Sid (an RAF wireless operator) and Jim (a pilot) met while serving together in 46 Squadron during the Berlin Airlift. They recall the devastation of postwar Berlin, waving at Russian pilots from their aircraft, and their daily routines during the airlift. They flew two trips per day, including both night flying and day flying to carry flour, coal, newsprint and medical supplies, as well as airlifting children and the elderly out of Berlin. There were few social opportunities for RAF pilots, as their flying schedules precluded heavy drinking at aircrew pubs or clubs. After a few months, the work became rather tedious, but the humour of American pilots provided entertainment and light relief. Sid and Jim reflect upon flying in treacherous weather conditions, explaining that flights were rarely cancelled yet relatively few accidents occurred. They both saw the airlift as an opportunity to fly, rather than a humanitarian feat. Sid and Jim’s interview highlights the routine and eventual monotony of operations during the Berlin Airlift. Their enduring friendship is testament to the lasting bonds forged between servicemen.

Joyce experienced bombing in WW2 and her mother had a narrow escape. At nineteen, in 1947, she joined the WAAF and trained in air traffic control and radar. The Airlift started the day that Joyce was posted to Germany, and she was initially ambivalent and apprehensive about helping the Germans, due to wartime events. She had never been abroad before and found the experience quite daunting. When she arrived in Germany she became aware of the deprivation that the population were experiencing and how they too were bombed. At the RAF HQ in Ahnsen she worked as a ‘Hoe Girl’ using a table-top hoe to plot the movement of aircraft during the Airlift and this task demanded a high level of accuracy. As well as this duty she worked in communications, relaying messages from aircraft to officers. There were three air ‘corridors’ to Berlin differentiated by height, with an aircraft landing every three to four minutes. The work was hard and constant, with leave once a month, when she and her colleagues were sent to a hotel and during this period she met her husband to be, who was also working on the base. During her time overseas she met Germans of her age and spoke to them about Nazism and the Hitler Youth. They said it was like the British Scouts and tried to explain their enthusiasm for Hitler. These young Germans professed to have no knowledge of the Holocaust, partly because they lived in the countryside.

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.