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Pilots: Ultimate Sacrifice
Chapter section from:
Airbridge to Berlin --- The Berlin Crisis of 1948, its Origins and Aftermath
By D.M. Giangreco and Robert E. Griffin
© 1988
(Used with permission)
There was danger in the air to and from Berlin. The sheer number of flights in fatigued aircraft with overworked crews was bound to result in some casualties. On July 30, 1948, The Berlin Observer reported: "The third accident and the second fatal crash of the 7,231 flights logged in "Operation Vittles" occurred early Sunday morning when a C-47 piloted by Lieutenant Charles H. King of Britton, South Dakota, and Lieutenant Robert W. Stuber of Arlinton, California, crashed into the street in front of an apartment building in the Berlin-Friedenau district. Both the pilot and co-pilot were killed instantly."
On September 21, Der Telegraf reported "Shortly after taking off for Berlin, a four-engined "York" plane crashed at the Wunsdorf airfield. The plane burned completely and the crew of five lost their lives."
On December 6, DPD reported "A U.S. Skymaster carrying coal to Berlin crashed at a distance of three kilometers from the Fassberg airfield, killing three members of the crew."
Not all crashes were fatal. On September 14, Captain Kenneth W. Slaker of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Lieutenant Clarence Steber of Mobile, Alabama, were enroute from Wiesbaden to Berlin in a C-47. Just after entering the Soviet Zone both motors quit and the two men bailed out. Steber was picked up by the Soviet military and turned over to US military authorities in Berlin a day later. Slaker, with the help of some friendly German civilians, simply walked back through the Iron Curtain to West Germany. Such things were possible in 1948.
In all, 31 Americans, 41 British (including an Australian and a South African), and 5 German civilians lost their lives in airlift operations.
There were many tributes to these peacetime heroes. The Air Force named the streets of a dependent housing community in Wiesbaden for the fallen Americans. A more lasting tribute was provided by the city of Berlin. The Berlin Scholarship Foundation was established to provide education scholarships for all the children of the British and Americans who gave their lives for the citizens of Berlin. In addition, the names of the fallen American and British airmen are engraved in the airlift monument built in front of Tempelhof and the square in which the monument sits was renamed "Platz der Luftbruecke" (Airlift Plaza).
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