List of British V-Bomber Bases during the Cold War

The following is a list of stations across the United Kingdom where RAF Bomber Command dispersed its V-Bomber fleet of Vickers Valiants, Handley Page Victors and Avro Vulcans throughout the Cold War.

SCOTLAND
Prestwick
RAF Machrihanish
RAF Kinloss
RNAS Lossiemouth (later transferred to the Royal Air Force)
RAF Leuchars

NORTHERN IRELAND
RAF Ballykelly

ENGLAND
RAE Bedford
A&AEE Boscombe Down
RAF Bruntingthorpe
RAF Burtonwood
RAF Cranwell
RAF Coltishall
RAF Elvington
RAF Filton
RAF Leconfield
RAF Leeming
RAF Lyneham
RAF Manston
RAF Middleton St. George
RRE Pershore (Royal Radar Establishment)
RAF St Mawgan
RAF Tarrant Rushton
RAF Wattisham
RAF Wyton
RNAS Yeovilton
RAF Shawbury
Wales
RNAS Brawdy (later transferred to the Royal Air Force)
RAF Llanbedr
RAF Valley

Britannia's Vanguard: Great Britain & The V-Bomber Force

Emerging victorious from the Second World War, the British Royal Air Force ended the war against Nazi Germany and her Axis allies in May of 1945, with a seasoned policy of using massive four engined heavy bombers to conduct raids in masse against hostile centers. This policy utilized by RAF Bomber Command, which had laid waste to the German cities of Duisburg and Brunswick during the war and severally crippled the German war industry was carried on into the postwar years. The piston four engined Avro Lancaster heavy bomber which was the pride of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command during the war was upgraded to become the Avro Lincoln and pressed into service in August 1945 to be the last piston engined bomber used by the RAF. Even as the Lincolns were used against the Mau Mau uprisings in Kenya and against the Communist insurgency in Malaya, elements in the RAF and the British government sought to capitalize on and adopt new nuclear weapons and advances in aviation technology to introduce more potent and effective means of conducting aerial warfare. Earlier in November of 1944, the British Chiefs of Staff had requested a report from Sir Henry Tizard on potential future means of conducting warfare. Unaware of the progresses made in the United States with the Manhattan Project, in July 1945 the Tizard Committee urged the large scale development of atomic energy research. The Committee foresaw the potential of harnessing the devastating effects of atomic weapons and envisioned fleets of high flying jet powered bombers cruising at speeds of 500 mph (800 km/h) at altitudes of 40,000 ft (12,000 m). The logic behind the thinking was that potential aggressors may be deterred by the knowledge that Britain would retaliate with atomic weapons if attacked.

With the German V-2 rocket bringing about the dawn of a new era in warfare, there were military analysists who could see that guided missile technology would eventually make strategic aircraft vulnerable, but development of such missiles was proving difficult, and fast and high flying bombers were likely to serve on for years to come before there was a need for something better. The need for massed formations of bombers would be made unnecessary if a single bomber could carry weaponry capable of destroying an entire city or military installation. For the program to become a reality it would have to be a large bomber, since afterall the first generation of nuclear weapons were large and heavy. Such a large and advanced bomber would be expensive on a unit basis, but would also be produced in much smaller quantities. With the rise of the Soviet threat and the arrival of the Cold War, British military planners realized the need to modernize Great Britain's forces. Furthermore, the United Kingdom's uncertain military relationship with the United States, particularly in the immediate postwar years when American sentiments of  isolationism made a short-lived comeback, led the UK to conclude it needed its own strategic nuclear strike force.

After taking into consideration and formulating various specifications for such an advanced jet bomber project in late 1946, the British Air Ministry issued a request in January 1947 for an advanced jet bomber that would be at least the equal of anything available in the United States or Soviet Union's arsenal. The request followed guidelines developed from the earlier Air Ministry Specification B.35/46, which proposed for a 'medium-range bomber landplane, capable of carrying one 10,000 pound (4,535 kg) bomb to a target at a distance of 1,500 nautical miles (2,775 km) from a base which may be anywhere in the world.' The request also indicated that the fully loaded takeoff weight should not exceed 100,000 pounds (45,400 kg), though this would be adjusted upward in practice; that the bomber should have a cruise speed of 500 knots (925 km/h); and that it have a service ceiling of 50,000 feet (15,200 m). The Royal Air Force's mainstay jet bomber, the then-current English Electric Canberra had been introduced in May 1951 and designed during the Second World War but could only have reached the Soviet border and had a limited capacity of 6,000 lb (2,720 kg).

This finalized request went to most of the United Kingdom's major aircraft manufacturers with the Handley Page and Avro firms both coming up with very advanced designs for the RAF's bomber competition. The design proposals would ultimately become the crescent winged Handley Page Victor and the delta winged Avro Vulcan respectively. The Air Staff decided to award devlopment and production contracts to both companies as insurance against one of the designs being deemed a failure. Work on the Victor began in November 1947 and the Vulcan in January 1948. As a further insurance measure against both radical designs failing, in July 1947 the Air Ministry issued Specification B.9/48 written around Vickers-Armstrongs' more conservative design, which would later be named Valiant and work on this project began in April 1948. In August 1947 the Short Brothers PLC  aerospace company also received a contract for the Short Sperrin SA.4 based on the earlier less-stringent Specification B.14/4 with work beginning in November 1947.

The Short Sperrin would ultimately be cancelled in late 1949, but work on the three new aircraft now christened the 'V Bombers' continued. The term V Bomber was developed and used for the Royal Air Force as all the names of the new aircraft all started with the letter "V" and which were known collectively as the V-class. While more expensive than the American approach of building one bomber design per category, the RAF insisted on having multiple choices. Air Chief Marshal Sir John Slessor came to believe that had the Royal Air Force been forced into choosing among the three British bombers under development in the late 1930: the Avro Manchester, Short Stirling, and Handley Page Halifax it would have utlimately chosen the wrong one and hindered Britain's ability to employ an effective nuclear deterrent.

The development of the V Bomber force was also seen as a measure of gaining British military independence from it's American ally, the primary nation that dominated NATO.

The Vickers Valiant took its first flight in 1951 and went into full scaleproduction as the first V Bomber in 1955. The Valiant entered RAF service in 1955, followed by the Avro Vulcan in 1956 and the Handley Page Victor in April 1958, with the first Valiant squadron, No. 138 Squadron RAF standing up at RAF Gaydon in 1955, and the first Vulcan squadron, No. 83, standing up at RAF Waddington in May 1957. The first operational Victor squadron was No. 10 Squadron RAF Cottesmore in April 1958. The Valiant which entered service first was equipped with nuclear weapons supplied by the United States under Project E, which supplemented the British Blue Danube and later Red Beard weapons systems. The American weapons supplied under Project E were not available for the RAF to use as part of the UK's national nuclear deterrent; only British owned weapons could be utilized for that purpose. Although often referred to as part of the V Force, the Valiants were actually assigned to SACEUR as part of Britain's Tactical Bomber Force, although remaining nominally part of the RAF Bomber Command. The Vulcan and Victor were armed with British built bombs such as the Blue Danube, Red Beard, Violet Club the Interim Megaton Weapon and Yellow Sun of both versions, the Mk1 and Mk.2.

Particular attention and emphasis was placed on the quick reaction and high maneuverability of the V Force aircraft, especially the Vulcan model B Mk. 2. The Vulcan in particular was specifically designed for the quick reaction response mission. The bomber could start all four of it's Olympus turbojet engines simultaneously with little ground support equipment necessary when remotely deployed to one of its dispersal airfields; and, at readiness state: 15 (fifteen minute alert), it would be airborne from less than 5000 feet of runway. The Avro Vulcan would never be caught on the ground, or be in need of one of the few, conspicuous, 10,000 foot runways that the American B-47 Stratjet or B-52 Stratofortress required for a fully fueled and loaded take-off. The Vulcan also did not need immediate or intermediate aerial refueling, after a fully loaded take off, needlessly delaying the execution of a strike mission. From the day of its deployment in the deterrent force, an on alert Vulcan was ready to launch, and strike, limited only by the readiness state established by her crew.

In service the V Force would have been capable of destroying both area and high value point targets including air bases, command centers and ground forces staging areas hours before they could be attacked by NATO or Strategic Air Command's long range bomber forces. RAF Bomber Command attrition attacks against air defense positions in Warsaw Pact nations and European Russia alone by the V-Force (in prosecuting their initial attacks upon the Soviet Union) would be decisive in ensuring that NATO and SAC follow on forces attacks would be successful in achieving the destruction of Soviet and Warsaw Pact targets. This “one-two-punch” by the UK’s RAF Bomber Command first; and then, NATO/SAC second; was the heart of the nuclear retaliatory attack strategy for the West in the early to mid Cold War period.

