and USAF Operations during the Berlin Airlift
MATTERS MOST. Together we defend freedom and deliver hope wherever we’re called. Boeing is proud to honor the Royal Air Force on the 70th anniversary of the Berlin air lift. 316895-27_RAF_Museum_American_Foundation_AQfnl.indd 1 9/24/19 11:20 AM
4 6 9 14 18 20 22 WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION Major General (Ret.) Frederick F. Roggero USAF, President, RAFMAF AIR CHIEF MARSHAL MIKE WIGSTON CBE ADC, Chief of the Air Staff, RAF 24 THE BERLIN AIRLIFT How the determination of the Allied air forces overcame the Soviet blockade of Berlin, which began in June 1948 26 THE CANDY BOMBER The inspiring tale of enterprising airman Gail Halvorsen, who helped raise the spirits of Berlin’s children during the blockade with the simple gift of candy 29 MERCEDES WILD How a young girl’s letter to the ‘Chocolate Pilot’ created a lifelong memory and led to an emotional meeting many years later 30 CAPTAIN DEREK HERMISTON A profile of the youngest pilot in command during the Berlin Airlift 34 REMEMBERING MI AMIGO The extraordinary story of how a chance encounter in a British park led to a flypast in memory of 10 US airmen THE SECRET SPITFIRES The true story of covert production of Spitfires during the Second World War, which stayed secret until being uncovered for the subject of a new film RAF MUSEUM REVIEW The RAF Museum reflects on its most successful year to date and shares its Vision to the year 2030 THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION SWORDS OF HONOR Recognizing the most outstanding RAF and USAF officers on exchange this year SWORDS OF HONOR 2019 CITATIONS Flight Lieutenant Dave Finn RAF and Lieutenant Colonel Tyler B. Smith USAF ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Cover: Citizens of West Berlin watch as a U.S. cargo plane arrives with vital supplies during the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49 Produced by Harfield Media Edited by Barry Davies Designed by J-P Stanway RAF MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION 3
Major General (Ret.) Frederick F. Roggero, USAF President, Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation THE ROYAL AIR FORCE MUSEUM AMERICAN Foundation (RAFMAF) is honored and proud to host the ‘Spirit of the Battle of Britain’ Banquet and would like to thank Air Chief Marshal Michael Wigston CBE, Chief of Staff of the Royal Air Force (RAF), for his and the RAF’s continued help in our efforts to preserve the heritage of the United States Air Force (USAF) and the RAF by keeping it alive in the memories of our two great nations. We are also delighted to welcome General David Goldfein, Chief of Staff USAF, to help us honor the outstanding service of the top RAF and USAF Exchange Officers of 2019. This year it is our great privilege to honor the 70th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift – the combined Allied operations that alleviated the blockade of Berlin, ensuring that the free people of the city could lead the lives they desired. In the following pages you can read how, during the 18 months of the Airlift, the inspiring Allied airmen flew over 92 million miles – almost the distance from the Earth to the Sun – and how, at the height of the operation, one plane reached West Berlin every 30 seconds. Ultimately, however, it was the citizens of Berlin themselves who defeated the Russians. By their willingness to survive on a diet of dehydrated potato and to endure 20 hours a day without electricity and with precious little heat, the Berliners, inspired by the hope delivered by the Airlift, ensured that the Russians were defeated in the first major battle of the Cold War. We are very fortunate to have two of those airmen who delivered hope to the Berliners – Colonel (Ret.) Gail Halvorsen, USAF, also known as the ‘Candy Bomber,’ and Flight Lieutenant (Ret.) Derek Hermiston, RAF – participate in our celebration. Ms Mercedes Wild, who lived in Berlin as a child and was a recipient of these airmen’s efforts, will also take part in recognizing this celebration in the cause of freedom. It is also an honor for the Foundation to be able to recognize the continued close association between our active duty militaries by presenting two ceremonial Swords of Honor to the RAF and USAF Exchange Officers whose contributions have most reflected the values that our veterans, and the Foundation, share: Service, Excellence, Integrity and Courage. It is these values that we honor in our young women and men of today and encourage in the young people of tomorrow. Last year, we honored the pioneering ladies of the ATA and the WASP. During our research for that occasion we made a connection with film producer Ethem Cetintas, who had stumbled across the story of how 10% of the wartime production of Spitfires was carried out in secret in the English city of Salisbury. Mr Cetintas’s subsequent documentary has been shown in cinemas in the UK and, following an introduction by RAFMAF to the Foundation of the National Museum of the RAFMAF President Fred Roggero (right) with the late Wg Cdr Tom Neil, guest of honor at the 2015 Banquet RAF MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION 4
