The Candy Bomber

The Douglas C47 airplane mounted on top of the German Museum of Technology aka “The Candy Bomber” is in remembrance of the late 1940’s airlift.  Here is the happy story.

After the second world war Berlin was divided with the east being controlled by the Soviet Union, and the west controlled by the Allied Forces of England, France, and the United States.  In June of 1948, the Soviets blocked all access for supplies (gas, food, etc) to the residents of West Berlin with the intent that supplies be routed through, and controlled by them–effectively giving them control of the whole city.  The allies, of course, wouldn’t stand for this and coordinated a massive airlift of supplies to West Berlin at the Templehof Airport.

One day a curious pilot, Gail Halverson, took note of an observant group of Germans at the end of the runway.  He delighted chatting with them and gave away two pieces of Wrigley’s Spearmint gum telling them he’d bring more if they’d share.  Later, Gail fashioned several handkerchiefs into mini-parachutes, attached these to candy, and dropped them to the children below.  They could identify his plane by his trademark wiggling of the wings. The un-official-at-first operation was finally recognized by top brass and thus began the Candy Bombers.   All tolled, 25 C47 aircraft dropped 23 tons of candy to the kids below making it a small, but wonderful fraction of the successful airlift. (source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen).

I can imagine lots of kids saw a view straight up of a C47 in 1948-1949.   Candy seems to always makes things better for a kid.

This image is available as a print from an edition of one-hundred, either framed or loose.

• Limited-edition print from edition of 100
• Signed and numbered by Cameron R Neilson
• Printed with custom mixed 100% carbon inks for exceptional tones and  superior archival stability
• Available framed or unframed
• Product Image demonstrates how framed image will appear.