The immediate destruction of these targets, at the outset of a military campaign in western Europe would have had a two-fold benefit to NATO and the West in the defense of Western Europe. First, no Soviet/Warsaw Pact tactical follow on land-force reserves at Corps or Army-Group strength would have survived the RAF V Force tactical nuclear strikes in European Russia and the Warsaw Pact border states. Therefore, a Soviet “rush to the Channel” the perceived military advance from Western Poland & East German staging areas would have been denied the follow on forces which would have made the success of such an armored thrust possible. V Force Tactical Air elements would have destroyed both the forces in being, along with the communications infrastructure including bridges, roads, railways, air bases which would be necessary to support such a tactical movement. As such, the V Force by having the capability of precision tactical air medium bombardment effectively deterred the dominant armored overrun strategy, of the massed and massive Soviet & Warsaw Pact armies, which in theory, could have overwhelmed the vastly outnumbered NATO ground forces of central Europe in a surprise ground attack which did not give away tactical surprise, by use of organic tactical air support. This is why the V Force was extensively dedicated to radar navigation bombing and precision strike operations. In a theoretical nuclear war environment the V Force would attrit itself against the air defenses of high value point target complexes in European Russia. It would expend itself against air defense radar installallations, command & control centers; and air defense missile and aircraft bases. Once these targets had been identified, they would have been subject to what in essence would have been combined tactical nuclear weapons attacks by the V Force until they had all been identified and/or destroyed.

A White Paper produced by the Royal Air Force for the British government in 1961 theorized and claimed that the RAF's nuclear force was capable of destroying key Soviet cities such as Moscow and Kiev well before bomber aircraft from the United States' Strategic Air Command had entered Soviet airspace, "taking into account Bomber Command’s ability to be on target in the first wave several hours in advance of the main SAC force operating from bases in the mainland United States." Throughout the early stages of the Cold War, NATO relied on the Royal Air Forceas the primary force to threaten key cities in European Russia. RAF leadership concluded that the V Bomber force was capable of killing eight million Soviet citizens and wounding another eight million before American bombers had even reached their targets. At the time they entered service all three V bombers were capable of altitudes that put them effectively out of reach of the then contemporary cannon armed Soviet interceptors such as the Mikoyan Gurevich designed MiG-15 Fagot, MiG-17 Fresco, and later MiG-19 Famer.

In its early years, the British V bomber force relied on the concept of aircraft dispersal to escape the effects of an enemy attack on their main bases. There were 26 such bases in the late 1950s, in addition to the ten main bases: RAF Coningsby, RAF Cottesmore, RAF Finningley, RAF Gaydon, RAF Honington, RAF Marham, RAF Scampton, RAF Waddington, RAF Wittering (HQ RAF Bomber Command) and RAF Wyton; a total of 36 bases available for the V bomber force. In times of heightened international tension the V bomber force, already loaded with their nuclear weapons, would be flown to the dispersal bases where they could be kept at a few minutes readiness to take off, the bases being situated around the United Kingdom in such a way that a nuclear strike by an attacking state could not be guaranteed to completely knock out Britain's ability to retaliate. Apart from deployment to the bases during exercises, the most notably use was during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when at one point Avro Vulcans were lined up on the runways with engines running, at two minutes notice to take-off and proceed to their allocated targets.

All of the V Bombers would see active service in the RAF at least once albeit with conventional bombs rather than nuclear devices. The Vickers Valiant would see action in the Suez Crisis in 1956, the Handley Page Victor in the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation of 1962 through 1966, and the most famous the Avro Vulcan during the publicized Black Buck Raids in the Falklands War long after the strategic nuclear role had been passed over to the Royal Navy. In the deployment of nuclear weapons, only the Vickers Valiant would drop a nuclear device, as part of British tests.

Upon entering RAF service all three V bombers were initially painted in an overall silver finish, with the prominent under-nose H2S radomes on the Valiant and Vulcan left in black, however, this silver finish was later changed to one of anti-flash white, the RAF roundels being adjusted in shade, and made paler, to minimize the absorption of energy from the flash of a detonating nuclear device.

The development of effective anti-aircraft missiles capable of reaching extremely high altitudes by the Soviet Union for bringing down enemy aircraft made the deterrent threat delivered from bombers flying at high altitudes increasingly ineffective. In 1963 the British government decided to redevelop the use of the V bombers from high altitude strike platforms to performing low altitude operations instead. With the cancellation of the Blue Streak missile program and the cancellation of the American Skybolt system and with the Blue Steel missile already in service, six squadrons of Vulcan B2s were re-assigned to the low-level penetration role where they would operate at altitudes of 200 feet and lower and were re-equipped with the WE.177B strategic laydown bomb from 1966 until it was decided that deploying nuclear weapons by missile was more feasible and the Vulcans were replaced in the strategic nuclear strike role in 1969 by the Polaris missile to be launched from the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine fleet. The WE.177 equipped Vulcans were supplemented by the two Victor squadrons equipped with Blue Steel weapons since modified for low-level launch that continued to serve on in the strategic delivery role until 1968 ended.

In the low-level role, which had originally been intended to be performed by the cancelled BAC TSR-2, the V Force were considered by Air Staff planners to be largely immune from interception, with Soviet air defenses being assessed as having no significant interception capability below about 1,500 feet. Any remaining threats were deemed to be coming from the Soviet SA-3 low level surface to air missile, which resulted in flight planners taking great care to route low flying aircraft around known SA-3 missile sites. As a result of this maneuver, individual aircraft were calculated by operational planners to have a 90-95% chance of successfully delivering their weapon on the assigned targets. Although subsequently relieved of their role as the deliverer of the UK's strategic nuclear deterrent, the Vulcan squadrons continued to serve with the same WE.177B weapon in a low-level penetration role assigned to SACEUR for use in a tactical role in Western Europe. Six squadrons of Vulcans were still assigned this role with the WE.177 weapon in 1981. The last four remaining squadrons were about to disband in 1982 when called upon to assist in conflict in the South Atlantic: the Falklands.

With the change to low level operations the anti flash white scheme was altered to a disruptive pattern of grey and green upper surfaces, with light grey under surfaces. After reports from the Red Flag exercises in Nevada in the late 1970s that the light grey under surfaces became highly visible against the ground when the aircraft banked steeply at the low altitudes it was assigned to, the disruptive pattern was later continued to include the under surfaces as well on all Vulcans.

The Valiant was the first of the V Bombers to be removed from service as a nuclear bomber; taking on the role of an aerial refueling tanker and performing low level attack and photographic reconnaissance. Structural fatigue problems due to the transfer to low-level operations meant the Valiants were removed from service completely by 1965. The Victors were then converted to replace the Valiants as aerial refueling tankers. Only the Vulcan alone of the threesome, retained a nuclear delivery role until the end of their planned service life scheduled for 1982. The short extension as tankers until 1984 was an unexpected extension to meet operational emergencies. In addition to the roles they were designed for, all three V Bombers served as air to air refueling platforms at one time or another; the Valiant was the RAF's first large scale tanker. As a means of replacing the loss of the Valiant, Victor B.1s were converted into the AAR role. When the Victor was withdrawn from service as a bomber, a number of B.2s were then converted into tankers. Finally, due to delays in the entry into service of the TriStar, six Vulcan B.2s were converted into tankers, and served from 1982 to 1984.

On the Frontlines of the Cold War: Voices of the Veterans Vol. I

“From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother” – Henry V, William Shakespeare 1598

The Cold War was an intense moment in world history where at the strike of a match the fragile peace could be engulfed in a sea of flames. Although the Cold War is referred to as a relative period of uneasy peace, there were numerous occasions of incidents where blood was shed by military forces of varying nations. In Europe, the British while maintaining numerous overseas deployments battled against the insurgency in Northern Ireland as well as dealing with troublesome skirmishes by terrorist groups on mainland Europe. The United States Army in Europe was also plagued by a number of attacks from radical terrorist elements like the Red Army Faction held bent on undermining the legitimacy of the Allied cause. Most often these groups were funded by the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact groups to carry out strikes against NATO installations and forces. The sacrifices of military personnel throughout this tense period have often proven undocumented if not under documented and the stories of the conflicts gone unseen and or unheard by those outside of the entities that were there.

