PBS American Experience The Berlin Airlift
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00:00Major funding for American Experience is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
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00:34Next on American Experience, three years after the Allies bombed Berlin, American pilots
00:40returned on a different mission.
00:43We are not going to be forced out of Berlin.
00:45The monumental effort to save two and a half million people from starvation and Soviet
00:50rule.
00:51I had 20,000 pounds of flour.
00:54The back doors of my airplane opened, they looked at the flour and looked back at me
00:58like I was an angel from heaven.
01:01First hand accounts of the first victory of the Cold War.
01:04I wrote to him, dear chocolate uncle, you fly over Friedenau every day, please drop
01:09a parachute over the garden with the white chickens.
01:13I saw this chocolate uncle as my father who was showing me that he was there for me.
01:19The Berlin Airlift, next on American Experience.
01:24March 1948, a British military train left Berlin and stopped in the Soviet zone of occupied
01:35Germany.
01:44Red Army guards performed what should have been a routine check.
01:52Three years earlier, British, Soviet and American forces together had defeated the
01:56Nazis, America and Britain from the air, the Soviets in a final ground assault against
02:04desperate German resistance.
02:12Now the alliance that had won the war was breaking down.
02:16The Soviets were increasingly obstructing movement through their zone and wanted to
02:20check every passenger.
02:25Allied military officials objected to the Soviet restrictions.
02:29They ordered the train returned to Berlin.
02:33Since 1945, Berlin had been surrounded by the Soviet controlled zone of occupied Germany.
02:39A road and a railway line were all that connected it with the rest of Europe.
02:45The four powers, the U.S., Britain, France and Russia, each controlled their own sector
02:50of the city, home to more than two million people.
02:56Now Berlin was in limbo.
02:59The four powers could not agree what to do with it.
03:02The Western allies wanted to revive the German economy and get business going.
03:08The Soviets wanted communist planning throughout their zone.
03:14The economic stalemate created a black market for goods.
03:24Security concerns along the border between East and West Berlin increased.
03:29Sam Young was part of an American military unit charged with policing the city.
03:35You saw nothing but destruction wherever you looked, all around.
03:40It was terrible.
03:41As an 18-year-old kid, that was really apprehensive because, you know, I'd never seen anything
03:48like that before.
03:50Whole sections of Berlin were reduced to rubble.
03:53Clearing it became residents' main occupation.
04:01But for young Sybil Gries, newly arrived from the German countryside, the capital still
04:06had its attractions.
04:11It was hard to get a room.
04:13There was a lot of destruction.
04:16It really looked very sad, but not as sad as my hometown.
04:23For me, Berlin was the big city.
04:26Everything I saw was new.
04:33Three years after the war, the city showed signs of returning to normal.
04:39But food remained in short supply.
04:49The three Western powers had taken on the responsibility of feeding Berlin.
04:58The best thing was the biscuit soup the Americans gave us.
05:04You had a little food container.
05:07Maybe it had a lid, maybe it didn't.
05:10You filled it with food, and you took it home for your family.
05:16Sometimes it was the only hot meal of the day.
05:21But the city could not be kept on a breadline forever.
05:26Soviet leader Joseph Stalin wanted full control of his half of Germany.
05:32The presence of the Western allies in Berlin was a thorn in his side.
05:38Along with the Soviet Union, the three Western powers governed Berlin through a joint council
05:43called the Allied Kommandantura.
05:47As long as the Western powers were in the city, it was difficult for the Soviets to
05:51create a communist economy in their zone.
05:55When they were convinced, the Western allies were plotting to push them out of Berlin.
06:04On June 16, 1948, the Soviets pulled out of the Kommandantura.
06:13Just days later, the Allies issued a new currency for Western Germany, the Deutschmark.
06:20In June, the Soviets announced that they would do the same for their zone and throughout Berlin.
06:26But the Allies had already smuggled 250 million Deutschmarks into the city.
06:33The Soviets prepared a countermove.
06:38On June 23, Soviet forces in Berlin sent a secret order to cut the city off from the West.
06:47The next day, highways and railway lines were closed.
06:54No coal, no food could get through to the city.
07:04My mother was very upset.
07:07She said, now we'll have nothing to eat.
07:11We've been blockaded.
07:13I didn't know what blockade meant, but they used that word right from the start.
07:23And I'll never forget my grandmother's words, just as long as we don't end up Russian.
