The Berlin Air Lift: Berlin Children--Uncle Chocolate Lt. Halvorsen

Figure 1.-- Here is Lt. Gail Halvorsen (Uncle Chocolate) in his C-46 demonstrating is candy bombing technique. Of course he and other air crews did this while in the air over Berlin, blanketing rge city with candy for sweer-starved Berlin children. Halvorsen is photographed here on the ground to get a good photograph. The new large capacity four engine C-54 Skymaster had largely replaced the World War II two engine C-47 as the backbone of the U.S. Air Force transport wing and the larger C118 version was on the way. Many different planes were used in the Berlin Air Lift, but the C-54 was the plane that largely made it possible to save Berlin. It was a stunning transformation without preceent in warfare, in only 3 years the same military men who had reduced a city to rubble became its saviors and heroes. Stalin based his calculations on the war-time failure of the Luftwaffe, but the Luftwaffe did not have the C-54.

Many of the American pilots was struck by the Berlin children who still lived in desperate conditions after the War. The children had little on no candy and many did not even know what chocolate was. The children of course had little idea of the larger issues involved, but were caught up in the episode when one of the pilots began dropping candy and gum in little parachutes when he reached Berlin. Lt. Gail Halvorsen was so struck with the friendliness of the Berlin children that he wanted to do something for them. He decided on his own to start his own operation which he n amed it 'Operation Little Vittles'. Lt. Halvorsen practically bought out all the candy available on his base made little parachutes out of strips of cloth. At first Lt. Halvorsen's buddies gave up their candy rations as well as their handkerchiefs. After the effort was carried in the American media, the American Confectioners Association began providing candy. They sent tons of candy and gum to Westover AFB for processing. School children in Chicopee Massachusetts made parachutes, and tied on candy and sent the finished product to Lt. Halvorsen at Rhine Main AFB. The American flyers air dropped candy all over the city. They also dropped candy for children in East Berlin until the Soviets calling it a provocatin demanded that they stop. Lt. Halvorsen by January 1949 had air dropped more than 250,000 parachutes loaded with candy on the city of Berlin. When the crowds of children around te airports became too large the safety of the children were of concern. The crews began dropping the candy in areas around the city where they saw children playing. They also sent candy to children in schools and hospitals. The Berlin children began calling him Uncle Chocolate as well as Uncle Wiggly Wings, The Schokoladen Flieger, Uncle Wackelfluger, the Cookie Bomber, and the Raisin Bomber. One German reader tells us hat Rosinenbomber (Raisen Bomber) is the term most commonly used today. That rather surprised me. As a boy, I was not overly impressed by raisens. Chocolate was a very different matter. Berlin children wrote with directions as to how to how the American pilots could hit their homes! When one little girl repeately failed to get candy, Lt. Halvorsen personally arrived at her house with a personal hand candy delivery.

Created: 6:26 AM 1/7/2018
Last updated: 6:26 AM 1/7/2018