Aussies In Berlin Airlift

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Aussies In Berlin Airlift

Postby Aharon » Sun Aug 22, 2021 5:13 am

Shalom and greetings all my pals,

Unless I am mistaken, I read somewhere that Australian air force participated in Berlin airlift. Aussies used 2 or 3 DC-3s/C-47s.

Can anyone shed any light on Australian action for Berlin Airlift please and which DC-3/C-47 did Aussies use for the airlift, please?

Thanks,

Aharon
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Re: Aussies In Berlin Airlift

Postby Splitpin » Sun Aug 22, 2021 9:25 am

Aharon, this could be a good place to start.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAAF_Squa ... n_Air_Lift
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Re: Aussies In Berlin Airlift

Postby Radar88 » Sun Aug 22, 2021 12:48 pm

:hesaid:

Just to add on from the other New Zealand Aviation posting re Berlin Airlift

"Just four years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, Europe was once again in crisis. Germany was divided into two separate countries, West and East Germany. The politically sensitive city of Berlin was also symbolically subdivided. Britain, America and France held portions of West Berlin, while the Soviet Union (Russia) held the Eastern portion and controlled all access in and out of the divided city.

Difficulties arose in the summer of 1948 when Britain tried to introduce a new form of currency to their portion of West Berlin. Soviet leader Josef Stalin used this as an excuse to blockade all land and river routes in and out of the city. This strangle-hold threatened to starve the Allies and the population of West Berlin.

The only way to supply the blockaded city was by air. The Berlin Blockade Airlift had begun.

Britain appealed to the Commonwealth air forces for the loan of experienced transport crews to help the western allied forces. Australian crews arrived in September 1948 and were soon joined by their counterparts from New Zealand."

In the spirit of ANZAC participation and cooperation, Australia and New Zealand only provided Aircrew personnel, to assist the western allied forces airlifting of supplies using the RAF Fleet of 150 Douglas DC-3, Dakota aircraft and 40 Avro Yorks along with the RAF Fleet of Short Sunderland flying boats during the Berlin Airlift effort.

Airforce Museum of New Zealand: The Berlin Airlift – Seventy Years On
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Re: Aussies In Berlin Airlift

Postby Aharon » Mon Aug 23, 2021 2:18 am

Radar88 wrote:Just to add on from the other New Zealand Aviation posting


Yeah I made mistake posting my question about Aussie pilots on this wrong subforum because I thought RNZAF is Royal Australian Air Force. My mistake. Can the moderators of NZFF forums please move this thread to Australian Aviation History subforum??

Radar88 wrote:Australian crews arrived in September 1948 In the spirit of ANZAC participation and cooperation, Australia only provided Aircrew personnel, to assist the western allied forces airlifting of supplies using the RAF Fleet of 150 Douglas DC-3, Dakota aircraft.


Thanks Radar88

I thought Australian Air Force provided 2 or 3 DC-3s/C-47s for Berlin Airlift. Guess the internet info that I saw is wrong.

Is it possible or impossible to find out which RAF DC-3s/C-47s and which registration numbers did Australian pilots flew for Berlin Airlift?

Thanks Splitpin for the hyperlink but I was looking for more advanced info.

Regards,

Aharon
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Re: Aussies In Berlin Airlift

Postby Radar88 » Mon Aug 23, 2021 5:59 pm

Aharon wrote:
Is it possible or impossible to find out which RAF DC-3s/C-47s and which registration numbers did Australian pilots flew for Berlin Airlift?

Regards,

Aharon


It would be logistically impossible to find out which RAF DC-3s/C-47s and Aircraft registration numbers of flights that, the Aircrews from both the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) transport squadrons, flew with during the Berlin Airlift flight operations.

Simply due to the large-scale of operations and the flight duty time limitations, with the large-scale of Aircrew numbers involved with supply flights at any given time during the Berlin Airlift.

To appreciate the reasoning behind the questioning.

Aharon wrote:
find out which RAF DC-3s/C-47s and which registration numbers did Australian pilots flew for Berlin Airlift

Regards,

Aharon



As a suggestion, please watch these highly informative videos.

BERLIN AIRLIFT Documentary including Archive Film and Interviews

The Berlin Airlift - The Cold War Mission to Save a City

Watch them right through to the very end, they fully document the historical event behind the scenes of the monumental, logistical operational effort to supply the besieged city. Entirely by air, flying huge numbers of transport planes into Berlin's airports every three minutes, while the city's lakes were used as landing sites for seaplanes.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) No. 41 Squadron was a transport unit. The squadron was formed in 1944, and conducted transport flights in the south Pacific during World War II. It remained active after the war, and flew supplies to the New Zealand occupation force in Japan.

Three crews from No. 41 Squadron Dakota crews (each crew comprising a pilot, a navigator and a radio operator) were dispatched to Europe in 1948 to operate with the Royal Air Force as New Zealand's contribution to the Berlin Airlift.

The crews were based at Lübeck and conducted two flights into Berlin each day they were on duty. A second group of three crews was later dispatched to replace the first group.

Following the end of the Soviet blockade of Berlin, the detachment returned to New Zealand in August 1949.

At this time the main body of the squadron in New Zealand had been forced to reduce its flying hours due to a shortage of technicians to service the Dakotas.

Thus the RNZAF contribution to the Berlin Airlift was fairly small by comparison with the American and Britsh Aircrews.

New Zealand provided Two 6 month long group rotational deployment of 3 RNZAF Transport Aircrews that comprised of a pilot, a navigator and a radio operator.

In total a year long deployment for the RNZAF transport unit personnel involved 18 RNZAF Aircrew members to assist the western allied forces during the Berlin Airlift.

In contrast the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) transport squadron formed to participate in the Berlin Airlift. The unit operated for one year, between August 1948 and August 1949, and was raised specifically for the operation, drawing crews from two existing RAAF transport squadrons. In total the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) contributed 40 Aircrew members from the RAAF transport squadrons.

R.A.A.F. Berlin airlift crews home without a scratch
Last edited by Radar88 on Mon Aug 23, 2021 9:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Aussies In Berlin Airlift

Postby Splitpin » Mon Aug 23, 2021 8:00 pm

"Thanks Splitpin for the hyperlink but I was looking for more advanced info." No problem, but perhaps do a little more detailed research yourself first.
I know your question was very specific, but there are a lot of resources out there.
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Re: Aussies In Berlin Airlift

Postby Aharon » Tue Aug 24, 2021 3:23 am

Thanks Radar88 and Splitpin for all kind answers, explantions, and hyperlinks.

Radar88, I already saw those videos before. I was trying to find specific RAF DC-3s/C-47s that Aussie pilots and NZ pilots flew in Berlin Airlift. I guess it is not going to happen as you said it would be impossible.

Regards,

Aharon
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