airport of the famous airlift

On 20 June 1948, Soviet authorities, claiming technical difficulties, halted all traffic by land and by water into or out of the western-controlled sectors of Berlin. The only remaining access routes into the city were three 20 mi (32 km)-wide air corridors across the Soviet Zone of Occupation.[20] Faced with the choice of abandoning the city or attempting to supply its inhabitants with the necessities of life by air, the Western Powers chose the latter course.


1949 stamp from West Berlin with a Douglas C-54 Skymaster over Tempelhof airport

Berlin Airlift Memorial on Platz der Luftbrücke in front of the airport, displaying the names of the 39 British and 31 American pilots who lost their lives during the operation, and symbolising the three air corridors.
Operation Vittles, as the airlift was unofficially named, began on 26 June when USAF Douglas C-47 Skytrains carried 80 tons of food into Tempelhof, far less than the estimated 4,500 tons of food, coal and other essential supplies needed daily to maintain a minimum level of existence. But this force was soon augmented by United States Navy and Royal Air Force cargo aircraft, as well as British European Airways (BEA) and many of Britain's fledgling wholly privately owned, independent airlines.[21]

The latter included the late Sir Freddie Laker's Air Charter, Eagle Aviation[22] and Skyways. On 15 October 1948, to promote increased safety and cooperation between the separate US and British airlift efforts, the Allies created a unified command – the Combined Airlift Task Force under Maj. Gen. William H. Tunner, USAF – at Tempelhof. To facilitate the command and control, as well as the unloading of aircraft, the USAF 53d Troop Carrier Squadron was temporarily assigned to Tempelhof.
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