Candy Bomber: The Story of the Berlin Airlift's "Chocolate Pilot" by Michael O. Tunnell

Reviewed by Miss Dewey at Orenda

Five paw prints. At the end of World War II the allies (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union) had defeated the Nazis in Germany and Germany was left in ruins. In the hopes of preventing another war, Germany was divided into two pieces. The eastern part of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union while the western part of Germany was controlled by the remaining allies. Not only was the country divided, but so was Berlin, the capital of Germany. Berlin was deep inside the Soviet controlled section of Germany and the Soviet government did not like Berlin being controlled by two different groups. The Soviet government decided it was going to try to "discourage" the United States, the United Kingdom, and France from supporting West Berlin by blocking all road, water, and rail access to the city. The Soviets hoped by cutting off supplies to Berlin residents, the western part of the city would have to agree to Soviet control. But the Soviets underestimated the response the people of West Berlin received from its supporters. The United States, the United Kingdom, and France created the Berlin Airlift to bring supplies to the city 24 hours a day for seven days a week. The Berlin Airlift took hundreds of people to make it successful, but there was only one person the children of Berlin cared about: he had many names, including Uncle Wiggly Wings, but his name was Lieutenant Gail Halvorsen. During one of his days off, Lt. Halvorsen visited what was left of West Berlin, and near the airport runway he meet some children. These children had spent their young lives knowing of nothing but war and Lt. Halvorsen wanted to give them something special. He promised to drop chocolate from his airplane. Since all the airplanes looked the same, he told the children to look for the airplane with wiggling wings. That one gift of candy led to much more candy from people from across the United States offering to help Lt. Halvorsen deliver candy. This book is Lt. Halvorsen's story. I loved this story. It's one of those rare true stories where there is a "good" guy (the Western Allies) and a "bad" guy (the Soviets) but the "good" guys win without ever having to hurt another person. The Western Allies could have tried to help the people by using force against the Soviets but instead used food. And one soldier in particular who decided to use candy to make a difference in the lives of a few children. Now those children try to teach their children about kindness because of this one man. It seems (to me anyway) that many people could learn something about kindness from Lt. Halvorsen. To learn more about Lt. Halvorsen and the Berlin Air Drop visit, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/airlift/sfeature/candy.html, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/airlift, and http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/berlin_airlift/large/.

943 Tun