07:30Berlin's power station was in the city's eastern sector.
07:37It was like an eclipse of the sun.
07:40Nobody knew what was going on.
07:43We asked the Americans what's up.
07:46They said, we've packed our bags.
07:49There were 20,000 American, British and French troops in Berlin.
07:56It was enough to police the Allied sectors, but totally inadequate to defend them in the
08:01event of a Soviet attack.
08:08In the U.S., President Harry Truman was in the midst of an election campaign he was expected
08:13to lose.
08:15Truman issued a forceful response to the Soviet blockade.
08:19What the world needs in order to regain a sense of security is an end to Soviet obstruction
08:24and aggression.
08:27Then Truman's advisors gave him sobering news.
08:31Berlin had just 36 days' worth of food and 45 days' worth of coal.
08:38The president could not defend the city.
08:41But to withdraw would be disastrous for America's image and for his own hopes of re-election.
08:50Truman's military governor in Germany, General Lucius Clay, suggested the U.S. call Stalin's
08:55bluff.
08:57Clay proposed sending armed troops along the road to Berlin.
09:04Truman knew this might spark a war neither side could afford.
09:08Yet he decided not to abandon the city.
09:11We stay in Berlin, he declared, period.
09:16Truman considered another option, flying supplies into the Western sectors of Berlin.
09:23If the Soviets wanted to stop Allied planes, they would have to shoot them down.
09:28And that put pressure on the Russians.
09:31But no one knew if it was even possible to supply two million people with food and fuel
09:37by air.
09:40American officials turned to their British allies for answers.
09:45Britain had endured nearly ten years of rationing during the war.
09:51According to the British calculations, it would take 1,700 calories a day per person.
09:58That meant 1,500 tons of food plus another 2,500 tons of coal and gasoline.
10:05A total of 4,000 tons per day.
10:10The Allies' C-47 plane was capable of carrying just three tons.
10:17Many doubted an airlift would work.
10:21Nevertheless, the Berlin airlift began on June 26, 1948.
10:29The first flights were reported live to the city by RIAZ, radio in the American sector.
10:40Berliners came out by the thousands to watch flying boats land on the city's lakes.
10:49The planes carried salt.
10:52No other aircraft could transport the precious cargo because it would corrode their fuselage.
10:59Even though Berlin's elected mayor, Ernst Reuter, was a former communist, the Soviets
11:04had kept him from taking office.
11:06Now Reuter called a rally to reassure bewildered citizens and boost their morale.
11:11Berlin will not give in.
11:15We will use all means available to us to turn to the utmost against the claim of power
11:25that wants to enslave us, that wants to make us an elite party.
11:36Following the rally, General Clay summoned Reuter.
11:41He explained to Reuter the hardships for the population and said he couldn't guarantee
11:47it was even possible.
11:51No one had ever tried to supply a city by air.
11:57Would the Berliners stick it out so soon after the war?
12:04And Reuter simply answered,
12:06You take care of the airlift, I'll take care of the Berliners.
12:17American and British transport planes were dispatched to Germany from all over the world.
12:24Powdered eggs and milk, flour and coal began to make their way to Berlin.
12:35A world away in Mobile, Alabama, Air Force pilot Gail Halverson was enjoying post-war life.
12:43And so I had a four-door, brand-new Chevrolet car, just before the airlift started.
12:50This was in early 1948.
12:53And so then I was doing big time.
12:57And I called a girl for a date.
13:00She said, well, I'm going to take her in the car.
13:03She said, wow, this is pretty neat.
13:05New car, very few new cars then.
13:08And that was the car when I got the telephone call about the airlift.
13:12I didn't have time to do anything with it.
13:14I just drove it under the pine trees of the airbase in Brooklyn,
13:18took the keys and left the car there.
13:20I never saw it again.
13:23Halverson flew to Germany that same day.
13:30My feelings for the Germans were not very good.
13:34I mean, Hitler started this thing.
13:37He caused all this chaos.
13:40He caused one of my buddies to get shot down.
13:42I don't know where he is yet.
13:43They never find his body.
13:44So I didn't have good feelings about the Germans.
13:54For Berliners, the sound of Allied planes overhead brought back terrible memories.
14:02I sat through so many air raids in our apartment.
14:06And suddenly there was that sound again,
14:12the sound of planes flying over the building.