Operation Banner, the British military's operation in Northern Ireland for example is not as well known in the United States as it is in the United Kingdom, nonetheless they are stories that should be known and shared with the world. Men and women sacrificed so much to maintain the balance of peace that was the Cold War period and their exploits have largely gone unrecognized. While there were a vast number of conflicts that should be documented for historical purposes, this particular look is aimed at Europe and experiences documented will cover mainly the veteran’s experiences in Northern Ireland and West Germany.  It’s hard to say just how many lives were lost throughout the duration of the European Cold War period and every life has value. Losses across Europe from Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom to West Germany and across the rest of Continental Europe are hard to exactly pinpoint as well as they typical were inflicted in ones and twos rather than on a large scale as in a conventional scenario. Alerts went up and precautions were taken against terrorist elements accordingly. In an age where terrorism is a common phrase, soldiers in Europe were dealing with terrorism ever since a rogue group believed they could use violence and intimidation to gain a voice. 

The purpose of this writing is to document the stories of the veterans to preserve them and archive them for the future. To highlight the importance of the sacrifices bore by these individuals in the name of brotherhood. The unexplainable brotherhood shared uniquely by soldiers exposed to hostile areas. This writing is dedicated to the memory of the fallen who are forever fused into the history that has shaped our world, and to those who experienced it firsthand and live with their memories. These are the stories of those who were there. We salute them and We honor them. For security and privacy reasons I have altered the names of the individuals who have submitted their stories.

  

PTE M. Swift, British Army

1st Battalion, The Prince of Wales's Own Regiment of Yorkshire

Infantry

Ballykinlar, Northern Ireland

1987

Northern Ireland: I carried out patrols throughout South Armagh (Armagh County) known as Orchard Country to the world but commonly referred to as 'Bandit Country' to those that served there. These patrols took us close to the border with the Republic of Ireland. On one occasion the patrol base of Bessbrook Mill was mortared 3 days after I left. I was part of a protective cordon that was tasked with setting up and providing defense during the rebuilding and strengthening of the watch towers in and around Crossmaglenn. On that task, I heard an explosion while in a covert operations location. Later we were told that the IRA had murdered a Judge as well as his wife. Several years later during another tour they struck again at the exact same location. IRA groups were known as Active Service Units (ASUs) by us operating in Northern Ireland. While on this tour Provisional Irish Republic Army (PIRA) & Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) were feuding and doing tit for tat killings against one another. We were all pretty happy with that as it kept them busy and not attacking our forces. My first tour only lasted 3 months as the regiment then got posted to Catterick in North Yorkshire. Although short and relevantly uneventful, it was none the less an exciting tour and experience for a young 18 year old soldier.

CPL A. Steventon, British Army

252 Provost Company (Volunteers)

Royal Military Police

Hameln, Hannover, Sennelager, Paderborn, West Germany

Participated in Exercises Keystone & Keyflight in 1987 & 1988.

BAOR: I performed Provost operations in West Germany and some Police work mainly RTA accidents. I also performed border patrol along Berlin Wall and saw East German NVA troops and Soviet troops regularly. My main job was convoy movements. I used to sign up routes to get ALL the BAOR troops to the battle front or FEBA as we called it and to Brigade HQ's, rendezvous points etc. We set up TP's (traffic posts) IP's (info Posts) BDE HQ (Brigade HQ's) etc. We also secured areas in the infantry role using GPMG, SLR, SMG and Browning 9mm. I got the chance to work alongside US aggressor forces on enemy evade and capture exercises near Nordhausen. We captured them and handed over to intel for interrogation.

I dealt with a fatal road traffic accident in Unter Oldershausen in September when I was on guard duty at a Brigade Headquarters. A Regular Dispatch Rider of the Royal Engineers came to my Information Post (IP) looking for his Brigade HQ. He was fatigued and tired and got his grid reference, he then and drove up the road and was killed instantly by decapitation. I was the first to respond to him following the accident and the last to contact him when he passed away. It has haunted me ever since. It has been nearly 25 years and I've only now found out his name this year, Sapper Dougie Hogg 13th Postal Courier Squadron Royal Engineers 25 years old from Lancaster in Lancashire.

Another assignment I held was to look for Soviet Mission on the Rhine spies (SOXMIS whom used to drive around taking photos for intelligence purposes mainly of troop numbers, vehicles, strength, equipment, movements, locations etc. If we saw them we detained them under a special card we carried and handed over to Intel Corps.

I was nearly killed during an attack by the PIRA in 1988 whilst serving in the Royal Air Force (regular Forces). While in Hereford, the PIRA planted an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) outside of my barracks block but one of my mates found it in the trash can before it could be detonated.

My reflections on the Cold War period are that it was a very tense time with many occasions we thought we were going to war with the Warsaw Pact. Alerts were issued regularly for war footings. We lost hundreds of troops in accidents on the big exercises which people forgot and we never got any recognition for the sacrifices we made over there, not just in encounters with Warsaw Pact forces but also with PIRA in Northern Ireland.  They were very active and as a result many British troops were killed. The days were long but times were fun and enjoyable. The Germans were very good to us unless they held ties to the previous regime the Nazi party. I enjoyed my time spent over there and loved the country. I'll never forget it.

SPC S. Moore, United States Army

558th Military Police Company

Military Police

Rheinland Pfalz, West Germany

2 Years in West Germany

USAREUR: I pulled physical security on a NATO Missile site known as Site No. 107. During the duration of my deployment to West Germany, we were plagued by constant bombings and attacks at clubs mainly by the Red Army Faction which peaked in 1987.

My West Germany assignment was similar to dealing with modern day terrorism. Movements were always done on the high alert with the upmost suspicion of everyone. Between the Soviets and Red Army Faction encounters taking out small groups of service members, travel was usually done in packs for security. Whenever there was an incident it was briefed to all of United States Army Europe (USAREUR). Working on a Nuclear Compound, National Security concerning Nuclear Warheads was of utmost priority so the 24/7 security of the facility was monitored very closely. While I was assigned to Site No. 107, there was an incident at different Nuclear Facility where the perimeter had been breached, the guard house was infiltrated and all of the security forces were shot in their sleep. None of the nuclear materials were disturbed in the attack. It was just done to prove that the security of a sensitive NATO site was indeed penetrable.

RFN D. Harding, British Army

2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets

Infantry

Belfast, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Multiple deployments from 1985-1996

Northern Ireland: I served as a military dog handler in Northern Ireland performing searches in the Palace Barracks area of operation around Belfast. Our Tactical Area of Responsibility which we covered included Fort Whiterock, North Howard Street Mill, Girdwood and Woodburn which was a Royal Ulster Constabulary station. My first two initial tours in Northern Ireland were fairly quiet. There were two occasions where there were attempts made to engage our patrols by enemy forces which were thwarted by our experience. As a result of the thwarting of their attempts, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) Active Service Units (ASUs) launching an attack and shooting up the Sanger of Clogher, Royal Ulster Constabulary Station. The second year, residential operations were quite hectic but again most incidents of attempts against the battalion were thwarted thanks to good scenario drills and patrolling techniques. Sadly, we lost seven members of the Battalion, due to accidents including a Lynx crash in Gortin Glen.

The period of 1993-1996 was hectic as well. There were incidents almost daily with an upsurge in shootings, bombings and sectarian murders. It was during this particular tour in Northern Ireland that I was blown up by a PIRA explosive device which resulted in the loss of the majority of the hearing in my left ear and half in my right ear. Due to the constant rotations into Northern Ireland I was diagnosed with complex combat related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The worst encounter during this tour was the aftermath of the Shakhill Bombing, when Fizzel’s Fish Shop was targeted for twenty one days. Following that attack I was lucky to get an average of three hours of sleep per day due to tit for tat murders carried out by rival factions.

CPL M.Sandham, British Army

Parachute Regiment/Royal Military Police

Infantry/Royal Military Police

Roberts Barracks, Osnabruck, West Germany, Aldergrove & Clooney Base, Northern Ireland

4 Years Regular Forces & 3 Years Reserve

BAOR: While assigned to the British Army of the Rhine I primarily performed Garrison policing duties. The experience of serving in West Germany also allowed me the opportunity to train alongside our allied military unit counterparts including American, West German and Dutch military police. I also participated in several large scale military exercises in Germany the primary two being Exercise Lionheart and Exercise Spearpoint.

