Pilots: The Pilots
Chapter section from:
Airbridge to Berlin ---  The Berlin Crisis of 1948,  its Origins and Aftermath 
By D.M. Giangreco and Robert E. Griffin
© 1988
(Used with permission)

  The references by the newspapers to Berlin's 20 mile wide air corridors as "narrow and dangerous" infuriated the airlift pilots, who often referred to themselves as "peasants" because they were hauling coal and potatoes. In height, they pointed out, they literally had infinity, although the scrupulous exactitude at which they flew assigned altitudes, limited them even more than the 20 miles did horizontally. But 20 miles, except in the foulest weather, was neither narrow or dangerous. After all, as one said after the term "peasant" caught hold: "Us peasants ought to stay in a twenty-mile lane unless we were crocked, and I don't want to be up there with any crocked peasants."

  To relieve the routine and tension even while in the air, pilots were not above having some fun with newcomers. Guy Dunn reported overhearing the following transmission on a run back from Berlin:

  "BW 17 over Braunschweig at 05 at 7,000 feet upside down in a thunderstorm. What do I do now-over?" A new voice came on. "Now listen closely son. Over your head there is a little switch marked 'Inverter.' Take your right hand off the wheel and reach up and move that switch to the rear position and when the red light next to that switch goes out, you will be flying right side up and then you go to Rhein-Main-out."

  Sometimes the pilots had to overcome adversity on the ground too. Jeff Warren advised that he and his crew often got back to their billeting area near Rhein-Main in the wee hours of the morning after twelve hours of duty. They would just get to sleep when at 6:00 am a cannon would go off to announce reveille for the Army troops billeted on the same base. Entreaties to the post commander were to no avail until one night the crew decided to take affirmative action. Using ropes and block and tackle they hauled the offending cannon to the top of a four-story barracks. Their message seemed to get through and reveille was no longer announced with a 6:00 am cannon shot during the airlift.

	"Peasants" chatting over a brief lunch at Tempelhof.

	Fueled by doughnuts, hamburgers and coffee, these pilots at Rhein-Main flew four round trips per day.

	Parachutes in hand, Berlin-bound pilots take a quick look at the morning paper before heading for their plane.