14:17And with that, the fear came back
14:21that the bombs would fall again.
14:24Halverson made his first landing at Berlin's Tempelhof airport.
14:33I had 20,000 pounds of flour on my airplane,
14:3720,000 pounds of flour,
14:39and landed at Tempelhof.
14:41And I wondered what these supermen are going to look like.
14:43You know, all this propaganda and things build up through the years.
14:46To come face to face with them.
14:49The back doors of my airplane opened,
14:53and about eight Germans came piling into the back of that airplane.
14:59And that first man, the first three or four,
15:03came up, straight up to me,
15:05and put out their hand.
15:07And their eyes were moist.
15:10And I didn't understand what they said,
15:13but I could understand their feeling immediately.
15:16They looked at the flour,
15:18and looked back at me like I was an angel from heaven.
15:25In Moscow, Stalin was confident that Britain and the United States
15:29would not be able to keep Berlin fed from the air.
15:35As a show of force, Truman sent 60 B-29 bombers to England.
15:47For the airlift pilots, the pressure mounted.
15:55Two weeks into the airlift,
15:57supplies reaching Berlin were increasing,
15:59but not enough.
16:03At first, the Allies transported just 90 tons a day.
16:06Now, they managed 1,000 tons.
16:10But it was just a quarter of the daily minimum required.
16:15And airlift operations were still chaotic.
16:20I came in over Tempelhof, and the weather was very bad.
16:24And suddenly, coming in the other direction,
16:27into the homing beacon, was another C-54,
16:30right at my altitude.
16:32We didn't know what to do.
16:34Coming in the other direction, into the homing beacon,
16:36was another C-54, right at my altitude.
16:39We just almost hit propellers.
16:42I could see the pilots' eyes just coming the other way.
16:53At first, I heard the usual engine sound.
16:56Then the pitch went up.
16:59Then there was a crash.
17:02And then complete silence.
17:06It was the first accident of many.
17:08The skies were too crowded.
17:10The men and the machines overworked.
17:17In July, General William Tunner arrived in Berlin.
17:26During the war, his transport planes had flown over the Himalayas
17:30to supply anti-communist forces in China.
17:34Now, Tunner was charged with organizing the Berlin Airlift.
17:40His plan was to make each of the three Allied air corridors a one-way route.
17:45Two going in, one coming out.
17:48Planes would fly three minutes apart, at five levels simultaneously.
17:54On a clear day, pilots would see the aircraft flying above and below them.
17:59I want rhythm, Tunner said, on a beat as constant as jungle drums.
18:08Soon the pilots met Tunner's targets, then exceeded them.
18:12They flew more than 1,500 flights a day and delivered more than 4,500 tons.
18:20Planes now took just minutes to unload.
18:24They remained on the ground for no longer than 30 minutes.
18:30And the pilots only had one chance to land.
18:35Otherwise, they had to return their planes fully loaded.
18:45Tunner insisted that pilots stay close to their planes while on the ground.
18:51He made sure that coffee and hot food were waiting for them on the runway.
18:57But it wasn't just the coffee, and it wasn't just the hamburgers.
19:01In my case, I drank hot chocolate, those good things.
19:05But he put some beautiful German frauleins in that snack bar.
19:13They knew we couldn't date them, we had no time.
19:15So they're very friendly.
19:17And the first thing we'd do is get a big smile,
19:20and then worry about the hamburger and the hot chocolate later.
19:27The Soviets did not interfere directly with the flights.
19:31Instead, they launched a propaganda campaign against them.
19:51The British responded with a campaign of their own.
19:56It was night and not yet dark.
19:58And with the rising sun, bombers were preparing for the flight.
20:02Bombers, once the messengers of death.
20:05Today, in the summer of 1948, servants of life and freedom.
20:27Country tunes, popular songs, and especially jazz.
20:39The broadcasts helped spark a West German love affair with American music
20:43that would last a generation.
20:51The Soviets tried to counter.
20:57But dancing Cossacks could not erase the horrors of the Soviet takeover in 1945.
21:06Berliners would never see Stalin as Germany's best friend.
21:14On the ground, the Cold War was heating up.
21:18On September 6th, East German communists
21:21occupied the city's civilian council house to block new elections.
21:36Three days later, RIAZ radio urged West Berliners
21:40to protest the East German actions.