Northern Ireland: In Northern Ireland I mainly performed mobile patrols, search and intelligence gathering operations, performed raids on suspected enemy strongholds which often including pubs, bars and clubs as well as escort duties. When performing operations in the Londonderry areas we were often brought close to the border with the Republic of Ireland. City Center security patrols were also another task we were frequently assigned. In Northern Ireland we were frequently exposed to enemy actions committed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) including shootings and bombings in Belfast. Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) police stations were regularly targeted for attack by PIRA elements. Some operations yielded results such as search and seizure operations which led to discovering and capturing PIRA weapons caches in East Belfast. Riot control in the Londonderry City Center was also a regular occurrence during my tour in Northern Ireland. One encounter in particular stands out in my mind, one day following a PIRA operation, we were tasked to recovery a victim’s body from the River Lagan in Belfast.

My service in both BAOR and in Northern Ireland ultimately was a great training experience. For a young Non Commissioned Officer it was an amazing introduction to life in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. Despite the exposure to conflict zones such as Northern Ireland, I believe young soldiers today would benefit from the experiences we had during the Cold War. We gained a wealth of knowledge and experience in a short period of time and I don’t regret any moment of my service. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. 

British Forces Posted Overseas (BAOR Garrison Codes)

The British armed forces maintained their own postal service much like armies around the world, assigning each of its facilities abroad with a postal code corresponding to a garrison. The British Forces Post Office or BFPO had a system of numbered codes for its garrisons across Western Europe primarily those of I British Corps positioned in Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia during the Cold War. The vast majority of these codes were assigned to British Army of the Rhine garrisons in the Federal Republic of Germany and a handful of these were assigned to garrisons in Belgium and the Netherlands. Below is a listing of British Forces Post Office Overseas assignment numbers for historical record.

British Forces Posted Overseas Numbers

BFPO 15 - Herford
BFPO 16 - Sennelager/Paderborn
BFPO 17 - Münster
BFPO 18 - Maastricht, Netherlands
BFPO 19 - Köln/Bonn
BFPO 20 - Dortmund
BFPO 21 - Emblem, Belgium
BFPO 22 - Lübbecke
BFPO 23 - Celle
BFPO 24 - Iserlohn
BFPO 25 - Brüggen
BFPO 27 - Hannover Isodets
BFPO 28 - Brunssum, Netherlands
BFPO 29 - Minden
BFPO 30 - Hohne
BFPO 31 - Hameln
BFPO 32 - Verden
BFPO 33 - Hannover
BFPO 34 - Düsseldorf
BFPO 35 - Krefeld
BFPO 36 - Osnabrück
BFPO 37 - Soltau / Brannenburg
BFPO 38 - Fallingbostel
BFPO 39 - Bielefeld
BFPO 40 - Rheindahlen
BFPO 41 - Detmold
BFPO 42 - Wildenrath
BFPO 43 - Laarbruch
BFPO 44 - Dulmen
BFPO 45 - Berlin
BFPO 46 - Bünde
BFPO 47 - Gütersloh
BFPO 48 - Nienburg
BFPO 49 - Brussels, Belgium
BFPO 101 - Wolfenbüttel
BFPO 102 - Hildesheim
BFPO 103 - Hamm/Werl
BFPO 104 - Munsterlager
BFPO 105 - Düsseldorf Isodets
BFPO 106 - Soest
BFPO 107 - Lippstadt
BFPO 108 - Kiel
BFPO 109 - Ramstein
BFPO 110 - Willich
BFPO 112 - Menden
BFPO 113 - Mansergh Barracks, RAF Gütersloh
BFPO 114 - Körbecke
BFPO 140 - BAOR Headquarters

Behind Enemy Lines Part II: The Berlin Infantry Brigade: Britain's Lions in West Berlin

Initially British troops stationed in western Berlin were known as the British Troops Berlin from November of 1946, which administered to the occupational duties in the British designated zone of occupied Berlin. The first British unit to arrive in Berlin was the 7th Armoured Division, the notorious 'Desert Rats' which had garnered a reputation for ferocity in fighting the German Afrika Korps led by Erwin Rommel in North Africa. The unit would remain known as British Troops Berlin until all British occupational forces in West Berlin were redesignated as Area Troops Berlin in February of 1949. This formation would stand until October 1953, when it was reorganized into a force known as the Berlin Infantry Brigade Group. Under the reorganization, the force would maintain a strength of 3,100 soldiers assigned to one of three infantry battalions, an armored squadron and respective support units. Unlike its American counterpart, the British Berlin Brigade rotated entire units in and out of West Berlin for a specified period of time rather than rotating individual personnel in and out of the units assigned to the British zone of occupation in West Berlin. With the division of Berlin, the British would receive the central section of West Berlin, a sector comprised of four boroughs to occupy in the post war era. The four neighborhoods under British control was comprised of the boroughs of Charlottenburg, Tiergarten, Wilmersdorf and Spandau.

Being positioned in the exclave of West Berlin, deep within the heart of the German Democratic Republic the Berlin Infantry Brigade was organized separate of the British Army of the Rhine forces positioned in the Federal Republic of Germany. Rotations into West Berlin varied by unit; the single armored squadron was deployed to West Berlin after being detached from an armored regiment which was already in West Germany assigned to I British Corps. Infantry battalions were rotated in and out of West Berlin every two years. The only permanent units in West Berlin were comprised of  7 Flight, Army Air Corps, which was based at RAF Gatow, the Royal Air Force station which had served as the Third Reich Luftwaffe's staff and technical college known as the Luftkriegsschule 2 'Air Warfare School 2' under the previous regime. 7 Flight provided the Berlin Infantry Brigade with aviation support assets. Other units permanently assigned to West Berlin included the 62 Transport and Movements Squadron Royal Corps of Transport, 14 Field Workshop Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, 504 Commander Royal Army Service Corps (CRASC) (Overseas Deployment Training 'ODT'), 131 DID Royal Army Service Corps, Det No 2 Independent Petrol Station Platoon Royal Army Service Corps, 31st Quartering and Barracks Office Royal Army Service Corps,121 & 122 Barracks Stores, 38 (Berlin) Field Squadron Royal Engineers, 229 Signals Squadron and 3 Squadron 13 Signals Regiment Royal Signals, 3 Intelligence and Security Coy Intelligence Corps, 247 Provost Coy Royal Military Police, 248 German Security Unit and the British Military Hospital (BMH) Berlin.

The British Forces Post Office which maintained a branch in West Berlin designated the British sector with the postal code BFPO 45.

The British maintained their forces in five barracks across its sector of the city, primarily in the borough of Spandau. The five British facilities were known as Alexander Barracks, Smuts Barracks, Brooke Barracks, Wavell Barracks and Montgomery Barracks. Three of the barracks were positioned in close proximity to the Spandau Prison where British troops along with elements of the other western Allies and the Soviets rotated standing guard over Rudolf Hess. Montgomery Barracks was positioned in close proximity to the border with East Berlin, and maintained a single infantry battalion. Brooke and Wavell Barracks both maintained single infantry battalions, while Smuts Barracks maintained the armored squadron assigned to West Berlin. Alexander Barracks was primarily an administrative and logistics facility. Units rotated in and out of West Berlin from across the United Kingdom including units from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Many soldiers assigned to West Berlin had combat experience having come to West Berlin from operational service during Operation Banner in Northern Ireland.

Initially the first incarnations of the British garrison, the British Troops Berlin and Area Troops Berlin would maintain its headquarters in a facility at the Fehrbelliner Platz in the borough of Wilmersdorf. Upon redesignation as the Berlin Infantry Brigade Group, the headquarters was relocated to a facilitiy located adjacent to the Olympic Stadium in the district of Charlottenburg. It would remain at this location until the dissolution of the Berlin Infantry Brigade in 1994.

Soldiers assigned to the Berlin Infantry Brigade wore a distinctive insignia. The unit's shoulder sleeve insignia was comprised of a red circle over a black background with the word 'BERLIN' in red on a black background arched across the top of the circular insignia. Although initially not assigned to British Army of the Rhine, by the 1980s it was considered a secondary component of BAOR after the I British Corps contingent which was positioned in North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, West Germany.

 The British maintained a large training facility in the Grunewald borough of West Berlin, where they would often train alongside soldiers of the American Berlin Brigade. The Grunewald complex was comprised of several training facilities including the American urban warfare training center known as Parks Range or more affectionately as "Doughboy City" as well as the British urban warfare training center known as Ruhleben Fighting City or 'RFC'. Further military training was conducted across the Grunewald borough along the shores of the Havel River, and along the Schildhorn peninsula. Other training areas included the Schildhornweg, Am Postfenn, around the Teufelssee or 'Devil's Lake', Saubuchtweg, Grunewaldturm area, Havelchausee which ran adjacent to the Havel River, and all the way down to the Avus. For woodland combat exercises, British forces utilized the wooded areas of Spandau, Gatow, Kladow, Tegel and Jungfernheide. Their primary range area was also located at Ruhleben however it was adjacent to the RFC compound. Later on in the Berlin Infantry Brigade's stay in West Berlin, additional live fire exercises were conducted in Gatow.

