Photo Gallery

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Berlin after the war was a destroyed, dangerous, barely stirring city. CREDIT: National Archives Berliners attempt to garden in the Tiergarten, their destroyed central park. The hulking mass of the burnt-out, shelled Reichstag looms in the distance. CREDIT: National Archives American relief efforts attempted to feed Germans in the years after the end of the war, but it was not enough. CREDIT: National Archives Wherever and whenever American occupiers threw away their trash, Germans would appear to pick through the refuse. CREDIT: National Archives
German workers unloading C-54 Skymasters at Tempelhof. CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection. The insidious approach into Tempelhof brought the Airlift planes over a cemetery and above a tall apartment building perched at the edge of the airport’s short runway. CREDIT: National Archives A plane overshoots the rainy runway and explodes into flames on “Black Friday,” August 13, 1948. CREDIT: National Archives The children Hal Halvorsen met at the Tempelhof fence. He gave them two sticks of Wrigley gum and promised he would return the next day to drop candy from his plane. CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection.
Halvorsen at Rhein-Main preparing to make his first candy drop over Berlin. He is holding one of the first parachutes he fashioned out of handkerchiefs. CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection Eventually Airlift planes would come to drop hundreds of candy parachutes at a time to Berlin’s children. CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection On October 3, 1948, “Lt. Gail Halvorsen Day” at Tempelhof, Halvorsen throws candy to children from aboard his plane, the “Island of Christmas.” CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection Halvorsen swarmed by young Berliners, who had lived through the war and its aftermath. These were the children Hitler had thought would be his legacy. “Take care of yourself,” wrote 10-year-old Helma Lurch to Halvorsen, “and remember us children and we will remember you our whole life.” CREDIT: National Archives
In a publicity shot taken during his trip to New York, Halvorsen points to a map showing the air corridors into Berlin. CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection Halvorsen, surrounded by boxes of donated candy bars, reads through a batch of letters. CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection To prevent pilots from leaving the side of their plane at Tempelhof during unloading, Tunner brought a mobile snack truck to them and stocked it with hamburgers, coffee, and the prettiest girls in Berlin. CREDIT: National Archives Crew at Rhein-Main waiting for the fog to break to take-off. Just when clear skies mattered more than at any moment in Berlin’s history, the worst fog ever recorded engulfed Europe. CREDIT: National Archives
Young fliers at Rhein-Main—from Houston, Salt Lake City, and Yonkers—celebrate the victory of the Airlift. CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection “Hurray, we’re still alive.” CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection Truman honors Clay in the Rose Garden upon his return after the victory of the Airlift. Marjorie Clay watches from behind. CREDIT: National Archives Halvorsen shows off one of his parachutes to Alta in a press shot after their engagement. They would be married for nearly fifty years. CREDIT: Halvorsen private collection