Vol. 12 No. 3 Newsletter of the China Lake Museum Foundation Summer 2006 A FIRST HAND LOOK AT THE BERLIN AIRLIFT by Bernald S. Smith The following excerpt about the Berlin Airlift, in conversational style with minimum editing, is taken from an oral history made for the United States Soaring Hall of Fame. Bernald Smith is a re- tired United Airlines Captain who served 31 years in the Navy (both active and reserve). He is an active member of the Ameri- can Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The Soaring Socie- ty of America, the Organisation Scientifique et Technique du Vol à Voile and other organizations. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded him the FAI Bronze Medal in 2003. His other awards include the Lilienthal Medal (highest World Gliding Award) and the Eaton Trophy twice (highest American Soaring Award). Items in parentheses were inserted by the editor. This article is re-printed in The China Laker with the permission of the author and is the property of the National Soaring Museum. It is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author and the National Soaring Museum. I flew transports. I'll never forget, after I got my wings (as a Na- val Aviator) and went out to Honolulu, which was my first as- signment after I'd flown the N2Ss, SNJs, PBYs, and PB4Y2s -- and so, here I was going out to fly DC-4s which was the biggest four engine transport around, I guess, at the time. I remember going to Honolulu -- it was called John Rogers Air- port -- it's now Honolulu International -- and seeing this nose hangar -- which is a nose bay. We didn't have hangars out in the Pacific there. We just had nose bays which would cover the front part of the airplane so they could work on the engines. It was rain- ing, which it did a lot of the time. And here's a guy up on the na- celle on this big four engine airplane -- and it's not very big today in today's airplane world -- but it was at the time. (He had) a great big, huge mallet hammering away on the engine on this airplane on a piece of the cowling to try to get it to fit. I thought -- Well, that's good introduction to transport flying! Have a big hammer with you to get your airplane to work right. That always im- pressed me! Then in 1948, the pressure increased over in Germany such that the Russians cut off all access to Berlin. All the rail traffic and all of the canal traffic and all of the highway traffic was closed. The Russians wouldn't let any train from the West go to Berlin. So the iron curtain was the iron curtain in those days. It later became a wall but it wasn't a wall -- there was no real wall like happened years and years later. It was just an imposition of access. Well, how are they going to shut off the air space? The dividing line between West and East Germany was just east of Brau- wnsweig, Germany. From there into Berlin, there were these cor- ridors to go across the part of Germany that was under the control of the Russians and/or East Germans. These air corridors were not being (closed) -- what were they going to do? How are they going to cut 'em off? So they (Americans, British, French) decided to set up what end- ed up to be the Berlin Airlift by carrying -- they couldn't get any- thing over land; they didn't want to start a war. They decided -- well, let's fly airplanes over. Are they going to shoot down our airplanes? So, we'll see what will happen. They started off with a bunch of DC-3s. Well, right away they realized -- Man, we gotta get some more stuff going in there. General (William H.) Tunnel of the Air Force set up a marvelous, fantastic operation. It turned out -- the Berlin Air Lift had air- planes flying at incredibly close spacing because you needed to get a lot of stuff in there to support all those people. The Air Force -- Those guys had converted from DC-3s -- in the Air Force, (it) was called a C-47 -- in the Navy, we called it an R4D. They converted to C-54s which was the DC-4 -- the military version of the DC-4 -- and in the Navy we called it the R5Ds -- they were all the same airplane. So we had a squadron of R5Ds in Honolulu (Navy Transport Squadron 8) VR-8, which was where I was based ... and another squadron out in Guam (Navy Transport Squadron 6) VR-6. They said -- We gotta have more help over here -- we're not keeping up with things. So they called the Navy to send 12 airplanes from each of their squadrons over there. I remember I was with Art Flanagan -- I was co-pilot for Art Flanagan on Johnston Island -- we'd lost an engine on Johnston Island. So there we were -- we were authorized to make a three engine journey -- 738 nautical miles -- from Johnston Island to Honolulu. Well, that was kinda exciting at the time. Not too many people had done something like that. Although these days they fly twin engine airplanes all over the world. But, anyway, we ferried that thing in and got a hero’s welcome — and I got to participate in taking the first Navy plane into the Berlin Airlift. I think we left in October and, by the time we got there it was November -- the end of the month; the beginning of the I think we left in October and, by the time we got there it was November — the end of the month. These days you can fly non- stop from San Francisco to London -- or San Francisco to Frank- furt, non-stop, depending upon the winds, in anywhere from 10 1/2 to 11 1/2 hours. In those days, it took longer than that just to Please Support Your Museum Foundation Help preserve and display the irreplaceable legacy of technology and weaponry for Naval aviation’s defense of our Nation. The rich record of China Lake’s achievements, past and present, is a vital part of our Nation’s heritage. Membership Fees and Donations are the life blood of our Museum operations and growth. And remember: The China Lake Museum Foundation is Agency 5021 in the 2006-07 IWV United Way and Combined Federal Campaigns the East Coast. Then you had to go up to Argentia in New- foundland, which get to Chicago and then you had to go to someplace on , OCR Text: Vol. 12 No. 3 Newsletter of the China Lake Museum Foundation Summer 2006 A FIRST HAND LOOK AT THE BERLIN AIRLIFT by Bernald S. Smith The following excerpt about the Berlin Airlift, in conversational style with minimum editing, is taken from an oral history made for the United States Soaring Hall of Fame. Bernald Smith is a re- tired United Airlines Captain who served 31 years in the Navy (both active and reserve). He is an active member of the Ameri- can Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The Soaring Socie- ty of America, the Organisation Scientifique et Technique du Vol à Voile and other organizations. