JeffL Loc: New Jersey

In 1966 I was stationed in West Berlin and my duty location was the now-closed Templehof Airport. In front of the airport was this memorial, which the West Berliners called "The Hungry Fork".

Its history is:
"Looming over a small park on the Platz der Luftbrücke in Tempelhof, the Berlin Airlift Memorial (Luftbrückendenkmal) is dedicated to those who gave their lives to save the people of West Berlin during the Berlin Blockade.

On 24 June 1948, Stalin closed off all road and rail routes to Berlin in an attempt to starve the people and force the allied powers to give up West Berlin. In response, the allies launched a massive aid effort and over the course of 11 months almost 278,000 flights flew in 2.3 million tons of goods."

The three tines represent the air corridors between West Germany and West Berlin (110 miles apart) that existed until the unification of Germany in 1989. If an aircraft from the West strayed from the confines of a corridor, the East Germans, or Russians, would launch fighters to intercept and potentially destroy the aircraft, cargo or passenger. There were several close calls when I was there.

I took the B&W photo in 1966, the memorial was relatively new, and the trees were recently planted. I pulled the color photo from a webpage dedicated to the memorial, just to illustrate what the passage of over 50 years has done. The trees are full and plentiful, and the park is far more than it was when Tempelhof was an active airport.

1966

(Download)

2022

TonyF Loc: Bradenton, FL

Interesting, thanks for posting.

BillA

Well done!

jrcarpe Loc: Jacksonville,AR

How well I remember Berlin. Stationed there with the Army from 02/16/1961 until 08/23/1963.Templehof was my companies staging area when responding to problems at the wall.

whatdat Loc: Del Valle, Tx.

The pilots involved were true heroes.

—-Michael

JeffL Loc: New Jersey

I was there from 1966-1969 courtesy of the USAF. Tempelhof was an interesting airport to fly into. The final approach was between apartment buildings. Were you able to go into East Berlin? I couldn't because of my security clearance. I know some guys brought back fine crystal and other things they bought very inexpensively on the other side of the wall. We had one airman who got too drunk and was kidnapped by the Vopos. We got him back two days later, full of sodium pentothal. He was immediately shipped back to the states, and we had to change all of our security codes and passwords. The Cold War could get very warm at times.

MSW

thank you for the post

jrcarpe Loc: Jacksonville,AR

There were two guys from the third battle group to defect to the East in 1962. One was from my company the other was from headquarters co.

LCD

I was born in 1951 and grew up with news of the Berlin wall. I saw it in movies. I even spoke to a defector, briefly, once. The photo evokes the harsh reality that eluded me in my youth. Great shot.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

Very nice!!

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

Interesting history lesson that I never hear before.