On 18th June we went to Flixton Aviation Museum to meet two veterans of the Berlin Airlift, a former pilot Alex McLeish, known as Mac and Albert Kingham, a former ATC, known as 'L.B.' and the Chairman of the British Berlin Airlift Association, Geoff Smith, a former electrician in the airlift.  It was a good afternoon and the opportunity to ask Mac and L.B. about their experiences in the airlift.  A short film is being edited of the day and will be ready by September. It was a nice end to the project and we'll be giving a short presentation in September to the veterans and Legasee.

Today we have continued our work to construct an miniature airbase from household materials. We currently have the runway drawn and in the process of painting, a plastacine plane already constructed and painted and several other buildings and vehicles are under construction. Progress!

Former No. 10 Squadron Leader, Tom Churcher, flew numerous flights in the Berlin Airlift, mainly Lubeck, Gatow and Tempelhoff. His collection is one of the most informative we've received so far because it contains an account of his personal role in the airlift, plus the  memorabilia he reserved from the 30th anniversary celebrations where he and his wife were guests in Berlin.  Amongst the papers he describes a day in the life of an airlift pilot.  Here are some of Mr Churcher's photos and memorabilia:

Alec Chambers

One of the veterans. Alec flew in a Lancaster bomber during the Berlin airlift

Various Bases in Germany

BASES IN THE ALLIED SECTORS:
Gatow
Tegel
Tempelhof
Havel Lake
BASES IN THE BRITISH ZONE OF GERMANY:
Wunstorf
Lubeck
Fassberg
Celle
Schleswigland
Finkenwerder

Legasee has been collecting memorabilia and photos from the veterans they've been interviewing.  The artefacts will form a permanent archive at the Norfolk & Suffolk Aviation Museum in Flixton, Suffolk.  There's going to to be a celebratory event for everyone involved in the Berlin Airlift project to launch the archive and display in September.

Here's some of the collection:

Former pilot Alexander McLeish has written his own memoir and has kindly lent a copy for our exhibition:

Harry (Timber) Wood (1920 -1984) joined the Royal Air Force aged 17, and attended Cranwell. He got a priority place because his father had been in the RAF in WW1.

He sailed  to Singapore as WW2 broke out and remained in Singapore until it fell in 1942, when RAF personnel were evacuated. He was a radio operator and ran radio stations and outposts.  He spent most of the rest of the war in Ceylon, Diego Garcia and Pakistan before returning to Britain in 1944. He was initially a wireless operator and worked with Sunderlands and other flying boats. He then trained as a Navigator. As well as working with the Berlin Air lift he flew in the far East in peacetime.

He was in the Sunderland that flew under Sidney Harbour Bridge in January 1947 and was sent back to England!  Harry flew for the airlift between July to December 1948.

A selection from Harry's log book:

Alan Johnson featured in an article for Veteran's World which Legasee wrote:

Memories of the Berlin Airlift sought…

The charity Legasee Educational Trust has launched a project to record veterans’ stories of the Berlin airlift. One of those recently interviewed is former airman, Alan Johnson.

Now 82, Alan joined the RAF for his National Service in September 1948 and by March 1949 he was posted to the centre of Berlin to work at the Berlin Air Safety Centre.

'The majority of us were working shifts at this Berlin Air Safety Centre.  Information would come in from the airfields that were within the British zone of West German such as Fassberg, Wunstorf.  We had a card for each one in which we noted the type of aircraft, the call sign of the aircraft, the pilot and what it was carrying and when we got the complete flight coming in or going out we'd hand this back to the Russians who were sitting about nine feet away.'

 

Alan remembers the pressure to improve their daily targets for the airlift, 'Everything would be trying to run more quickly so we were quite competitive with ourselves and our own targets every day.'

While living in Berlin, Alan was attached to the Civilian Control Commission for Germany and he and his colleagues were able to get about the city quite easily to would visit different places.  'There was still a tremendous amount of devastation about after the war, but we had a great deal of freedom and a German lad took us to places we wouldn't have seen otherwise, like cafes and jazz clubs.'

Alan has very fond memories of his National Service days and time in Berlin, 'We also had plenty of access to the Olympic Stadium so we used a lot of the facilities there.  It was a very hot summer and we could use the pools. The Berlin Airlift was an exciting part of doing my National Service.  It was a situation that few National Service people would ever get involved with because of the semi-luxury way in which we were living. We were able to do all sorts of things which wouldn't have been possible for most people in the services.  The Airlift was a good experience for me.'

Photos of Alan Johnson now and then:

Still to come: Veteran Tom Churcher, former Squadron Leader of No. 10. Squadron flew numerous flights in the airlift.  His collection is one of the most informative we've received so far because it contains an account of his personal role in the airlift, plus the memorabilia he reserved from the 30th anniversary celebrations where he and his wife were guests in Berlin.  Amongst the papers he describes a day in the life of an airlift pilot.

Project attracts publicity...

Since the autumn at the start of our project it has attracted various publicity in the form of national and local radio (Radio 4 & BBC Radio Suffolk), the regional newspaper, East Anglian Daily Times and magazines.  The project team has been successful in finding veterans to interview as a result of the publicity.  Here are some of the 'clippings' from our Press file:

From the East Anglian Daily Times, February 2013:

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/features_2_483/remembering_the_world_s_greatest_airlift_1_1929336

and Radio 4's Making History, January 2013:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pzs70


and BBC Radio Suffolk's Mark Murphy show in October 2012 (clip available on request) and BBC Look East coverage at our launch in August 2012:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19165468