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At the end of World War II Germany was divided into Allied occupied zones. Authority over Berlin, geographically in the Russian occupation zone, was split between British, French, Russian and United States authorities. During the first six months of 1948 the Russian authorities progressively restricted ground access to the city of Berlin, cutting off the Allied zones from basic commodities. The Allied solution to the problem was to supply Berlin by air. To meet a shortfall of RAF aircrew in carrying out this major commitment, ten RAAF crews were sent to fly British RAF Dakotas* from Lubeck to Gatow.
The crews were drawn from 36 and 38 Squadrons, and the first departed by Qantas aircraft for London on 25 August 1948. Prior to departing for Lubeck, the crews trained at RAF Bircham Newton to hone their blind flying skills to the high degree required to operate in the bad winter weather of north Germany: crews were to discover that it was possible to fly on instruments for the duration of a flight to Berlin. Another factor that had to be considered was the accurate flying and immaculate timing of an aircraft’s arrival at navigation points essential to ensure the smooth flow of air traffic. These were challenges to be faced after Squadron Leader C.A. Greenwood, the Australian Berlin Airlift Flight commander, flew the flight’s first sortie into Berlin on 15 September 1948.
The Australian pilots did have occasional contacts with Soviet Air Force fighters, who were known to ‘buzz’ the transports in an attempt to interfere with the flow of aircraft. Although the flight suffered no casualties, the conditions under which they flew called for considerable flying expertise. For example, on 8 April 1949, Flying Officer S.D. Evans (later Air Marshal, CAS, 1982–85) suffered an engine failure when his Dakota was climbing through thirty metres, just after take-off from Gatow. With a load of 25 passengers (mostly children), Evans joined the circuit and landed safely in a strong crosswind. However, another Australian was not so fortunate. Flight Lieutenant M. Quinn, a RAAF exchange pilot serving with 27 Squadron, RAF, was killed when the aircraft he was flying crashed while making an instrument landing on 23 March 1949.
Squadron Leader Greenwood flew the last flight sortie on 26 August 1949. During its period of operation, the RAAF aircrew transported 7968 tonnes of freight and 6964 passengers during 2062 sorties and 6041 flying hours. Although no Australian, as opposed to RAF, Dakota aircraft actually operated over Germany during the Berlin Airlift, on 20 June 1980 an RAAF Dakota was presented to the Gatow Berlin Airlift Museum as a display and commemoration of the RAAF’s contribution.
* The British were particularly enthusiastic users of the DC-3 and its variants. A few commercial DC-2s and DC-3s were purchased or pressed into military service early in the war, and eventually were given the name “Dakota”. This eventually became, more or less, the accepted name for all military DC-3 versions, though the US name of “Gooney Bird” was a strong competitor.
The British eventually received over 1,900 more Dakotas from total production through Lend-Lease, including:
* Over 50 “Dakota Mark Is”, equivalent to the C-47.
* About 9 “Dakota Mark IIs”, equivalent to the C-53.
* 962 “Dakota Mark IIIs”, equivalent to the C-47A.
* 896 Dakota Mark IVs, equivalent to the C-47B.
