Warbird Information Exchange

On Sunday a USAF Air Traffic Control Squadron came in and essentially took over the field as far as ATC was concerned.

The issue with planes circling was due to the lack of fuel on the field, and the mandate that every flight in had to arrive with enough fuel on board to take off again. Some arriving flights did not meet that criteria and were refused landing permission.

The field at PAP can handle 747-sized aircraft, but ramp space is limited, so parking is a problem. Until recently there were not enough unloading capability to turn aircraft around quickly enough to generate enough ramp space for all the flights arriving.

Walt

I an tell you where they are alike. Today a TV reporter was on talking about efforts, and in the background a DC-3/C-47 taxied past!! Just got to wonder if there is a chancce that it flew in the berlin Airlift and this?

My earlier post was based on info I had at the time, and that I believed to be accurate. My apologies for presenting any mis-information to those on this forum.

With great regret.

Walt

Berlin's Airlift
The story of the Berlin Airlift - Operation Vittles for the US forces, Operation Plainfair for the RAF (and Operation Pelican for a small group of RAAF crews) - is a fascinating and well documented achievement of 'simple' logistics over force majure. For a brief overview from Wikipedia: "The Berlin Blockade (24 June 1948 – 12 May 1949) was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under their control. Their aim was to force the western powers to allow the Soviet zone to start supplying Berlin with food and fuel, thereby giving the Soviets practical control over the entire city. In response, the Western Allies organized the Berlin Airlift to carry supplies to the people in West Berlin. The over 4,000 tons per day required by Berlin during the airlift totaled, for example, over ten times the volume that the encircled German 6th Army required six years earlier at the Battle of Stalingrad."

"The United States Air Force, Royal Air Force, and other Commonwealth nations flew over 200,000 flights providing 13,000 tons of food daily to Berlin in an operation lasting almost a year. By the spring of 1949, the effort was clearly succeeding, and by April the airlift was delivering more cargo than had previously flowed into the city by rail. The success of the Airlift was humiliating to the Soviets, who had repeatedly claimed it could never work. When it became clear that it did work, the blockade was lifted in May." More detail on Wiki, as per my previous link.

Contrasts and Comparisons.
The most crucial difference is, of course, size. In 1948, the western powers were trying to keep 3/4 of a city alive. Berlin's population had been reduced by war from a pre-war 4.6 million to 2.8. In Haiti, the current population is given as 10 million. Berlin was a city in runs due to war, but people had adapted and many services and infrastructure worked - even the black market was systematised and effective. While Haiti is also looking like 'it has been bombed' there are key differences in the effect on infrastructure, and it has been clear from news reports that in many essentials law and order as well as governance have broken down.

There are many similarities. Although the Berlin Airlift was primarily a joint military operation, it did initially have a number of civilian fliers, as does the Haiti operation today. From Wikipedia again; "British European Airways (BEA) co-ordinated all British civil aircraft operations. Apart from BEA itself, the participating airlines included British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and most British independent airlines of that era - eg Eagle Aviation, Silver City Airways, British South American Airways (BSAA), the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation, Airwork, Air Flight, Aquila Airways (with flying boats) Flight Refuelling, Skyways, Scottish Airlines and Ciro's Aviation. Altogether, BEA was responsible to the RAF for the direction and operation of 25 British airlines taking part in Operation Plainfare."

While both operations are seen to some degree as being almost 'turnkey' in deploying existing resources in pre-planned and trained scenarios, that is actually not the case. The US military has an experienced airlift capability, with current operations underway, but I doubt that a scenario like this - with the scale and joint operation requirements as they are - is something even they would have planned for. Morale was an issue in 1948, due to the initial poor utilisation of the crews and aircraft and postwar wind downs of all the forces. Today the complex politics of a significantly wider multi-national and civilian and military operation causes frustration and issues for the planners and crews. Logistics and addressing bottlenecks by improving those logistics (by many extempore and new ways) were, and are, absolute priorities in both cases.

While there is gunfire and looting, there is no armed standoff with a recently combat-hardened army and air forces as there was against the Russians in 1948. One factor that must have been in the minds of all aircrew , groundcrew and the Berliners and planners was what were the Russians going to do next? Harassment was carried out by Russian fighter aircraft, with collisions and loss of life. It is one of the quirks of history that not only did the Western Allies face down the Russians, but that no one at the time probably seriously expected the Russians to fold as they did.

The difference between an accidental collision by a potential enemy trying to scare you and an accidental collision between two aid aircraft in the wrong place at the same time is nothing - and the crews flying into Haiti are facing a remarkably similar challenge, despite the half century gap. However the modern crews at least do not face the threat of a suddenly unleashed overwhelming attack from the East.

In the case of Berlin, not only were there several airports (Tempelhof and Gatow Airports, as well as Tegel Airport, built during the airlift) but also the RAF used Short Sunderlands and Hythe flying boats to fly supplies into the Havel river, and thanks to their anti-corrosion protection, they were used to carry the vital baking and other salts. Today there is a very different maritime element being provided by the carrier the USS Carl Vinson steaming offshore. Currently there is only the main airport in use in Haiti, although it is hoped to bring a second smaller one into use as well as an airport in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. It is also hoped to bring ports and ground transport into play as soon as possible, and part of the modern airlift is bringing in heavy equipment to do so.

Amazingly, there is at least one direct link between the Haiti airlift and the Berlin one. Hundreds of C-47s and Dakotas - the military versions of the DC-3 - were vital in the Berlin operations for the British and the Americans. At least one DC-3, an ex-W.W.II veteran aircraft operated by Remote Area Medical (RAM an all-volunteer charitable organisation) is flying into Haiti. It is an old aviation axiom that the only replacement for a DC-3 is another DC-3, but yet again the old 'Goony Bird' is there when it counts, for real.

While the DC-3s and all the other younger aircraft are vital, it is the crews and the vast support network of others who keep them and their aircraft able to fly that make it all possible. Thanks must go to them, both then, and now.

Much of this attempt to compare the relief effort in Haiti with the Berlin Airlift makes no sense to me, but here is an actual parallel between the two events, C-54/DC-4 type aircraft delivered supplies in both of the occurences.