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Upcoming Displays

Berlin Airlift

Call for photographs, objects and memorabilia relating to the Berlin Airlift 1948-1949

The Museum would like to know of any RAAF or personal effects relating to the Berlin Airlift in support of the Museum’s next Special Exhibition. This may include recollections, photographs, uniform, equipment, newspaper clippings or memorabilia from the RAAF or personal experience from the time.

The exhibition is due to open in mid September this year and will be on show for about 8 months. Please contact Allison Bartlett, Curator at the Museum on (03) 9256 1007 or email allison.bartlett@defence.gov.au

Following the fall of Berlin to Allied forces in 1945, the city was carved up between the victors into four zones for reparation and administration. The Soviet Union attempted to gain control of all Berlin in June 1948 by strategically restricting all road and rail transport destined for the Western zones from passing through its territory.

This threatened crucial supplies to the military and for the civilian rehabilitation underway in the British, American and French zones. The only option, other than relinquishing control to the Soviets, was to utilise three air corridors to fly in supplies for the western troops and over 2 million German civilians. This triggered a commitment to the longest and largest airlift in history - the Berlin Airlift.

In surviving the blockade the division of the Soviet Union and Western zones was ultimately to be cemented in the building of the Berlin Wall.

Codenamed Operation Plainfare by the British, Operation Vittles by the Americans and Operation Pelican by the Australians, this supply lift drew together unprecedented numbers of military and civilian aircraft and crews into a sustained supply force that lasted just over a year.

A number of Australian aircrew participated in this momentous operation and they include:

Two RAAF crews already in England serving with South Africans, New Zealanders, Canadians and Americans on exchange duty with No 24 (Commonwealth) Squadron of the Royal Air Force.

Ten Dakota transport crews from Nos 36 and 38 Squadrons sent to England on 21 August 1948 to join other Commonwealth airmen for training and deployment by the Royal Air Force.

Something to whet your appetite:

Q.        Do you know of a copy of the film “Berlin Express” that the museum can view? Directed by Jacques Tourneur and released in the USA on 1 May 1948?

Q.        Can you identify the four airmen in this photograph?

Warrant Officer Whorlow, one of the 24 Australian airmen recently returned from flying in Berlin Airlift, judges for himself the authenticity and faithfulness of reproduction of the devastation caused by Allied bombings of German cities as seen through the lenses of the Hollywood camera, by attending a screening of the RKO Radio release “Berlin Express”, at the Esquire Theatre, Melbourne.

Warrant Officer Whorlow, one of the 24 Australian airmen recently returned from flying in Berlin Airlift, judges for himself the authenticity and faithfulness of reproduction of the devastation caused by Allied bombings of German cities as seen through the lenses of the Hollywood camera, by attending a screening of the RKO Radio release “Berlin Express”, at the Esquire Theatre, Melbourne.

RAAF Museum Audit Remediation Project

The RAAF Museum Audit Remediation Project began in January 2006 and will cease at the end of July 2008.  A team of people in the registration area are conducting a 100% audit on all RAAF Heritage Collection items.