21:47RIAZ Berlin.
21:54A crowd gathered at the Brandenburg Gate, next to the Reichstag,
21:58the ruined German parliament.
22:01The airlift was working so far, but many West Berliners feared
22:04the Allies would eventually abandon them to the Russians.
22:08Addressing half a million people, a quarter of the population,
22:11Ernst Reuter delivered an impassioned plea.
22:17You people in America, in England, in France,
22:22look at this city and realize
22:27that you are not allowed to value this city and this people.
22:34You cannot value them.
22:37End.
22:45Lifted by Reuter's words, the crowd surged towards the city's eastern sector,
22:49a few hundred yards beyond the Brandenburg Gate.
22:53Someone ripped down the red flag, the symbol of Soviet victory.
23:00Soviet police responded, killing one young demonstrator.
23:07Three months of fear, anger and mistrust were taking their toll.
23:21In the western sector, however, the airlift had already become
23:24an inspiration for young children.
23:28Do you want to go to the start?
23:31Of course! The Berliners are waiting for me!
23:58Waiting for a plane with a special delivery.
24:01I wiggled the wings of the airplane and they went crazy.
24:03I still see their arms and hands up to the sky.
24:06And it just wouldn't matter.
24:10Halverson had started dropping candy to the waiting children.
24:16It became the biggest public relations coup of the airlift.
24:28And Gail Halverson its biggest hero.
24:40Before I got donations from the big candy companies,
24:44the children of America were sending me donations
24:48and sending money so we could go to the base exchange
24:52and buy the things to drop to the children of Berlin.
24:58But one little girl wanted something special.
25:04So I wrote to him.
25:07Dear chocolate uncle, you fly over Friedenau every day.
25:14Please drop a parachute over the garden with the white chickens.
25:21They've stopped laying.
25:24They think you're a chicken hawk and the eggs aren't coming anymore
25:28and their feathers are falling out.
25:31And in the last part of the letter she said,
25:34when you see the white chickens, drop it there.
25:39If you drop a parachute, I don't mind if you hit them.
25:42You're Mercedes.
25:44I told my buddies who were dropping it.
25:46I said, when you come over to the Land Temple,
25:49drop on the approach at apartment houses wherever you see them.
25:52We got to hit Mercedes.
25:54We didn't hit Mercedes.
25:56Took a big package of gum and candy in Berlin,
25:58mailed it to Mercedes.
26:06The chocolate was okay, but the important thing was the letter.
26:10I had written to him, so I was waiting for an answer.
26:13And I still have that letter. It was wonderful.
26:18Dear Mercedes,
26:20If I did a couple of circuits over Friednau,
26:23I'm sure I'd find the garden with the white chickens.
26:26But I'm afraid I haven't got the time.
26:29I hope that you will enjoy the enclosed.
26:31Your chocolate uncle, Gail Halverson.
26:37My father had gone missing as a pilot during the war.
26:42Now I saw this chocolate uncle as my father,
26:48who was showing me that he was there for me.
26:59Throughout October 1948, flights continued day and night.
27:05As winter approached, more food and fuel were needed.
27:10But American commanders would not be deterred.
27:14We are not going to be forced out of Berlin.
27:17Will you be able to continue the present air supply indefinitely?
27:22We will increase it, and we can continue it indefinitely.
27:27To build a new airport, the Allies employed 18,000 Berliners,
27:31half of them women.
27:33They completed the job in two months.
27:35But an extra airport was not enough.
27:37The airlift needed more pilots.
27:44The American Air Force
27:52Former bomber pilot Ken Slaker was called out of civilian life in the U.S.
27:56and pressed into emergency service on night flights.
28:00We'd just been 20 minutes into eastern Germany
28:03when we lost both engines simultaneously
28:07and went through emergency procedures.
28:10We couldn't get them started again.
28:12So I just bailed out.
28:13I said to myself, this is it.
28:17When I got my memory back,
28:20and it was daylight,
28:22and then I heard a noise,
28:24and it was the sound of an airlift aircraft overhead.
28:28So I knew where I was.
28:31I was right on the route to Berlin.
28:36I realized I was in real trouble.
28:43I ran face-to-face with a German.
28:47I told him, where is Fulda?
28:49He said, Fulda is not good.
28:51I said, Fulda is good for me.
28:53I'm an American pilot on the airlift.
