Turning the Airlift Around: Tunner Unleashed (Really!)

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At the start of 1949, the Berlin Airlift was falling short by about 1,000 tons a day. There were lots of reason for that.  Three main factors account for the Airlift's ultimate success: General Tunner getting full command of US resources, the British getting full control of the civilian component of their contribution, and an assortment of organizational and infrastructure improvements that improved efficiency. This essay looks at General Tunner's improvements.

 

Ever since General Cannon had assumed command of USAFE obstacles had been put in Tunner’s way. The situation changed suddenly and dramatically when the civilian Secretary of the Air Force, Stuart Symington, arrived in Germany in the train of the U.S. Vice President just before Christmas 1948.  Secretary Symington took an interest in the Airlift and Tunner took him at his word. Being a man who never stopped working himself, Tunner took the cabinet member on a tour of Rhein-Main air base on Christmas Day. Tunner describes what happened:

Symington covered practically every square foot of the working section of the base, introducing himself to the men, putting them at their ease, and then asking pertinent and intelligent questions. Thus he learned at first hand, from the men themselves, many of the unpleasant living conditions that I had been screaming my head off to USAFE headquarters about but which had never gotten to the Secretary of the Air Forces, to its Chief of Staff, or even to the Air Staff. In the maintenance section we stopped behind a grimy mechanic working on an engine. He looked around to see this obviously important civilian standing over him, flanked by a lieutenant general [Cannon] and a major general [Tunner], and tried to come to attention.

“Relax,” Symington said, for the hundredth time that day. “I’m Stu Symington. Just wanted to see how you’re getting along with that engine.”

“Oh, I’m going to get it fixed all right, sir,” the mechanic said, “but I could do it better if I had better tools.”

“What’s the matter with your tools?” Symington asked.

The mechanic held up a screw driver, a wrench, and a pair of pliers. “See these?” he asked. “Well, I bought ‘em myself right here in Germany, and they’re all I got, and I can’t get any more, and they ain’t worth a good god-damn.”

There was a long silence. Symington looked at me. “This is what you’ve been telling me all along,” he said. Cannon turned red. I said nothing; I knew I was ahead. Other men backed up that first mechanic. At the completion of our tour, Symington was all business. He wanted facts and figures furnished him immediately, in black and white… On the morning of the twenty-seventh I personally placed in Symington’s hands a thorough and meaty memorandum… “Supply and Maintenance Problem – First Airlift Task Force.” It specifically cited the difficulties in two-hundred and one-thousand-hour inspections, level of supplies, shortage of shop equipment, and training of mechanics, as well as the situation in housing facilities and allied matters. Each problem was followed by our recommendation for its solution.

The response came almost immediately. Orders came down to requisition housing, and construction began on emergency barracks. Burtonwood was shaken up from top to bottom, and the increase in two-hundred-hour inspections began almost immediately. Long-needed supplies began flowing in. Frankly I was amazed at both the amount and the immediacy. Symington must have gone straight to his office from the airport and started pushing buttons right away….

From then on our problems in the areas of housing, inspections, and shortages of supplies were of far lesser significance.[i]

 Secretary Stuart Symington

In short, almost with a single blow, Tunner had at last managed to solve long standing and festering problems with regard to both maintenance and morale. The delays in getting aircraft back from 200-hour and 1,000-hour checks closed the gap between Clays’ idea of how many aircraft the Airlift needed and the number of Aircraft the Air Force had allocated.

As the C-54s started returning to their duties much more rapidly, the tonnages started climbing again. Already in January, the Airlift delivered greater tonnage than in any month previous – despite the dark and the cold: just short of 172,000 tonnes, or more than 5,500 tons per day. Due to a serious deterioration in the weather, February saw a slight drop, but the tonnage delivered was still above any previous month except January, i.e. was still better than October 1948, the best month of the previous year before the winter weather had set in. By March the Airlift was delivering 196,150 tonnes (an average of 6,327/day) and in April 1949, the Airlift broke 200,000 tones by a margin of more 35,000 tons. The daily average was now 7,845 tons. More than 26,000 sorties had been flown in the month of April alone. The crisis was over and the Airlift was on its way to success.

 

[i] Tunner, p. 196-197.

 

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

Watch a video teaser here: Winning a War with Milk, Coal and Chocolate

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Berlin 1948.  In the ruins of Hitler’s 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’s aggression and Berlin is about to become a flashpoint. World War Three is only a misstep away. Buy Now

Berlin is under siege. More than two million civilians must be supplied by air -- or surrender to Stalin's oppression.

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!

 Based 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 — and how close the Berlin Airlift came to failing. 

 

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