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.

Ronald Pickersgill came of age during the Second World War. Despite losing his brother he held no animosity towards the Germans, and in his interview he offers a vivid, often humorous picture of life in post-war Berlin. He recalls arriving at a time of runaway inflation — literally burning piles of Reichsmarks — and being confined to camp when the new Deutsche Mark was introduced, a move that helped trigger the Soviet blockade.

Trained first at a base radar station in Wunstorf, Ronald was then moved to the control tower at RAF Gatow, where he logged conversations with incoming and outgoing aircraft. He describes working from a tiny Ground Control Approach caravan, dramatic incidents including a crash with a cargo of coffee and a fatal accident on the runway, and the relentless rhythm of “three-shift” working.

Amid the rationing he remembers Berlin’s Vedin French Restaurant somehow still serving fine food, feeling sorry for the elderly women doing the hardest work, and counting the days to demob. After Berlin he was posted to Westerland to oversee Auxiliary Air Force rocket practice — and tells an unforgettable story about an amorous couple caught on the range.

John spent part of his childhood in Canada but later he returned to Britain and joined the RAF as an apprentice aged fifteen. When war broke out he volunteered as aircrew and was posted to Canada for training. He enjoyed this, partly because there was no food rationing. After finishing he was sent to Egypt to ferry aircraft, such as the Martin Marauder and the Bristol Beaufighter, to India. These trips took three to four days. After the start of the Airlift, in October 1948, he was sent to Germany as a relief crew and based in Lübeck. From here he flew Dakotas (C-47s) to Gatow in Berlin, often two or three round trips a day. The cargo was sometimes coal and one of the American air traffic people composed a ditty: “C-47 with a blackened soul, Bound for Lübeck with a load of coal.” Coming into land one night at Lübeck the weather was bad, with rain and dense fog. Under these conditions the radar did not work well. When he descended through the cloud cover, he realised that they were too low and the underside of the Dakota hit some trees and, despite trying to fly up and away the plane crashed. He dislocated his shoulder, and someone pulled him out of the burning aircraft. A mother and child onboard died, as did his co-pilot. He recuperated but it was two years before he could fly again and after a while he could only fly as second pilot.