Raisin Bomber
Candy Bomber (in the USA known as Candy bomber or raisin bomber ) is the colloquial name for the aircraft of the Allies at the time of the Berlin Airlift , the West Berlin supplied with food and other essential tools. This also included fuel such as briquettes .
history
The name refers to the voluntary aid packages that the US aircraft crews threw out of the aircraft before landing and before the actual distribution of small, self-made parachutes to please the waiting children. The discarded packages mostly contained chocolate and chewing gum and probably also raisins .
This idea is now attributed to the pilot Gail Halvorsen . He began to tie bars of chocolate, which he received from his relatives in the USA, to handkerchiefs and to drop them over Berlin before landing. After the media found out about the secret drops, the action soon spread widely and all Air Force planes and many Americans collected candy and chewing gum to support Operation Little Vittles (small provisions).
In today's memory, the nickname is related to all aircraft of the Berlin Airlift , even if historically not all aircraft were involved in the dropping of sweets. Most common, however, was the four-engine Douglas C-54 Skymaster made by the Americans.
Pilots and planes from several nations took part in the airlift, flying to various destinations in Berlin with all possible types of aircraft, including landings on the Havel near Kladow with British flying boats. However, the approach routes to the former Tempelhof Airport and the Tegel Airport , which was built during the blockade, led over densely populated urban areas, where many children gathered after school to wait for the raisin bombers.
Historic aircraft
Various individual aircraft have survived from the time of the airlift. In addition to the C-54, which has been installed on the grounds of Berlin 's Tempelhof Airport for many years, there is the Douglas C-54 Spirit of Freedom , which can be seen regularly as a flying museum at air shows, especially in the USA.
With a Douglas C-47 Skytrain Raisin Bomber from Air Service Berlin , sightseeing flights over Berlin were offered until 2010. On June 19, 2010, however, she had an accident - according to the airline, the last airworthy machine of this type in Germany and a historic aircraft of the Airlift - in an emergency landing due to a broken crankshaft on the expansion site of the airport in Schönefeld . The machine was badly damaged and seven people were slightly injured. According to original plans to make the machine airworthy (with the help of spare parts from an additionally purchased DC-3) and to offer the sightseeing flights again, the operating association decided in February 2019 to finally refrain from a renewed approval and to dissolve the association. The main reason was a stricter legal situation with regard to the licensing of historic aircraft and the associated requirements.
Web links
- Candy Bomber , excerpts from the property brochure, Stiftung Haus der Geschichte of the Federal Republic of Germany, Berlin 1996
- ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: emergency landing of the raisin bomber ) , Air Service Berlin press releases on the crashed raisin bomber
- Airlift project , documents on the Berlin blockade and airlift
Individual evidence
- ^ Website of the Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation , operator of the C-54 Spirit of Freedom
- ↑ Accidental raisin bomber should fly again. In: Berliner Morgenpost , June 21, 2010
- ↑ Andreas Conrad: Raisin Bomber should fly again. In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 28, 2011.
- ↑ Seven injured in crash landing in Schönefeld. In: Berliner Morgenpost , June 19, 2010.
- ↑ 02/22/2019 - Press release - Förderverein Raisinenbomber eV In: rettet-den-rosinenbomber.de. Retrieved April 15, 2019 .