28:55And when I said that, he had immediate respect for me.
28:59He opened his coat and pulled out some papers,
29:02and they were his discharge papers
29:04from the American prisoner for two years.
29:06So we were able to communicate.
29:09Risking his freedom,
29:11Rudolf Schnabel took Slager back to his own home.
29:19I made something to eat and said,
29:22come on, you eat too.
29:24At first he said, no, you haven't got enough.
29:28So I said, what feeds two will also feed three.
29:32He was a very good-looking man, neat as a pin,
29:36tip-top with the uniform and all.
29:42Ken said goodbye very nicely, and so did my husband.
29:46And we hugged and said, let's hope it'll be okay.
29:50And I said, say a quick our father and it'll be all right.
29:54And he said, you say one too, then it will be all right.
30:00Schnabel made contact with agents willing to help Slager escape.
30:05They told us what we had to do to get through the border,
30:09and I gave them some Westmarks.
30:11They bought off the East German policeman
30:13who was on the bridge of the river
30:15from 8 to 8.30 when the Soviet guard changed.
30:26When my heart was in my mouth, we started crossing the bridge
30:29because that German policeman came straight towards us
30:31and about two meters from us he stopped,
30:33turned around and ignored us, so he'd been paid off.
30:38Just before the border, they met up with others hoping to escape.
30:48So we started up the incline. My back was killing me.
30:51I got halfway up the ridge, my back gave out,
30:55and I fell and rolled back down to the bottom.
30:57And the girl said, the captain has fallen.
31:01And they stopped, they came back down there
31:06and they pulled me up that incline.
31:09If they had not have done that, I would not be here.
31:13Schnabel was not so lucky.
31:15On the return journey, he was captured and interrogated for weeks
31:18by the communist authorities, but gave nothing away.
31:25Eventually, Slager was able to help the Schnabels leave their homeland
31:29and escape to the West.
31:38As the airlift entered its fifth month,
31:40temperatures dropped and flying conditions worsened.
31:46There were days when no planes could fly.
32:00With the airlift periodically grounded,
32:03Berliners had to find fuel wherever they could.
32:24Electricity delivery was unreliable,
32:27but many found ingenious ways to keep the power going.
32:33Finding fresh meat was even more of a challenge.
32:39My grandmother caught a sparrow flying around our apartment.
32:45And that lunchtime, I had a portion of meat,
32:48a tiny piece of meat and bones.
32:51And I knew it was the sparrow. I didn't eat it.
32:56As shortages grew, Soviet authorities offered to provide West Berliners
33:00with food imported from Eastern Europe.
33:04But only if West Berliners transferred their ration cards to the Soviets.
33:26Sensing a trick, only a small percentage took up the offer.
33:39Somehow my mother got hold of a card
33:43and she sent me over to East Berlin, to Alexanderplatz.
33:48There was a big market hall.
33:51I can still see it now. And I bought some bread.
33:55And each time my mother begged me,
33:58almost on her knees, not to eat any of it.
34:02But to my shame, I never managed to get home
34:05without taking one or two bites. I was so hungry.
34:13In December 1948, Berliners prepared for new municipal elections.
34:19East Berlin authorities once more organized demonstrations against them.
34:28The communists boycotted the elections
34:31and appointed their own mayor for the Soviet sector.
34:35Friedrich Ebert would rule East Berlin for 19 years.
34:41In the Western sectors, the vote went ahead.
34:48The political division of Berlin was now complete.
34:55Ernst Reuter was re-elected mayor of the Western sector.
35:01The Soviet Union was now in the hands of the communists.
35:06Ernst Reuter was re-elected mayor of the Western zone.
35:13The people of Berlin want nothing else than to be a free people.
35:19No dictatorship will stop our free election.
35:28With husbands and fathers still in Soviet prison camps,
35:31many families in Berlin were barely scraping by.
35:38In between power cuts, they turned to the radio
35:41for news of their loved ones.
35:46My mother suffered greatly from her husband's absence.
35:49And of course it was vital for her to have a source of information
35:53to tell her how he was.
35:55And every night on Ries, about half past nine,
35:58after the news, there came...
36:07And they passed on news from the different camps.
36:14And one evening when I was eight,
36:16my mother was washing me in the bathtub.
36:19I'll never forget it.
36:21She was listening to the radio.
36:24And the task force against inhumanity came on.
