Before his involvement in the Berlin Airlift, Ken Weaden grew up in the small village of Easton-in-Gordano in Somerset, where he witnessed the devastating aftermath of the Bristol Blitz. As part of the RAF, Ken went first to Manchester, then to Canada to complete his training, before taking on the position of Navigator during the war, in which he helped with the transport of supplies across Europe. After being demobbed, Ken struggled to adjust to the monotonous routine of his old job and soon returned to the RAF. In this interview, he recalls being stationed in Wunstorf, Germany, then Lübeck, dealing with the fast-paced nature of the job and the frequent flights to Gatow, where new aircrafts would arrive every two minutes. Due to the shift system used, one downside of the role was its noticeable lack of downtime. On his only proper night out, Ken remembers being invited to a dance at a hospital club in Hamburg, which was surprisingly full of English medics.  In total, Ken spent 11 months on the Airlift. Despite the workload, he retains humorous anecdotes from his time in service, like one occasion shortly after the war when his crew were forced to land in a Japanese airfield, and attempted their first meal using chopsticks, with little success. Looking back at his work, Ken considers it a job well done, and affirms that the crews did what they were supposed to do. After two extra years in the RAF, he decided it was the right time to leave.

Gordon was evacuated at the start of WW2 but was back home in time to witness German bombing of his town. He joined the ATC as a teenager and was pleased when conscripted into the RAF at Christmas 1946, just after turning eighteen. During training he specialised as an airframe engineer in Transport Command. He focussed on working on the Avro York, a transport derivation of the Lancaster bomber. His first overseas posting was Gibraltar, then back to Britain for a short while before being given two hours’ notice that he was assigned to the RAF base at Wunstorf in Germany at the start of the Berlin airlift. The effort to keep Berlin supplied was unrelenting and during one period Gordon was on duty every day for ten weeks, with some aircraft flying three sorties a day. In his opinion only a young person could maintain a schedule like that. On leave they travelled to nearby towns, although fraternisation with the Germans was discouraged, along with warnings regarding the hazards of venereal infection. A fatal crash at the base of one of ‘his’ aircraft affected him, and he also flew in an aircraft that had engine failure. He feels that the Berlin airlift was a good thing and that his service helped him in later life.

Michel Bourbon-Parme was the son of Prince René of Bourbon-Parma and Princess Margaret of Denmark and grew up in Paris. With the help of the French counsel, he joined the American Army at Fort Benning Georgia and became a second lieutenant. Michel recalls being asked to join the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) by Bill Casey (who later would become the head of the CIA) and travelling to Washington to an intelligence agency to learn how to use specialist equipment. After three weeks training, he was sent to Milton Hall in England and became part of Operation Jedburgh, an allied special operations group. He was parachuted into occupied France after partnering with another Jedburgh named Tommy Macpherson, forming the team named Quinine. He was the youngest Jedburgh at age seventeen and a half. He joined with the Maquis, who were part of the French resistance to stop the Das Reich division and blew up the Eiffel bridge (made by famed architect Gustave Eiffel) to slow them down. He then stayed behind enemy lines for three months to sabotage the Germans. Michel reflects on the being among the first to liberate his countries forces, the politics of the British, French and American’s working together, and the legacy of important achievements by the Jedburgh’s he was proud to be a part of.