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale awarded him the FAI Bronze Medal in 2003. His other awards include the Lilienthal Medal (highest World Gliding Award) and the Eaton Trophy twice (highest American Soaring Award). Items in parentheses were inserted by the editor. This article is re-printed in The China Laker with the permission of the author and is the property of the National Soaring Museum. It is not to be reproduced without the permission of the author and the National Soaring Museum. I flew transports. I'll never forget, after I got my wings (as a Na- val Aviator) and went out to Honolulu, which was my first as- signment after I'd flown the N2Ss, SNJs, PBYs, and PB4Y2s -- and so, here I was going out to fly DC-4s which was the biggest four engine transport around, I guess, at the time. I remember going to Honolulu -- it was called John Rogers Air- port -- it's now Honolulu International -- and seeing this nose hangar -- which is a nose bay. We didn't have hangars out in the Pacific there. We just had nose bays which would cover the front part of the airplane so they could work on the engines. It was rain- ing, which it did a lot of the time. And here's a guy up on the na- celle on this big four engine airplane -- and it's not very big today in today's airplane world -- but it was at the time. (He had) a great big, huge mallet hammering away on the engine on this airplane on a piece of the cowling to try to get it to fit. I thought -- Well, that's good introduction to transport flying! Have a big hammer with you to get your airplane to work right. That always im- pressed me! Then in 1948, the pressure increased over in Germany such that the Russians cut off all access to Berlin. All the rail traffic and all of the canal traffic and all of the highway traffic was closed. The Russians wouldn't let any train from the West go to Berlin. So the iron curtain was the iron curtain in those days. It later became a wall but it wasn't a wall -- there was no real wall like happened years and years later. It was just an imposition of access. Well, how are they going to shut off the air space? The dividing line between West and East Germany was just east of Brau- wnsweig, Germany. From there into Berlin, there were these cor- ridors to go across the part of Germany that was under the control of the Russians and/or East Germans. These air corridors were not being (closed) -- what were they going to do? How are they going to cut 'em off? So they (Americans, British, French) decided to set up what end- ed up to be the Berlin Airlift by carrying -- they couldn't get any- thing over land; they didn't want to start a war. They decided -- well, let's fly airplanes over. Are they going to shoot down our airplanes? So, we'll see what will happen. They started off with a bunch of DC-3s. Well, right away they realized -- Man, we gotta get some more stuff going in there. General (William H.) Tunnel of the Air Force set up a marvelous, fantastic operation. It turned out -- the Berlin Air Lift had air- planes flying at incredibly close spacing because you needed to get a lot of stuff in there to support all those people. The Air Force -- Those guys had converted from DC-3s -- in the Air Force, (it) was called a C-47 -- in the Navy, we called it an R4D. They converted to C-54s which was the DC-4 -- the military version of the DC-4 -- and in the Navy we called it the R5Ds -- they were all the same airplane. So we had a squadron of R5Ds in Honolulu (Navy Transport Squadron 8) VR-8, which was where I was based ... and another squadron out in Guam (Navy Transport Squadron 6) VR-6. They said -- We gotta have more help over here -- we're not keeping up with things. So they called the Navy to send 12 airplanes from each of their squadrons over there. I remember I was with Art Flanagan -- I was co-pilot for Art Flanagan on Johnston Island -- we'd lost an engine on Johnston Island. So there we were -- we were authorized to make a three engine journey -- 738 nautical miles -- from Johnston Island to Honolulu. Well, that was kinda exciting at the time. Not too many people had done something like that. Although these days they fly twin engine airplanes all over the world. But, anyway, we ferried that thing in and got a hero’s welcome — and I got to participate in taking the first Navy plane into the Berlin Airlift. I think we left in October and, by the time we got there it was November -- the end of the month; the beginning of the I think we left in October and, by the time we got there it was November — the end of the month. These days you can fly non- stop from San Francisco to London -- or San Francisco to Frank- furt, non-stop, depending upon the winds, in anywhere from 10 1/2 to 11 1/2 hours. In those days, it took longer than that just to Please Support Your Museum Foundation Help preserve and display the irreplaceable legacy of technology and weaponry for Naval aviation’s defense of our Nation. The rich record of China Lake’s achievements, past and present, is a vital part of our Nation’s heritage. Membership Fees and Donations are the life blood of our Museum operations and growth. And remember: The China Lake Museum Foundation is Agency 5021 in the 2006-07 IWV United Way and Combined Federal Campaigns the East Coast. Then you had to go up to Argentia in New- foundland, which get to Chicago and then you had to go to someplace on , China Lake Museum,China Laker - Newsletter,China Laker 2000s,China Laker 2006,Vol+12+No+3+Summer+2006.pdf,Vol+12+No+3+Summer+2006.pdf Page 1, Vol+12+No+3+Summer+2006.pdf Page 1