The Berlin Airlift by Ann Tusa

Author:Ann Tusa
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510740624
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2019-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

10

Miracles Take Time

It was all too easy to look at the tonnage figures for 18 September and assume that if 6,988 tons could be flown in on one day, then they could be flown in every day. It was so tempting to extrapolate from that particular result and calculate that, given the extra forty C-54s promised in September plus an increased British civil contribution and a couple of squadrons of capacious Hastings, the airlift could achieve 8,000, 9,000, even 10,000 tons a day. Such assumptions and calculations were, indeed, made. Marshall announced on 21 September that once the new C-54s went into action the airlift would be able to deliver 8,000 tons daily and was already carrying almost as much as had been brought to Berlin by road and rail before the blockade.1 Bevin told the House of Commons that, on present progress, the city could be adequately supplied throughout the winter.2 Both men gave a totally misleading impression. Perhaps they were whistling to keep up their own spirits and dampen those of the Russians, but it also seems likely that they had not understood the 18 September figures. For these recorded a special event, US Air Force Day, which the airmen had celebrated with a special effort – 144 British and a staggering 651 American sorties to Berlin.3 Their record was worthy of the occasion. But, as was grimly noted, it had required “extraordinary measures which resulted in a falling off in figures for subsequent days”4 – and not just a drop from 6,988 tons, but from the average.

Those average figures made profoundly depressing reading. In June when the British “Operation Plainfare” and American “Operation Vittles” were launched, the allies had lifted 1,404 tons to Berlin. For July, the first full month, the total was 69,000 tons (nearly 40,000 by the Americans and over 29,000 by the British), that is to say an average of 2,225.9 tons a day. Throughout August 119,002.6 tons were carried (73,658.1 American and 45,344.5 British). During September the figure rose to 139,622.3 (101,846.1 American and 37,776.2 British), giving a daily average of 4,641 tons. This was a figure no one would have dared hope for at the start of the operation. It was enough, certainly, to provide temporary subsistence for Berlin’s western sectors. It was, however, short of the 5,500 tons the city would need in winter for basic food, light and warmth. And the figure was, of course, far below the 12,000 tons a day imported before the blockade to maintain the low economic existence and poor standard of comfort of the allied sectors.

The unpleasant truth was that by September the airlift was supplying barely 40 per cent of what had once been brought to Berlin by land and water. Clay was flattering it when he said in the middle of the month, “We are not quite holding our own.”5 Stocks in the city were actually falling; the airlift was not keeping up with summer needs and was not building up any reserves at all for the winter.

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