36:30And the voice said,
36:32Railway engineer Gunther Riccardi has died
36:35in the new Brandenburg concentration camp.
36:40My mother had no idea it was coming.
36:43She let out a single cry.
36:47It was a disaster for her.
36:54But even amidst the bleak Berlin winter,
36:57the airlift continued to bring people together
37:00in unexpected ways.
37:04Meeting an American was something special.
37:09They were supposed to have money.
37:12They were supposed to have a job.
37:15They were supposed to have a family.
37:19They were supposed to have money.
37:22They were good-looking.
37:24They had uniforms.
37:27And they were attractive young men.
37:37I was just as I am.
37:39I mean, I didn't do anything to impress her, I don't think.
37:43That's why she called me the obnoxious American.
37:47Matter of fact, that was my real first day, too.
37:59Conditions for romance were far from ideal.
38:03They were bad. Cold.
38:06You didn't have to worry about taking your coat off
38:09because it was too cold when you went to visit.
38:16We would sit close together and stuff like that,
38:19but we didn't have much room.
38:21I mean, her bed couldn't have been more than,
38:25smaller than a roll-away bed.
38:32He never had much money.
38:34He was a poor man.
38:36He was a poor man.
38:38He had no money.
38:40He was a poor man.
38:42He had no money.
38:44He never had much money.
38:47But there were benefits.
38:51We went out to eat, and there was coffee and candy.
38:55We didn't get much of that.
38:57Yes, there were benefits.
39:07They said, well, you can buy care packages
39:10down at the Quartermaster for $12.
39:14If she didn't eat a lot,
39:17they would last her for probably a couple, three weeks.
39:21But if I took candy down there,
39:24I took candy once, one time in particular,
39:28and hid it in the closet.
39:31Yeah.
39:33I went back the next day, and it was all gone.
39:36She ate it all at once.
39:38A whole package of chocolate,
39:40because we didn't get that too often.
39:49Yes, it was a nice time, really.
39:53It was a nice time, but it was also an uncertain time,
39:58because Sam could have gone back to America at any time.
40:04Young talked over the options with his best friend.
40:08John, what are we going to do about these ladies?
40:11They're awfully nice ladies.
40:13We can't just take off and go back to the States
40:16and say adios or auf Wiedersehen or whatever.
40:20We decided, well, we'll ask them.
40:23So we did, and they said yes.
40:26So that's how the romance really got started.
40:34In January 1949,
40:36British authorities added a new twist to the airlift.
40:42They began using their empty planes
40:44to transport German families who wanted to leave Berlin.
40:55Royal Air Force pilot John Irvin Eddy
40:58prepared for a night flight to Lübeck in West Germany.
41:02One of his 22 passengers was 10-year-old Peter Zimmermann.
41:07There were hours of waiting.
41:10They kept saying the plane wasn't ready,
41:14or it had to be repaired.
41:17I don't think we were afraid, at least I wasn't,
41:21and my sister didn't really know what was happening.
41:33It was pilot Eddy's third round-trip flight of the day.
41:37Weather conditions were not ideal.
41:48For the passengers, it was the first flight of their lives.
41:58Coming back from Berlin, as far as the flight was concerned,
42:01the take-off and everything was normal.
42:04There was no...
42:06It wasn't until we got towards Lübeck itself
42:10that they told us that there was a full cloud cover
42:13and how far it was from the ground, from the airfield surface.
42:22And they said, well, the instruction was to descend
42:26and do a visual circuit.
42:29And when we broke cloud, it was inky black.
42:33There was not a sign of a light or anything.
42:42There was a slight scraping sound,
42:44and a moment later there was a louder scraping sound,
42:47and then another.
42:51But unfortunately, the trees stretched up to 300 feet,
42:55and we hit them.
42:57As far as I know, I pushed the throttle forward,
43:00but we didn't get away.
43:03All I can remember is that last loud bang,
43:06and then the fuel exploding.
43:19And the next thing I knew, I was lying on my back on the ground,
43:22looking up at the sky and seeing all the stars,
43:25which was ridiculous because it was full cloud cover,
43:29but I could see every star in the sky.
43:36Peter Zimmermann was pulled from the wreckage by fellow passengers.
43:43You can't imagine how bad it was.
43:45Utter chaos, utter helplessness.
43:48Pieces of the plane were lying around.
43:50The plane was on fire.