As a response to the British maintaining their firing rains in such close proximity to the border with East Berlin, the Soviets maintained a large armored vehicle training facility on the East German side of the Berlin Wall opposite of the British ranges.

The armored squadron assigned to Smuts Barracks was primarily tasked with armored reconnaissance and conducting mounted security patrols along the length of the Berlin Wall which spanned the British sector.

For ceremonial events, the British often utilized the Maifeld 'May Field' as a parade ground which was located across from the Olympic Stadium known as the Olympiastadion. The Maifeld was used annually to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday for reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II every 21 April. Formations of British troops and military vehicles would conduct a parade and review in honor of the Queens Birthday and would render honors such as honor salutes fired by tank mounted cannons and infantry rifles utilizing blank ammunition. Various members of the royal family would attend the celebrations including Queen Elizabeth II herself, Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Princess Anne and the Queen Mother. West Berliners were encouraged to attend these events alongside their British counterparts and partake in the festivities. Another largely popular event was the yearly 'Grand Tattoo' which was a large military show hosted by the Corps of Army Music. The Grand Tattoo was usually held at the Deutschlandhalle near famous Funkturm Berlin radio tower. The Deutschlandhalle is famously known for the 19 February 1938  indoor flight of German test pilot Hanna Reitsch in her Focke-Wulf Fw 61 helicopter, the first such flight of its kind.

For aviation support, the British Army stationed elements of the Army Air Corps at RAF Gatow. RAF Gatow was the primary airfield utilized by Royal Air Force transports bringing in supplies from West Germany during Operation Plainfare, the British codename for the Berlin Airlift. Following the Airlift, most offensive aircraft from the Royal Air Force were withdrawn and mostly transports and light aircraft were stationed at the facility apart from British Army aviation elements. A military formation known as the RAF Gatow Station Flight operated two  De Havilland Chipmunk T10 light aircraft in reconnaissance roles in cooperation with the The British Commander-in-Chief's Mission to the Soviet Forces of Occupation in Germany more commonly known as BRIXMIS. Intelligence flights were carried out beginning in 1956 under the codename Operation Shooner and later Operation Nylon, where the RAF aircraft would fly over the airspace of both West and East Berlin, as well as the air corridors to and from West Germany into West Berlin. These flights were legally guaranteed to the British under the Potsdam Agreement and they were often conducted to carry out covert photographic reconnaissance flights over East German territory.

A Royal Corps of Signals signals unit designated as 26SU was also assigned to RAF Gatow and on the Teufelsberg, a 260 foot artificial hill north of the Teufelssee which was made of the heaped rubble of Berlin following the Battle of Berlin in 1945 in the Grunewald borough. 26SU would serve as a specialized Signals Intelligence unit operated by the Royal Air Force on behalf of Government Communications Headquarters or GCHQ Cheltenham tasked with monitoring Warsaw Pact and Soviet military communications and activities over and around the German Democratic Republic and neighboring People's Republic of Poland. RAF Gatow was the site of a defection on 15 July 1987 when a young East German named Thomas Krüger flew a Zlin Z-42M light aircraft to RAF Gatow from Schönhagen near Trebbin, East Berlin.

Like the Americans who operated a branch of the American Forces Network in Berlin, the British maintained a branch of their British Forces Broadcasting Service 'BFBS' and they maintained their own facilities similar to the Americans to maintain their garrisons and the families of soldiers.

In December of 1963, the Berlin Infantry Brigade Group became simply the Berlin Infantry Brigade and would remain as this designation until April of 1977 when it became the Berlin Field Force and then from January 1981 it was redesignated as the Berlin Infantry Brigade. Despite its various incarnations it was always referred to as the Berlin Infantry Brigade. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Infantry Brigade was reduced to two standing infantry battalions in 1992 and it was further reduced to a single infantry battalion in 1993.

The last British infantry battalion to be stationed Berlin following reunification would be the 1st Battalion of The Queens Lancashire Regiment being assigned to Wavell Barracks from 1992 until the Berlin Infantry Brigade was disbanded in September of 1994. The disbanding of the Berlin Infantry Brigade was marked by a final parade through the former British sector which was attended by Prince Charles. With this, the British Berlin Infantry Brigade like the other members of the western Allies marched into history having stood vigilant watch over West Berlin through some of the most tense points in world history. Peace reigned and the Cold War was over, a victory for democracy worldwide.

British Army Units assigned to the Berlin Infantry Brigade

Montgomery Barracks - Sakrowerstraße, Kladow (A suburb of Spandau)

Worcestershire Regiment – February 1948

Gordon Highlanders Regiment – May 1949

Black Watch Regiment – September 1950

East Yorkshire Regiment – November 1951

Royal Scots Fusiliers Regiment – July 1953

Grenadier Guards Regiment – March 1954

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regiment – March 1955

Royal Welsh Fusiliers – July 1956

Royal Scots Regiment – February 1958

1/2 East Anglian Regiment – February 1960

Durham Light Infantry Regiment – July 1961

Prince of Wales Own Regiment of Yorkshire – June 1963

1/1 Green Jackets Regiment (Royal Green Jackets) – April 1965

Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Regiment (2nd Light Infantry) – April 1967

Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Regiment – April 1969

Queens Regiment – July 1970

Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters Regiment – July 1972

Parachute Regiment – August 1974

Green Howards Regiment – August 1976

2 Royal Anglian Regiment – August 1978

Kings Own Royal Border Regiment – January 1981

3 Royal Regiment of Fusiliers – March 1983

Royal Highland Fusiliers – March 1985

Black Watch Regiment – March 1987

Royal Welsh Fusiliers – July 1989

Royal Welsh Fusiliers – July 1992

Brooks Barracks - Wilhelmstraße, Spandau

2 Royal Scots Fusiliers – February 1948

2 Queens Royal Regiment – February 1949

Royal Fusiliers Regiment – December 1949

Kings Liverpool Regiment – February 1951

Welsh Guards Regiment – June 1952

Royal Irish Fusiliers – July 1953

Royal Lincolnshire Regiment – June 1954

Cheshire Regiment – May 1955

South Lancashire Regiment – January 1957

Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Regiment – January 1958

Kings Own Scottish Borderers Regiment – February 1959

Welsh Regiment – April 1961

Somerset & Cornwall Light Infantry Regiment – October 1963

Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers Regiment – October 1965

Gloucestershire Regiment – October 1967

2 Royal Regiment of Fusiliers – October 1969

Duke of Edinburgh Royal Regiment – July 1971

Kings Own Scottish Borderers Regiment – May 1973

Royal Regiment of Wales – May 1975

2 Parachute Regiment – May 1977

Royal Irish Rangers Regiment – June 1979

2 Royal Regiment of Fusiliers – April 1981

Prince of Wales Own Royal Regiment – June 1983

Devon & Dorset Regiment – April 1985

Kings Own Scottish Borderers Regiment – February 1987

1 Light Infantry Regiment – January 1989

Gordon Highlanders – June 1991

Gordon Highlanders – August 1993

Wavell Barracks - Wilhelmstraße, Spandau

Royal Norfolk Regiment – January 1948

Royal Welsh Fusiliers – May 1949

Manchester Regiment – September 1950

Durham Light Infantry – April 1951

Royal Scots Regiment – May 1952

Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Regiment – July 1953

Manchester Regiment – September 1954

Black Watch Regiment – January 1956

Border Regiment – December 1957

York & Lancaster Regiment – July 1959

Kings Royal Rifle Corps (2 Green Jackets) – December 1960

Kings Regiment – July 1962

East Anglian Regiment (3 Royal Anglian) – July 1964

Queens Own Highlanders Regiment – August 1966

Staffordshire Regiment – September 1968

Cheshire Regiment – November 1970

Coldstream Guards Regiment – December 1972

3 Royal Green Jackets – January 1975

Welsh Guards Regiment – January 1977

Grenadier Guards Regiment – July 1979

2 Royal Irish Rangers Regiment – December 1981

Royal Hampshire Regiment – December 1983

Gloucestershire Regiment – February 1986

Kings Regiment – February 1988

Irish Guards Regiment – January 1990

Queens Lancashire Regiment – March 1992

Queens Lancashire Regiment – August 1994

Smuts Barracks - Wilhelmstraße, Spandau

11th Hussars Regiment & 8th Hussars Regiment – July 1945 - October 1945

11th Hussars Regiment & 1st Royal Tank Regiment – October 1945 - February 1946

1st Squadron, Life Guards Regiment – July 1946 – September 1946

1st Squadron, 13/18th Hussars Regiment – November 1946 – February 1947

1st Squadron, Inns of Court Yeomanry Regiment – February 1947 – May 1947

1st Squadron, Royal Horse Guards Regiment – May 1947 – January 1948

1st Squadron, 11th Hussars Regiment – February 1948

A Squadron, Royal Dragoons Regiment – May 1949

A Squadron, Royal Horse Guards Regiment – March 1950

1st Squadron, 3rd Hussars Regiment – February 1951

1st Independent Squadron, 1st Royal Tank Regiment – February 1952

2nd Independent Squadron, 1st Royal Tank Regiment – July 1953

B Squadron, 14/20th Hussars Regiment – February 1958

1st Squadron, 4th Royal Tank Regiment – November 1960

1st Independent Squadron, 1st Royal Tank Regiment – November 1964

1st Squadron, Queens Own Hussars Regiment – February 1965

1st Squadron, 1st Royal Tank Regiment – July 1968

1st Squadron, 9/12th Lancers Regiment – December 1969

1st Squadron, Queens Dragoon Guards Regiment – December 1970

A Squadron, 4th Royal Tank Regiment – December 1972

B Squadron, 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards Regiment – December 1974

B Squadron, 1st Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Regiment – December 1976

D Squadron, 1st Royal Hussars Regiment – April 1979

D Squadron, 4/7th Dragoon Guards Regiment – February 1981

D Squadron, 1st Queens Own Hussars Regiment – April 1983

B Squadron, 14/20th Hussars Regiment – May 1985

D Squadron, 14/20th Hussars Regiment – December 1987

C Squadron, 14/20th Hussars Regiment – September 1988

C Squadron, 14/20th Hussars Regiment – September 1991

Alexander Barracks - Hohenzollernring, Spandau

Penetrating the Blockade: How Operation Vittles sustained an encircled City

The year was 1945, Berlin much like the rest of Germany lay in a state of ruin. Her streets and buildings were pockmarked with the graffiti of war. Shell craters, smashed windows and twisted figures of stone, mortar and steel littered the streets stretching towards the sky like some grotesque carcass reaching to achieve a final grasp. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the defeated nation was dead, committing suicide to escape the western Allies held bent on bringing him and his legion of cronies to justice for the crimes they had committed over the span of some twelve years. The nation was in a state of dispair facing an uncertain future as foreign forces occupied the wartorn land. As per the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences earlier in the year, Germany was carved up into zones of occupation administered by military forces of the wartime Allies. These sectors encompasses areas associated to the current positions of the Allied armies at the time and in a minature reflection of this, Berlin would reflect the division of the nation. Berlin, a once great city  had suffered catastrophic damage. Once boasting a population of 4.6 million people before the Second World War, it was now reduced to nearly 2.8 million people with only the capacity to produce 2% of the food needed to support the population. The forces of the United States, United Kingdom and France were not permitted to enter the war ravaged city until nearly two months after Germany had capitulated, during which time the local populace suffered brutal reprisals at the hands of the conquering Soviet Red Army.

The western portion of the nation would see the British taking responsibility for most of the northern part of the country, the Americans taking responsibility for the southern part of the country and both turning over two small portions of their zones of occupation that barely contacted each other along the French border over to the forces of France. The eastern portion of the nation would go to the Soviets. One area of protest came with the status of Berlin, which put forces of the United States, United Kingdom and France some 100 miles inside the Soviet zone of occupation. The areas under Soviet control, produced much of the food that fed the nation and thus the regions under American and British control largely relied on food imports from the very beginning. With the United States, United Kingdom and France largely instilling the principles of democracy to their post war areas, the Soviet Military Administration forcibly unified the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands 'Communist Party of Germany' and the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands 'Social Democratic Party of Germany' to form the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands 'Socialist Unity Party of Germany' claiming that it would not occupy a Marxist-Leninist or Soviet stance on its body politics. Immediately after its formation, the SED Party called for the establishment of an anti-fascist, democratic regime in the form of a parliamentary democratic republic. Under this ruse, the Soviets suppressed all activities of non SED aligned political parties and expatriated many factories and equipment as well as their technicians, managers and skilled personnel to regions deep in the Soviet Union.

Soviet leader Josef Stalin made his true intentions clear before the smoke of the Battle of Berlin had even fully cleared, telling German communists that he planned to undermine the authority of the British in their zone of occupation and force the United States to withdraw within the span of two years and thus he would unify Germany as a single communist nations under Soviet control.

One of the loopholes in the agreements reached by the western Allies was that there had never been any formal agreements guaranteeing rail or road access to Berlin through Soviet occupied territory. The first signs of ensuing tensions began when the Soviets imposed a limitation on the amount of cargo that could enter its territory. The Soviets set the limitation at only ten trains per day by only one single rail line. Believing the Soviet limitations were temporary at most, the Allies shrugged it off and began proposing addition alternatives to the Soviet Union which were rejected by the Soviets. In a move to further put a squeeze on the Allies in Berlin, the Soviet Union enforced the utilization of only three air corridors into Berlin with access to Berlin being authorized only from Hamburg, Bückeburg and Frankfurt. As the situation between the former allies began to deteriorate, the Soviets halted the delivery of agricultural goods from their zone of occupation into Berlin. This was countered accordingly when the American Commander, General Lucius Clay halted shipments of dismantled industrial goods from western Germany to the Soviet Union.

Angered by the American action, the Soviets began a campaign to undermine the Allies by slandering the American mission in Germany and hinder the administrative work of all four zones of occupation inside Berlin. Having surviving harsh treatment, forced emigrations, severe political repression and a particularly rough winter of the 1945–1946 period, Germans in the Soviet zone of administration were growing extremely hostile to the Soviets and their plans. Local elections in 1946 resulted in a massive anti-communist protest vote across the city, especially in the Soviet sector of Berlin. Berlin's citizens overwhelmingly elected non-Communist members to its city council reflecting an overwhelming 86% majority. The clouds of trouble had begun building on the horizon.

In January 1948, the Soviets began stopping American and British trains bound for Berlin to confirm the identities of passengers onboard the trains, With the Marshall Plan being enforced across, western Europe the Soviets began orchaestrating a plan to force the Allies to align their interests along with the wishes of the Soviet Union through further regulating access to Berlin. To test the waters, on 25 March 1948, the Soviets issued an order that hindered the movement of traffic between the American, French and British zones of occupation and Berlin stating that no cargo could leave Berlin without the expressed approval of the Soviet Commander.Each truck or train would be searched by Soviet authorities before it would be allowed to leave the city. On 2 April 1948, General Clay halted the use of military trains and ordered that all cargo be flown in and out of the city by air. This venture would be known affectionately as the 'Little Air Lift'. On 10 April 1948, the Soviets eased their restrictions but continued to harass Allied traffic in and out of the city. The Soviets then began a campaign of violations of West Berlin's airspace with their own military aircraft which resulted in a deadly incident on 5 April 1948 when a Soviet Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter collided with a British European Airways Vickers VC.1 Viking transport near RAF Gatow resulting in the deaths of all aboard the colliding aircraft.

The final calm before the store occurred when on 9 April, the Soviets first demanded that American communication equipment in Soviet territory be withdrawn thus preventing the use of navigational beacons to designate air routes. This was followed by a Soviet declaration demanding barges from the west to obtain a special clearance before entering Soviet occupied areas. With the introduction of the new Deutsche Mark in the western part of the country, the Soviets stated that the only currency allowed into Berlin would be one that they issued in a move to keep Germany weakened and in a state of recession. By the time the Soviets began to introduce their own currency into Berlin, the western Allies had already transported 250,000,000 Deutsche Marks into the city and it quickly took over as the standard currency of all four sectors of the city. The introduction of the Deutsche Mark and the Marshall Plan which would bring upon an economic miracle to the nation was seen as a move to undermine Soviet intentions and Stalin interpreted this a provocation against him. He now wanted the Allies out of Berlin completely.

