The Air Force’s ‘candy bomber’ dropped sweets to kids without authorization
SUMMARY
After World War II, the Allied powers divided Germany, giving the eastern part of the country to the Soviet Union and the Western part to the United States, Britain, and France. The capital city of Berlin was also divided, but in 1948, the Soviets established a blockade to ensure Germany could not reunify and rise to invade them again.
Refusing to withdraw, the Allies began to supply their sectors of Berlin with food, fuel, and necessities in Operation Vittles — perhaps best known as the Berlin Airlift.
Enter U.S. pilot Gail Halvorsen.
After meeting some children at Berlin's Tempelhof Air Field, he gave them two sticks of Wrigley's gum to share and promised to bring more on his next flight. He told them they'd know it was him because he would "wiggle his wings" as he approached.
True to his word, Halvorsen collected candy rations from his fellow pilots and, on his next mission to Tempelhof, he wiggled the wings of his C-54 Skymaster and instructed his Flight Engineer to drop three parcels of the candy out the flight deck. They floated to the ground in handmade parachutes made of white handkerchiefs and, when he checked on the children later, three handkerchiefs waved back.
"Uncle Wiggly Wings" was born.
Once newspapers learned about Halvorsen's "Operation Little Vittles," pilots were flooded with candy donations from the United States. A humanitarian mission launched — and it continued well after Halvorsen returned home.
Also read: A brief history of the Berlin Wall, "the monument to Communist failure"
In 2014, Halvorsen had the opportunity to meet one of the children who had waited for him at the airfield fence. Christel Jonge Vos thanked her childhood hero for bringing gifts and hope during such a troubled time.
Halvorsen's gesture — and the humanitarian mission that followed — built a bridge of healing between the American people and war-torn Germany, which paved the way for the friendship that would follow in the years to come.