premiere at their IMAX cinema in May and was shown at the Smithsonian in August. You will find the story of this documentary and Mr Cetintas’s research for the film later in this book. In pursuing its mission, RAFMAF continues to focus on education by supporting the RAF Museum Educational Learning Fund, to ensure that we can inspire the next generation by highlighting the shared values of the fighting airmen and airwomen of the past. Selected for suitability by the RAF Museum’s Chief Executive Troops commemorate the Berlin Airlift alongside the city’s memorial monument to the operation Officer, the Fund’s works directly relate to and reflect the enduring joint relationship between the USAF and the RAF in war and peace. With our sponsors’ help, RAFMAF will continue to keep our combined and shared histories of air power alive. Thank you for attending tonight and for your continued support of the Royal Air Force Museum American Foundation. RAF MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION 5
Mike Wigston CBE ADC, Chief of the Air Staff, RAF I AM DELIGHTED TO BE ABLE TO JOIN THE RAF Museum American Foundation’s annual ‘Spirit of the Battle of Britain’ dinner. It is an especial privilege to be able to commemorate the epic story of the Berlin Airlift, dining with the legendary Gail Halverson alongside one of our own veterans, Derek Hermiston, and Mercedes Wild, who, as a young Berliner, lived through those traumatic times. Words cannot do justice to the incredible effort of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and United States Air Force (USAF) during the winter of 1948-49. The Soviet Government had severed all surface access to Berlin and hoped to coerce the Western Allies to withdraw from the city altogether. The choice facing the West was to abandon Berlin or attempt to resolve the issue by force, potentially causing another World War. The almost inconceivable alternative was to attempt to sustain Berlin by establishing an airbridge to service the basic daily requirements for over a million people. In June 1948, scarcely anyone believed the task was possible. Over the succeeding 16 months, supported by crews from Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the RAF and USAF supplied 2.3 million tons of essential stores and equipment. The RAF and USAF created a Combined Airlift Task Force under the inspired leadership of General William H. Tunner. They sustained the airlift 24 hours a day, in all weather, innovating throughout with new technology and systems encompassing everything from traffic patterns and air traffic control to ground handling and aircraft maintenance. Everything the city required – from food, coal and petrol, to newsprint, bulldozers and steamrollers – was delivered by air. On September 23, 1949, the very last RAF aircraft to fly into Berlin had a biblical reference, Psalm 21 verse 11, painted on its nose. If the waiting groundcrew had a Bible handy they would have found the quote read: “For they intended evil against thee; they imagined a mischievous device, which they were not able to perform.” As we break bread together tonight, we can celebrate with enormous pride what our predecessors achieved in those dark days. It was one of the greatest humanitarian operations of the 20th century, delivered by sustained, determined and peaceful application of Allied air power. RAF MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION 6
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the Soviet blockade of Berlin, which began in June 1948 The Berlin Airlift AT HALF PAST SIX IN THE EVENING ON September 23, 1949 the wheels of a heavily laden Douglas Dakota transport aircraft of the Royal Air Force (RAF) lifted off the concrete runway at Lubeck airfield in the British Zone of Germany. Fifty-two minutes later, the aircraft landed in Berlin. As it rolled to a halt on the concrete apron at Gatow, the small huddle of men waiting to unload the aircraft’s cargo could see an inscription on the nose of the Dakota that read “Positively the last load from Lubeck, 73,705 tons”, conveying both the pride in a job well done and relief that many months of hard, back-breaking toil were over. For much of its flight from Lubeck, the Dakota had been flying in the airspace over the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany. The air ‘corridor’ it flew along had been defined in written agreements made between the four occupying powers – Great Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and France – in November 1945, and was some 20 miles wide. No such written agreement had ever been drawn up between the four powers Known as ‘Operation Vittles’ in the US and ‘Operation Plainfare’ by the British, the Berlin Airlift maintained supplies of food and fuel to a city of two million people regarding access via land corridors to Berlin; the three Western Allies – the US, France and Britain – had not considered it necessary, since roads and railways were already in existence and no one had foreseen that the Soviets could deny their use to the Allies. That proved an expensive miscalculation when on June 23, 1948, the Soviets halted all rail and road traffic from the Western Zones of Germany to Berlin. In the early months of 1948, as the relationship between the four powers deteriorated, the British and Americans made contingency plans to support their garrisons in Berlin by airlifting supplies. In April, plans had been drawn up to fly in 65 tons of supplies per day, using two Dakota squadrons deployed from their base in England, and to fly out the families of the RAF MUSEUM AMERICAN FOUNDATION 9
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