On 18 June 1948, the Deutsche Mark was announced as the new currency to be used in the allied zones of occupation. The Soviets responded by halting all passenger trains and traffic on the autobahns of Berlin. On 21 June, the Soviets refused entry to an American military supply train and sent it back to American territory in western Germany. On 22 June, the Soviets introduced their own new currency that it called the 'Ostmark' for use in it's zone of occupation as a method to undermine the integrity of the Deutsche Mark. Also on the 22nd of June a Soviet official sent a memorandum to the Americans, British and French in the city stating that both their forces and the population of Berlin would be subjected to economic and administrative sanctions that would lead to the circulation in Berlin of only the currency of the Soviet occupation zone. This was followed by a propaganda campaign in which the Soviets denounced the United Kingdom, United States and France by radio, newspaper and loudspeaker. With a large Soviet military exercise on the outskirts of the city, rumors began to circulate of an impending Soviet invasion and occupation. German communists added to this state of aggitation when they staged protests, riots and attacks against pro-West German leaders in Berlin.

The Berlin Blockade would begin on 24 June 1948, when the Soviet forces halted all communications on land and water between the western zones and Berlin. This was quickly followed by the halting of all rail and water traffic in and out of Berlin. The next day, the Soviets halted all supplies of food to the civilian population of western Berlin as well as cut the flow of electricity from power plants in eastern Berlin to the West. For the time being, road access to the city was still authorized but only after a fourteen mile detour to a ferry crossing. The official reasoning was that Soviet forces were conducting repairs to critical infrastructure. Traffic from the western zones of occupation bound for Berlin were blockaded and all arguments permitting to the occupation rights in western Berlin fell on deaf ears. Only Soviet good will towards the western Allies made access to Berlin possible, but with no formal agreement in place the Soviets could negotiate the terms of usage of transit routes in and out of its zone of authority any way that it wished.

West Berlin was now in a critical state. It had on hand only enough food for 36 days, and enough coal to last for only 45 days. Military forces in West Berlin numbered only a force of 8,973 Americans, 7,606 British and 6,100 French in contrast to a force of one and a half million Soviet troops in East Berlin and the Soviet zone of occupation which surrounded it. On 13 June 1948, General Clay sent a cable to Washington D.C. reaffirming his stance in West Berlin and declaring that their would be no withdrawal from Berlin. While, the Soviets celebrated their blockade of Berlin and anticipated the withdrawal of western forces from eastern Germany, General Clay called the Soviets bluff, believing that the Soviets would not intentionally initiate World War III, especially not having just barely recovered from World War II. With limited options at his disposal, Clay heard numerous proposals from Allied leaders including an aggressive response to the blocakde proposed by General Curtis LeMay, the Commander of United States Air Forces in Europe in which waves of Boeing B-29 Stratofortress strategic bombers and fighter escorts would engage Soviet airbases while ground troops in western Germany would attempt a breakthrough to reach encircled Berlin. This plan was ultimately rejected by Clay.

With time running, out Clay authorized the use of Berlin's airways to undermine the Soviet blockade. This was a move that the Soviets had not counted on. On 30 November 1945, the Allies had recieved in writing the approval for free access to Berlin via three twenty three mile wide air corridors. Further undermining the Soviet blockade, the usage of cargo aircraft could not justify the Soviets identifying them as posing a military threat to its forces in eastern Germany and thus put them in a very delicate position when the aircraft refused to turn back of either engaging and shooting them down or backing down. Shooting down unarmed humanitarian aircraft would put the Soviets in violation of their own agreements and cause a political uproar and backlash against the Soviet Union that it would not want. Clay initially approached LeMay with an inquiry regarding whether or not his aircraft could move amounts of coal to support the operations of the city. LeMay promptly responded that his planes could carry anything required. When they approached the British forces, it was confirmed that the British had already been conducting their own airlift in support of British forces in Berlin.

During the 'Little Air Lift' British military planner Air Commodore Reginald Waite made calculations towards the resources required for supporting the entire populace of the city. His calculations equated to a requirement of seventeen hundred calories per person per day, in the form of 646 tons of flour and wheat, 125 tons of cereal, 64 tons of fat, 109 tons of meat and fish, 180 tons of dehydrated potatoes, 180 tons of sugar, 11 tons of coffee, 19 tons of powdered milk, 5 tons of whole milk for children, 3 tons of fresh yeast for baking, 144 tons of dehydrated vegetables, 38 tons of salt and 10 tons of cheese to support the population of Berlin. In conclusion nearly 1,534 tons were needed daily to keep the over two million inhabitants of the encircled city alive. Additionally beyond the food needs, West Berlin needed to be kept heated and powered, which would require another 3,475 tons of coal and gasoline to be flown in.

Initially ill prepared in comparison to the British, the Americans began organizing the positioning of planes to support the operation. The entire thing would get the final green light when General Albert Wedemeyer, US Army Chief of Plans and Operations visited Europe and endorsed the operation. Wedemeyer had overseen the largest airlift of the Second World War when American aircraft flew from bases in India, over the Hump in the Himalayas to China in the war against Japan. The ensuing operation would be dubbed 'Operation Vittles' by the Americans, 'Operation Plainfare' by the British and 'Operation Pelican' by the Australians when they committed additional airlift capailities in September 1948. On 24 June 1948 General LeMay appointed Brigadier General Joseph Smith, then the headquarters commandant for USAFE at Camp Lindsey, to serve as the Provisional Task Force Commander of the airlift operation.  On 25 June 1948 Clay gave the order to launch Operation Vittles. The next day a force of 32 Douglas C-47 Skytrains lifted off for Berlin hauling 80 tons of cargo, including milk, flour, and medicine. The first British Royal Air Force aircraft lifted off headed for Berlin on 28 June. At that time, the airlift was expected to last for only a duration of three weeks.

By 1 July, the system was set into motion with C-47s and Douglas C-54 Skymasters arriving in mass at Rhein Main Air Base. Rhein Main would serve as a solely C-54 base with Wiesbaden operating a mixture of C-47s and C-54s. The aircraft would fly northeast and enter West Berlin through southern air corridor designated the American corridor and land at Tempelhof Airport, offload their supplies then exit through the central air corridor designated the British corridor. Upon reaching the British zone of occupation, the aircraft would then turn south and return to their respective bases. The British Royal Air Force operated a similar resupply system, flying southeast from several airports in the Hamburg area through their assigned corridor into RAF Gatow in the British Sector, and then also returning out on the central corridor. They would then turn for home or land at Hanover depending on the circumstance. Unlike the Americans, the British also ran several round trip operations using their southeastern corridor. On 6 July, RAF Avro York and Douglas Dakotas (the Dakota was the British designation for the C-47 Skytrain) were joined by Short Sunderland flying boats of the Royal Navy. Flying boats operated from Finkenwerder on the Elbe River near Hamburg, flying to the Havel River adjacent to RAF Gatow. The corrosion resistant hull of the Sunderlands better suited them to the particular task of delivering baking powder and other salt products to the city.

A maintenance system was soon coordinated to accommodate the large number of flights. Crews would work three eight hour shifts rotating between C-54s and C-47s. Aircraft were scheduled to take off at an interval of every four minutes, staggered at an altitude of 1,000 feet higher than the preceding aircraft. The initial aircraft would operate at a height of 5,000 feet and each aircraft adding an additional 1,000 feet for each of five aircraft before the sixth aircraft would return to a 5,000 foot operational profile. The first week of the airlift saw an average of only 90 tons of supplies per day reaching West Berlin, this number would increase to nearly 1,000 tons per day by the end of the second week. Soviet authorities in the East ridiculed the operation declaring it a futile attempt to save face against the superior Soviet authority.

On 28 July 1948, Major General William H, Tunner arrived at Wiesbaden Airbase to take command of the airlift operation. Having also had experience with the airlift operation in the China-Burma-India campaign, he set about to reorganize the entire operation. On 13 August 1948 a C-54 crashed at Tempelhof and burst into flames at the end of the runway and a second C-54 landing behind it burst the tires of its landing gear trying to avoid the wreckage. A third Skymaster made a ground loop maneuver on an auxiliary runway and Tempelhof was closed when the control tower lost control of the situation, a move that greatly embarrassed Tunner. Although no one was killed in the crashes, the incident became known as 'Black Friday'. As a result of the Black Friday crash, Tunner ordered that Instrumental Flight Rules be in effect at all times regardless of visibility. In addition to this he instituted a policy that each aircraft would only have one chance to land at the airport, any aborted landing would result in the aircraft returning to its base in western Germany. Sighting easier convenience for loading and unloading of aircraft, Tunner soon made the decision to replace all C-47s with C-54s or larger aircraft.

