Candy Bomber Bashny.Net

24 June 1948 started one of the first crises of the "cold war" - in response to the currency reform in the western German states of the USSR has blocked all land and waterways leading into Berlin. Any attempt to break the blockade by force put the world on the brink of World War III.



in England were deployed strategic bombers B-29, capable of carrying nuclear weapons (though neither Moscow nor in Europe did not know that the bombs themselves yet), there was talk of armored invasion. However, the main role in resolving the crisis played a normal transport "horses» - Douglas C-47 Skytrain and C-54 Skymaster. Two days later, was erected in the Berlin Airlift and the beginning of transportation of food.
Every day in the air rose hundreds of planes, thousands of Berliners dumping tons of humanitarian aid. One of the pilots of these aircraft was Colonel Gail Halvorsen from Utah. It was he who first noticed that among the deliverables were not sweets for children. And every flight he began to take a bar of chocolate and candy bags, tie them to handkerchiefs and drop over the city to the delight of the children, shaking his wings "Candy Bomber" (It. «Rosinenbomber», Eng. «Candy Bomber»). Soon his act already knew all the pilots allies, thousands of parcels with sweets came to the airbase, and then little parachutes landed on the ground.
Crisis ended May 12, 1949 division of Germany into West Germany and East Germany, but it was a great policy to which young children did not care.