Sam was well travelled and hitch-hiked through Germany in 1938-39, where the atmosphere seemed to change as war neared. After joining the RAF in 1941, he was sent to Canada for training before heading to RAF Leuchars in Scotland where he hunted enemy submarines. Following a relatively uneventful period of wartime flying, Sam used his navigator training to join a charter aircraft company flying around Europe. He was then sent to fly planes rescuing Hindu refugees from persecution during the 1947 partition of India. Sam subsequently captained civilian planes during the Berlin Airlift. Unlike RAF pilots who took commands from operations officers, he was responsible for deciding when weather conditions made flying too treacherous. He recalls near crashes with a Russian plane flying off course and an RAF York whose pilot disobeyed tower landing commands. He worked hard during the airlift and had little time for leisure while flying 3 flights per day and sometimes at night. After returning to Jersey in December 1948, Sam joined a civilian carrier that later became British Airways. His account sheds valuable light on the essential role civilian charter companies played in the Berlin Airlift.

Upon turning 18, Betty Hutton decided to join the air force and began her military career in the RAF Balloon Command, working in both London and Manchester. When the air force started to reduce the use of barrage balloons – at the same time deciding it wasn’t a role fit for a woman after all, much to the serving women’s chagrin – Betty opted to become an aircraft mechanic. After successfully completing her training Betty began working on the Whitley aircrafts, but as an assistant she wasn’t allowed to do any of the critical mechanical work herself. Determined to progress her role, she undertook further training and passed out as a Fitter 2A, holding sole responsibility for carrying out mechanical work on the Wellington aircraft, which she found frightening but exhilarating. Betty’s story of course contains personal accounts of loss and sadness that serve as stark reminders of the heartbreak and devastation of war, but it’s abundantly clear to see – despite the great modesty with which she shares her memories – the significant contribution her hard work and commitment made to the war effort.

Dan had wanted to fly but was unwilling to sign on for three years and instead was conscripted. He trained in radar and was assigned to Ground Control Approach and was posted to the RAF base in Gatow, Berlin, adjacent to the Soviet zone. His unit was located at the beginning of the airstrip, guiding in British Avro Yorks and Tudors and the US C47 Skymaster. The aircraft were arriving every two to three minutes and the sky was busy with other western Allied aircraft landing at other airfields in Berlin. When on call his unit lived in a caravan beside the runway, where they were able to sleep, despite the aircraft noise The Russians were generally regarded with suspicion by the British and with fear by the Germans. He felt that the Airlift was a good thing and that it was appreciated by the German people, who were being fed by it. In addition to food the planes brought in fuel and household goods. For relaxation he enjoyed the local yacht club, run by friendly Russians, and occasionally to the centre of Berlin which was still badly damaged. Here they would sometimes go to the American Mess hall as the food was better than the British NAAFI. The work was exhausting but he only realised how tiring when he went home on leave and slept for 24 hours! He was on this posting for nine of the eleven months of the Airlift and left Berlin shortly before it ended.