Pilots were forbidden to leave their aircraft for any reason while on the ground in Berlin and military jeeps were converted into mobile snack bars often staffed with German women to distribute refreshments to the crews while they remained at their aircraft. Clearance documents and flight information were given to the pilots while they snacked. As a result of this method, the time on ground from the shutdown of engines on the ramp, unloading and turn around before heading back to Wiesbaden or Rhein Main was set at only thirty minutes. Operating profiles were later also adjusted with flights launching every three minutes instead of four with 500 foot separation rather than 1000, stacked in altitude from 4,000 to 6,000 feet operating altitude. Maintenance was strictly emphasized and given the highest priority to maximize turn around time to implement a goal of 1440 landings in West Berlin each day. This figure would mean, an aircraft would be landing in West Berlin for every minute there was in a day. The Germans countered the problem of manpower, with Berliners serving as unloaders and airfield repair crews, a task which was rewarded with additional rations. As the crews began to improve their execution of duty, unload times dropped dramatically and a record was set first when an entire 10 ton shipment of coal was offloaded from a C-54 in a span of ten minutes and then later a twelve man crew unloaded another 10 ton shipment from a C-54 in five minutes and forty five seconds.

After only a month of operations, daily flight operations flew more than 1,500 flights each day and delivered more than 4,500 tons of cargo, enough to keep West Berlin sufficiently supplied. Supply shipments improved to a rate of 5,000 tons a day.

One of the most memorable moments of the Berlin Airlift was known as 'Operation Little Vittles' this occurred when Colonel Gail Halvorsen used his off time to fly into Berlin and shot a series of home movies with a handheld camera. One day upon encountering a group of German children he introduced himself and he handed out two sticks of Wrigley's Doublemint gum and promised that if the children did not fight over the gum, he would bring more when he returned to Berlin. As he left, the German children divided up the gum as best they could and inquired as to how they would know that it was him when he returned. His reply was that he would wiggle his wings. The following day on his approach to Berlin, he put inputs into the controls which rocked the aircraft and he dropped chocolate bars attached to hankerchief parachutes to the children below. Everyday the number of children would increase and so to did his airdrops. Soon Base Ops at Tempelhof began receiving stacks of mail addressed to 'Uncle Wiggly Wings', 'The Chocolate Uncle' and the 'Chocolate Flier'. Initially Halvorsen's exploits were met with dissatisfaction from his commanding officer but ultimately the gesture was approved of by General Tunner who designated the mission as 'Operation Little Vittles' adding additional airplanes and pilots to Halvorsen's venture. When news of Operation Little Vittles reached the United States, children across th country enthusiastically donated candy of their own to be dropped to the German children. Some children even participated by attaching parachutes to the candies that would be dropped over Berlin. Soon, major manufacturers nationwide became involved. In the end, over three tons of candy were dropped on West Berlin, and the "operation" was designated as a success. The candy dropping aircraft were christened 'Raisin Bombers" or "Candy Bombers" by the German children.

In response to the mounting airlift operation, the Soviets first countered by offering free food to anyone who crossed into East Berlin and registered their ration cards with the Soviet authorities. The Soviet move was ultimately rejected by West Berliners. The Soviets then ramped up their propaganda campaign against the people of West Berlin utilizing psychological warfare and declaring that all of Berlin fell under Soviet authority. They further declared that it was only a matter of time before the Western allies abandoned the city and the populous of West Berlin. As further measures, Soviet and German communist harassed democratically elected officials from West Berlin that had to conduct its business in the city hall which was located in the Soviet sector of the city. In an effort to harass the airlift itself, the Soviets often attempted to impede on the arrival of inbound aircraft by varying means including buzzing transports with Soviet fighters, scheduling parachute jumps in the paths of the air corridors and using searchlights to disorient pilots flying at night. Try as they may, none of the Soviet measures were effective in hampering the operation.

By the onset of winter, estimates for amounts needed to sustain the population in winter were adjusted and the transportation force was enhanced when the Royal Air Force added larger Handley Page Hasting transports to their available fleet. To accommodate for winter operations, Tunner hired a force of majorily former Luftwaffe ground crews to maintain the airfields. Due to weight restrictions imposed on the airfields at RAF Gatow and Tempelhof Airport, and the stresses put upon them by the rotations of C-54s, a 6,000 foot asphalt runway was constructed at Tempelhof to better accommodate the air fleet. The French although entangled in the Indochina War supplied several aging Junkers Ju-52 transports to supply its personnel in Berlin. French aircraft flew into Tegel on the shores of Lake Tegel. There was one problem with this, the approach to Tegel Airfield was hampered by the placement of a Soviet radio tower in proximity to the airfield. After the Soviets refused to remove the tower, French General Jean Ganeval ordered that the tower be demolished and on 16 December 1948, the tower was blown up much to the delight of the Berliners. The destruction of the radio tower would spark widespread protest from the Soviets. When General Ganeval's Soviet counterpart General Alexej Kotikow, asked him angrily by phone how he could have committed such an act, Ganeval is said to have replied laconically, "With dynamite, my dear colleague."

To improve control over the air traffic entering and exiting Berlin, the newly developed Ground Controlled Approach radar system was sent to Europe and installed at both Tempelhof and  Fassberg in the British Zone in West Germany, a measure which guaranteed operations in all weather conditions. Soon the only hinderance on flight operations would prove to be the weather itself. The months of November and December 1948 were the worst of the entire operation. On many occasions aircraft would fly to Berlin only to be met with a thick layer of fog which prevented landing and they were forced to return to West Germany. On one occasion on 20 November 1948, forty two aircraft departed for West Berlin, but only one managed to there. At one point, West Berlin only had enough coal for one week of operation. The shortage was made up for ultimately when weather conditions improved and more than 171,000 tons of supplies were delivered in January 1949, followed by 152,000 tons in February, and 196,223 tons in March.

By April 1949, General Tunner declared that he wanted to do something big to boost the morale of everyone involved in the operation. On Easter Sunday, he set to break all records and he would do so by only hauling coal thus in preparation for this coal was stockpiled for the effort. By the time it was completed, 12,941 tons of coal had been delivered in 1,383 flights to West Berlin, without a single accident. A welcome side effect of the effort was that operations in general were boosted, and tonnage increased from 6,729 tons to 8,893 tons per day in the days following the Easter operation. In total, the airlift delivered 234,476 tons in April of 1949. On 21 April, it was recorded that the tonnage of supplies flown into the city exceeded amounts that were previously brought into the city by rail.

The Airlift operation proved an embarrassment to the Soviets and the Easter operation was the nail in the coffin. On 15 April 1949, the Soviets announced that they were willing to lift the blockade of Berlin. After a series of negotiations on 4 May 1949, the Allies reached an agreement which would end the Blockade in an eight day period. The Soviets relented and removed their blockade of Berlin at 12:01 on the morning of 12 May 1949. The British drove a convoy through Berlin as a symbol of the victory of the airlift and the first train from West Germany arrived in West Berlin at 5:32am. Celebrations erupted across West Berlin to commemorate the lifting of the Blockade. Flights however would continue into Berlin to build up a surplus of supplies in case the Soviets tried to blockade the city again in the future. By 24 July 1949, three months worth of supplies had been stockpiled at facilities in West Berlin, ensuring that there was ample time to restart the Airlift if it were required. The Berlin Airlift officially came to an end on 30 September 1949, after fifteen months of continued air operation. In total the United States delivered 1,783,573 tons and the United Kingdom 541,937 tons, totaling 2,326,406 tons, nearly two-thirds of which was coal, on some 278,228 flights to airfields in West Berlin.

The Royal Australian Air Force bolsted this number further with the  delivery of 7,968 tonnes of freight and 6,964 passengers while flying 2,062 sorties. The force of C-47s and C-54s together flew over 92 million miles during the operation, almost the distance from Earth to the Sun. At the height of the Berlin Airlift, one plane was landing at an airfield in West Berlin every thirty seconds. The cost of the Airlift was 101 fatalities including 40 Britons and 31 Americans, mostly due to crashes. Seventeen American and eight British aircraft crashed during the duration of the operation. Financial responsibility of the Airlift was shared between the United States, United Kingdom, and West Germany. Some 692 transport aircraft were engaged in the Berlin Airlift, of which more than 100 were operated by civilian aviation entities.

In 1974 Colonel Gail Halvorsen, the original 'Candy Bomber' was decorated with the Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz 'Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany', one of Germany's highest medals for his actions during the Berlin Airlift.