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A Day in the Life of an ATA Ferry Pilot

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The ATA operated hand in glove with the RAF and FAA, flying to and from military airfields in military aircraft. ATA personnel enjoyed mess privileges (which they thoroughly enjoyed!) and were subject to the same targeted bombing and aerial attacks that the Luftwaffe directed at RAF fields, installations and operational aircraft. Yet the work pace and schedule looked dramatically different. Today I look at the day in the life of an ATA pilot. The ATA flew seven days a week, fifty-two weeks of the year, and individual pilots had a duty schedule of ten days on and two days off, with two weeks' holiday per year. They were never posted to ground duties for a rest. By the end of the war, the original ATA pilots had been flying six years straight. Furthermore, during the long hours of daylight in summer, a ferry pilot's working day might last twelve to thirteen hours. On the other hand, since ferry pilots were allowed to fly only in daylight, the short winter days made for a wo...
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The Significance of the Berlin Airlift

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 Today I close my series on the Berlin Airlift by reflecting on why it was important. Impressive as the logistical achievements of the Berlin Airlift were, they were only the bi-product and not the objectives of the entire operation. The Berlin Airlift was first and foremost a political rather than a military operation. Inevitably, perceptions of it have changed over time in accordance with the political situation in Europe.    In the immediate aftermath of the Airlift, as the U.S. and the Soviet Union confronted one another more and more openly around the globe, the Airlift was seen primarily as a Western Victory in the Cold War. Even though nothing had really been achieved but the status-quo ante, the Soviet advance had been halted and this seemed like a vitally important victory at the time. The ideological fault-line now clearly ran through the heart of Germany, and Berlin had become an outpost of “Freedom” in a sea of totalitarian oppression. Not only had the Airl...
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ATA's 'International' Service

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  The ATA's official theatre of operation was the UK and at no time did it have responsibility for ferrying aircraft across the Atlantic, yet its ethos of doing 'whatever' was necessary with regard to supporting the fighting forces took it to the Continent of Europe. (Below an image showing four ATA pilots including one of the women pilots with Soviet troops.)     The ATA took to Continental skies as early as May 1940, when the catastrophic situation in France created urgent demands to deliver replace aircraft to RAF squadrons deployed in France with the British Expeditionary Force. This operation can best be described as 'improvised' as the ATA flew the aircraft across the Channel without lifevests, radios or maps. The taxi aircraft sent to collect the pilots who had delivered the combat aircraft was often besieged and commandeered by passengers with 'higher priority,' with the result that several ATA pilots had to find their own way home to Britain. Three ...
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The Defection that Saved the Berlin Airlift

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 Although surprised by the willingness and ability of the West to supply Berlin by air during the long warm days of summer, the assumption in Moscow and the Soviet Military Administration in Germany was that winter would defeat the Airlift. Based on historical precedent such as the Napoleonic and Nazi invasions of Russia, the Russians had developed an unshakeable faith in the partisanship of "General Winter."  They had miscalculated. After the disastrous month of November, when fog had frequently closed down the Airlift resulting in a decline in deliveries and increasing shortfalls, the Russians expected the remainder of the winter to bring snow and ice that would ground aircraft while the freezing Berliners flooded to the East to register for coal rations. Instead, the winter of 1948-1949 proved astonishingly mild. There were fewer deaths from cold in Berlin despite the Blockade than there had been in the first post-war winter. In short, from the Soviet perspective, General ...
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