{"id":1694,"date":"2024-12-23T19:59:53","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T19:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/?p=1694"},"modified":"2024-12-23T20:06:53","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T20:06:53","slug":"airlift-humour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/airlift-humour\/","title":{"rendered":"Airlift Humour"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Airlift Humour<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u00a0The Berlin Airlift was notorious for the banter among crews and between crews and controllers. Almost all veterans remember with amusement the wit that filled the airwaves. Unfortunately, very little of that chatter was recorded — and much of it would probably have been unprintable anyway! This essay can only provide a faint echo of the lively repartee by reporting what veterans remember and shared.<\/p>

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Surprisingly, General Tunner, otherwise a terrible stickler for flying \u201cby the book\u201d and following rules to the letter, recognised the importance of this \u201cwisecracking\u201d and joking. Professional that he was, he realised that bored pilots are more likely to get careless and so more likely to make mistakes \u2013 particularly in an environment like the Airlift where precision counts. The fact that he tolerated the flippancy and non-regulation communication that filled the airwaves during the Airlift is testimony to its importance. And everyone who flew the Airlift remembers it with affection.<\/p>

However, almost none of the humour inherent in an operation like this can be conveyed to the uninitiated reader. In its mildest form, it involved some kind of play on the call-sign of an aircraft: 333, for example, was turned into \u201cState Express\u201d because this was a well-known brand of cigarette at the time, the Lancastrian with the call-sign \u201cTB\u201d only announced his presence by coughing, and the Tudor with the call sign \u201cCD\u201d, responded to communications in the positive by saying \u201cwoof.\u201d The Americans, it is said, corrupted the designation for the key beacon north of Berlin, Frohnau, into \u201cfraulein\u201d and dutifully reported their position as \u201con top of the fraulein.\u201d<\/p>

Other remarks were nothing more than quick wit made hilarious by unexpectedness and the fact that it usually came \u201cout of the blue,\u201d such as the American pilot who overheard a hot exchange between AVM Bennett and a Controller and defused the situation anonymously by remarking in a heavy American accent, \u201cHey, if you guys are gonna start shooting down there, I just ain\u2019t gonna land this ship.\u201d[i]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Or, in another instance, a pilot reported he had \u201clost\u201d his No. 3 engine \u2013 only to promptly receive the helpful advice from a colleague over the airwaves that he should \u201ctry looking on the starboard wing.\u201d A pilot who bounced on landing variably had an audience counting the number of bounces in a loud chorus of \u201cOne, Two, Three, Four\u2026.\u201d Commentary on flying techniques was standard operating procedure, and the controllers were not above asking pilots to \u201cplease take better care of our runway next time\u201d and the like.<\/p>

Much of the humour depended on \u201cbeing there,\u201d \u201cbeing an insider,\u201d knowing the rules, the personalities, the popular songs, radio shows and film personalities of the time \u2014 and the individuals involved. As one RAF pilot stressed, since the RAF flew in squadrons and knew each other well, they recognised voices over the R\/T and knew more about one another than merely the professional side. They often used Christian names rather than call-signs.<\/p>

Last but not least, much of Airlift humour depended on accent. Both British and Americans took pleasure in teasing each other about their respective means of \u201cmutilating\u201d a common tongue. Accents could also lead to confusion. Controllers at Gatow expecting an RAF Dakota were astonished to hear a broad Great Plains accent coming over the airwaves. Instantly assuming that a USAF C-54 had somehow slipped into the pattern by mistake, they inquired of the aircraft: \u201c123, are you a Skymaster?\u201d To which the pilot (a Canadian as it turned out) replied in his drawl, \u201cAh don\u2019t think so. Ah was a Dakota when Ah took off, but I\u2019ll take a look. Maybe Ah\u2019ve growed some.\u201d[ii]<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>

[i]<\/a>\u00a0Capt. Stan Sickelmore, Talk before the Royal Aeronautical Society, May 28, 1999.<\/p>

[ii]<\/a>\u00a0Jackson, p. 127<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Airlift was, furthermore, a successful collaborative effort between Allies, in which each partner brought special skills and made a unique contribution. All participants report that British and Americans worked well together, respected and \u2013 if one excludes the food at RAF stations \u2014 enjoyed working together.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The first battle of the Cold War is about to begin….<\/strong><\/b>
<\/strong><\/b><\/p>

Berlin 1948<\/strong><\/b>.\u00a0 In the ruins of Hitler\u2019s capital, former RAF officers, a woman pilot, and the victim of Russian brutality form an air ambulance company. But the West is on a collision course with Stalin\u2019s aggression and Berlin is about to become a flashpoint. World War Three is only a misstep away.\u00a0Buy Now<\/a><\/p>

Berlin is under siege. More than two million civilians must be supplied by air — or surrender to Stalin’s oppression.<\/p>

USAF Captain J.B. Baronowsky and RAF Flight Lieutenant Kit Moran once risked their lives to drop high explosives on Berlin. They are about to deliver milk, flour and children\u2019s shoes instead. Meanwhile, two women pilots are flying an air ambulance that carries malnourished and abandoned children to freedom in the West. Until General Winter deploys on the side of Russia.\u00a0Buy now!<\/a><\/p>

\u00a0Based on historical events, award-winning and best-selling novelist Helena P. Schrader delivers an insightful, exciting and moving tale about how former enemies became friends in the face of Russian aggression \u2014 and how close the Berlin Airlift came to failing.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The Berlin Airlift was notorious for the banter among crews and between crews and controllers. Almost all veterans remember with amusement the wit that filled the airwaves. Unfortunately, very little of that chatter was recorded — and much of it would probably have been unprintable anyway! This essay can only provide a faint echo of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-european-aviation-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1694"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1714,"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1694\/revisions\/1714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo-websitedesigns.com\/helena\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}