The Airlift Faulters: Morale Problems

  By October 1948, despite the Allies best efforts and the Berliner's determination and willing to live under extraordinary hardships, it was becoming evident to the experts that the Airlift was slowly failing. Three factors contributed to the situation: inadequate assets, poor morale among Allied forces, and a major flaw in the command structure. This entry looks at the collapse in morale.

 

Although more difficult to quantify, a deterioration in morale   – particularly among USAF crews -- had an impact on the efficiency of the Airlift in the autumn of 1948. The initial enthusiasm had long since worn off, and the thrill of being part of a great historical event and the greatest humanitarian operation in living memory had been ground down by sheer exhaustion. Tunner was the first to admit that morale was lagging by the end of 1948. He pointed to three major problems.

First and foremost was the sheer uncertainty associated with the assignment to Berlin which made planning impossible for the men and their families. Tunner pointed out:

Even for military personnel and their dependents, used to uncertainty, this situation was extreme, and it got worse. In the cases of practically every man, the TDY [temporary duty] was extended another thirty days and another and another.[i]

The second problem, as Tunner saw it, was that Soviet agents intentionally undermined morale with a clever campaign:

Of all the Communist hostile acts, perhaps the most damaging was their poison-pen campaign. Mysterious letters would come to our pilots, letters mailed both in Germany and in the United States, reporting the infidelity of wives and sweethearts. Some degree of bitterness already existed between many couples over the extended periods of temporary duty, and even to those husbands who normally shared a firm mutual trust with their wives the letters could cause nagging doubts and a resulting drop in morale.[ii]

Last but not least, Tunner cited the negative contrast between working and living conditions for Airlift personnel compared to the Occupation Forces.

The Berlin Airlift was particularly frustrating in the regard that the Airlift personnel lived and worked side-by-side with occupation forces. [While the Airlift personnel worked literally 24/7] the occupation people had as soft a job as you could find in the military establishment, working a couple of hours a day and scrounging the rest.[iii]

In addition:

The housing provided my personnel in Wiesbaden and Rhein-Main was grossly inadequate. Airlift men were crowded together in poor quarters. The occupation forces, who were permanent duty and assigned permanent establishments, lived like kings in contrast and this made the quarters of the Airlift personnel seem even more miserable.[iv]

Morale was particularly bad at the bases in the British zone which were run by the RAF. This was mainly because, as mentioned earlier, American and British tastes and standards in food differed substantially. But there were other irritants: seating in and prices for the Station cinema, traditions of courtesy (or lack there of from the British point of view), and the dimensions (which were impractically generous from the American point of view). But good will on both sides managed to brook most of the differences and ultimately it was the stress of the Airlift itself that was caused the greatest deterioration in morale.

By November 1948, American pilots on the Airlift were admitting to journalists that they intentionally tried to dodge work if they could. One pilot was reported saying: “What I try to do is to fly one flight a day instead of two.”[v] Another pilot said candidly: “I’ve had enough. I want to go home. I’ve got enough problems of my own without worrying about the ones the Germans have. They asked for it, didn’t they?”[vi] At Rhein-Main some pilots started to refuse point-blank to fly any more and were sent home without disciplinary action.

But even those who kept doing their duty were developing serious signs of fatigue. An enlisted man reported that: “Some of the crypto boys would go around talking to themselves in Morse code.”[vii] There were instances of men jumping out of low windows in order to break their legs and get sent home. It was also reported that when one C-54 overshot the runway at Templehof, the crew got out of the wreck and just went AWOL before the rescuers reached them. But the most common indication of fatigue-induced morale problems was excessive drinking. Excessive drinking and its associated brawling was so bad that the MPs are said to have “prayed” for bad weather.

No one had a worse reputation for drinking than the British pilots on the civilian airlift, particularly the aircrews of Flight Refuelling. Allegedly the company had to keep 150 aircrew on the payroll to ensure 32 sober enough to fly all serviceable aircraft on anyone day. The most famous incident resulting from excessive drinking by civil Airlift crews was the night in Hamburg when civilian aircrews returning from a night on the town noticed that a German street-car repair crew had left all their equipment on the site of the repairs. Unable to resist temptation, the aircrews welded the tracks together resulting in total chaos in the Hamburg’s commuter traffic on the following day. Another group of drunk aircrew allegedly hijacked the Lübeck-Stockholm express and forced it to deliver them to their airfield. Although it is unclear if it was the objective of these crews to get repatriated, that was the result.  And because that was what happened, their escapade begged imitation from those who were fed up with the whole thing and wanted to go home.

On the whole, however, British morale was better - if only because RAF and civilian crews could get home on a regular basis. The civilian firms even started to set up married quarters, and let men’s families follow them to Germany. And if the trips home were too short to be completely satisfying, British airmen were on the whole glad to be in a job – and pilots particularly glad to be in a flying job – at a time when the economy in Britain was very precarious.

The RAF found in internal surveys that only eight percent of aircrew complained about the number of hours they had to fly. What they didn’t like (85% of those questioned) was the irregularity of their schedules which meant irregular meals and sleep. RAF medical officers furthermore noted that too many pilots were living off “Malcolm Club snacks” and not getting proper meals. And if the RAF never equalled the civilian pilots with their inebriated escapades, it is safe to say that RAF aircrew have never been accused of being shy of drinking.

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[i] William Tunner, Over the Hump, USAF Warrior Studies, 1964, 179.

[ii] Tunner, p. 185-186.

[iii] Tunner, p. 191.

[iv] Tunner, p. 191-192.

[v] Newsweek, Nov. 1, 1948.

[vi] Newsweek, Nov. 1, 1948

[vii] Richard Collier, Bridge Across the Sky, MacMillan, 1978, 122.

NOTE: The content of this blog post is based on Helena P. Schrader. The Blockade Breakers. Pen & Sword, 2008.

The Berlin Airlift is the subject of Bridge to Tomorrow, a trilogy of novels starting with Cold Peace.

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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’s 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. Buy now!

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