10,000 turn out to mark 60 years since Berlin airlift

SOME 10,000 people, including US soldiers, were at the Wiesbaden Garrison yesterday commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Berlin airlift — one of the largest humanitarian undertakings of all time.

Commander of the US Army garrison, Colonel Ray Graham, said the role played by allied forces who organised the airlift set the stage for NATO and closer ties ever since.

“Through the staunch resolve of the Western allies, and the grit of the Berliners, the blockade was broken,” Colonel Graham told a crowd including Germans, American soldiers and their families.

With music playing and an air show at the event, participants remembered what has been regarded as one of the first and decisive battles of the cold war.

From June 26, 1948, to May 1949, the airlift carried food, medical and fuel supplies to some two million west Berliners cut off from the west by Soviet forces.

American, British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and South African pilots among others flew some 278,000 missions, mainly from the US Army airfield in Wiesbaden and what is now Frankfurt International Airport.

During the operation, 73 allied airmen and at least five Germans died in accidents.

“We just did our jobs,” retired aircraft mechanic Johnny Macia told visitors.