43:52There was a terrible smell.
43:54And the most terrible thing of all was the smell of grilled meat.
43:58It was roasted human flesh.
44:07Later, Zimmermann learned that his mother and sister were killed in the crash.
44:16But such accidents were rare,
44:18and as the spring of 1949 approached,
44:21the airlift entered a new phase.
44:30The Allies began employing their former enemies,
44:33including German air force technicians.
44:41I still don't understand it.
44:44How so soon after the war,
44:47did they just say to us, come on, work for us?
44:51I don't understand where they got the idea that it might work.
44:55I just don't know.
45:01That guy up there is a German.
45:04He used to work on a Luftwaffe airplane,
45:08and now he's working on my airplane?
45:10Here this man that supported the fighters against us,
45:15is now working on our plane.
45:17Wow, it's a crazy world, you know?
45:22They had real confidence in us,
45:25and we proved ourselves.
45:28They said do something, and we did it.
45:33These guys were good,
45:35and they learned the American system very quickly,
45:39and it was a good partnership.
45:42And good as Mannschaft got.
45:44Increasingly, the Allies began using a fleet of much bigger aircraft.
45:49Giants like the C-74 Globemaster carried 25 tons,
45:54as did the new C-97 Stratofreighter,
45:57eight times the capacity of a C-47.
46:02With the new planes, General Tunner's operations
46:05set an airlift record on Easter Sunday, 1949.
46:08Nearly 1,400 flights and 13,000 tons of supplies
46:11delivered in a single day.
46:16May 12th, 1949, the Soviets relented
46:19and lifted their blockade of Berlin.
46:25The hottest spot in the Cold War is eliminated.
46:28Allied vehicles await the removal of the barriers
46:31and the signal for the dash to Berlin.
46:33With the opening of the gates,
46:35a new chapter in post-war history
46:37begins to unroll down German highways.
46:39Just 10 months and 23 days
46:41after the capital was sealed off from the ground,
46:44traffic is rolling toward Europe's number one trouble spot.
46:48It's a day of triumph for a band of men in the airlift
46:51who kept Berliners eating while they were held in an iron ring.
46:56General Lucious Clay returned home
46:59and was greeted with a ticker-tape parade in New York.
47:09At Tempelhof Airport, children got their chance
47:12to thank some of the departing airlift pilots.
47:32And now trucks were coming in from all over the world.
47:36And now trucks were coming in from the West.
47:40And interestingly, the first thing they brought
47:43was masses of oranges.
47:45And I said to my friend,
47:47let's go down to the end of the autobahn where they arrive
47:50and maybe we'll be lucky.
47:52And they were throwing oranges to the crowd,
47:55still nicely wrapped back then.
47:57And some kids were lucky and they caught some.
48:05Look at that!
48:12But I didn't get any and neither did my friend
48:15and we went home really downhearted, just like kids are,
48:18because they would have been my very first oranges.
48:24So I came home, went into the kitchen
48:27and I couldn't believe my eyes.
48:29There on the table were two oranges,
48:32cut open like a water lily.
48:43The Berlin Airlift officially ended on September 30, 1949.
48:51By October, Germany was split into communist and capitalist halves.
48:56The divided city of Berlin was where the Cold War began.
49:00And this was where it would end, 40 years later.
49:05The airlift had lasted 15 months
49:08and delivered more than 2.4 million tons of supplies to Berlin.
49:1379 people lost their lives in the effort,
49:16including 31 Americans.
49:26The Berlin Airlift
49:30was the first of its kind in the history of Germany.
49:34It was the first of its kind in the history of Germany.
49:38It was the first of its kind in the history of Germany.
49:42It was the first of its kind in the history of Germany.
49:46It was the first of its kind in the history of Germany.
49:51It was the first of its kind in the history of Germany.
49:57It was the first of its kind in the history of Germany.
50:04It was the first of its kind in the history of Germany.
50:12There's more at American Experience Online.
50:15Visit companion websites for each American Experience episode,
50:19with interactive features, additional interviews,
50:21plus rare videos and photos.
50:23All this and more at pbs.org.
50:28Major funding for American Experience
50:30is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
50:33National corporate funding is provided
50:35by Liberty Mutual and the Scotts Company.
50:39American Experience is also made possible
50:41by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
50:44and by contributions to your PBS station
50:46from viewers like you.